“I told you to seduce the girl, not force yourself on her,” Vanessa yelled, standing to face him. She cringed every time she saw the purplish bruises on his face. Someone had beaten him nearly senseless.
“She wouldn’t be seduced, so I thought the only way to get what you wanted was by force.”
So that explained the bruises. Selby must have caught him and beaten him, as deserved. Huntley was a complete and utter idiot. If not for his finances, she would have dissuaded him years ago. But he might prove useful for a few more weeks. Vanessa stood and walked over to him. She pressed her lush body against him and felt him start to harden again.
“Can you get me into Ancroft’s fancy-dress party?” she asked in a husky tone.
“I wasn’t invited. Ancroft is good friends with Selby.”
She drew her fingernails up the heavy cloth of his trousers and over his hard cock. “Please?”
“One condition,” he moaned as her palm rubbed against the head of his penis.
“Anything you want,” she purred.
“I want you here, right now.”
“But the servants,” she protested. The man was insatiable. They had done this only a few hours ago.
“Let them watch.”
She swallowed down the rush of excitement at possibly being watched by the servants. Removing each button from its hole, she asked, “Can you get me into the party?”
“Anything you want,” he answered as she took him into her mouth.
Chapter 21
After knocking several times, Jennette slowly turned the doorknob of Matthew’s town home. She glanced back toward the street to make certain no one noticed her and then slipped inside. The darkness of the place sent a shiver of fear down her back. Did he actually live in this gloomy house?
“Hello? Lord Blackburn, are you here?”
Where were the servants? She knew he must have let some go but certainly some had remained out of loyalty to his family. Walking toward the salon, she almost tripped over a loose marble tile. She glanced up to see huge cobwebs in every corner and a thick layer of dust on the tables. After she opened the heavy draperies, the condition of the house became clearer.
It was an utter disaster.
“Oh my, the man needs me desperately,” she said aloud.
She had to see if the rest of the house was in such abhorrent deterioration. As she walked down the marble hallway, she could tell this house had once been a great home. But now, pictures were gone, leaving only their imprint with darker wallpaper in their place.
One room was completely devoid of furniture as if everything had been sold. And it probably had been sold, she thought. She walked further into the house. The kitchen at least looked as if someone came in and fed the man. The coals in the fire were still glowing.
She walked back to the front steps and upstairs. She felt a twinge of guilt for trespassing. At least she now knew exactly what she was getting herself into with him. Thankfully, she loved to refurbish a home and once they had paid his father’s debts, she could start on this home first. She turned the knob on the first bedroom at the top of the stairs and released a long-held breath.
The bedcovers were a rumpled mess, there were clothes strewn across the floor, but instead of disgust, she only felt pity. The man had no valet, no footman, no butler, and possibly only a woman who came into cook for him. Her heart went out to him with the sacrifices he made to prevent his tenants from being put out of their houses.
“Who’s here?”
He’s home. Her heart raced with anticipation. “I’m upstairs,” she replied, then proceeded to fold his trousers and place them in the walnut clothing-press. She could hear his footsteps coming closer so she hurried to finish picking up his room.
“Jennette?” He walked through the door with a look of shock on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” she said, then realized they were standing in his bedroom.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he replied, looking around the room. His cheeks reddened in discomfiture. “Why did you clean my room?”
She never wanted him to feel embarrassed by her discovering the condition of his home. “I assumed your valet was off today.”
“You know I have no valet. I’d planned to clean later in the day.”