Educating Aphrodite Read Free

felt the press
of a kiss on her hip. Her womb fluttered and kicked and exploded into the first
orgasm she’d experienced in over a year.
    Daphne eased Alexandra off the edge of bliss slowly then
washed her a final time before offering her a robe. “I think you are clean,
m’lady, but we are not yet finished.” Daphne gestured toward the bed as she
retrieved a small copper pot from the hearth and set it atop the bedside table.
    “What is that?” Alexandra’s words broke in her dry throat.
    “Wax.”
    * * * * *
    “Alexandra!” Sebastian bellowed from the library as she and
Daphne were headed toward the front door.
    “I will wait in the carriage, m’lady.” Daphne left Alexandra
standing in the open doorway watching her husband frantically rummage through a
heap of clutter atop his massive mahogany desk.
    When he caught sight of her, his search ceased. “Where are
my spectacles?”
    Alexandra sighed and plucked his glasses off a table beside
the chair facing the hearth. She handed them to him, wishing he would take the
time to brush her fingers or notice the way Daphne had fashioned her hair with
braids and jeweled hair pins, but he did neither.
    “Thank you, love.” Calmer, he set them atop his nose and
returned his attention to his desk.
    He was a beautiful man. Tall, with wheat-colored hair and
aqua-blue eyes. Beneath his aristocratic clothes lay a sea of muscles and
bronze skin she hadn’t seen in far too long. They’d been married three years,
and Sebastian had come to rely on her to manage the household. But Alexandra no
longer wanted to be the mistress of Pendleton. She wanted to be her husband’s
mistress. She wished he would look at her the way he once had before they fell
into this cold, dismal distance. She wished he would touch her, to give her
some sign of interest that proved he was worth fighting for.
    Sebastian tucked a sealed envelope inside his tailcoat and
rounded the desk. Only then did he take in her attire. Daphne had chosen a dark
blue gown dripping with white lace for their outing. The bodice swooped so low
the rims of her rosy nipples nearly peeked out of the silver ribbing.
    “Are you going out?” His gaze dropped to her breasts.
    Alexandra inhaled with purpose, hoping to entice him. “I’m
going to see the modiste about a new corset.”
    Sebastian pulled a stack of bank notes from his tan trousers
and stuffed them in her hand. “Buy yourself something beyond your pin money.
I’m going to Lexington to see about a horse. I’ll be back Sunday.”
    She knew he lied but held her tongue.
    He pecked her cheek with no more passion than he might have
kissed his forty-seven-year-old aunt, then plucked his riding gloves off the
chair and started for the door.
    She wanted to scream at him to come back. She wanted to show
him her smooth cunny and tell him she’d agonized beneath the pain of it all for
him. She ground her teeth with such intensity, she feared they would crack.
    Damn you! Bend me over the desk and give me a proper
farewell, you blind fool! These were the words she wanted to speak, but not
the words that came out. “Enjoy your trip, darling,” was all she said as she
watched him disappear into the corridor.

Chapter Three
     
    “Enjoy your trip?” Delacroix frowned at Alexandra later that
morning in the alleyway behind the modiste’s shop. “Do you expect the
man to read your mind? Had you said what you’d been thinking, Warwick might
have fucked you senseless and we could put this whole travesty behind us.” He
shook his head and blew a frustrated breath. “Are the appropriate words even in
your vocabulary?”
    “What words?” Alexandra didn’t care for his patronizing
tone.
    “Had you actually been capable of telling Warwick your true
desires, what would you have said to him?”
    “I would have asked him to make love to me.”
    Delacroix shook his head and waggled his pointer finger. “A
temptress wants to fuck her husband.”
    Uncomfortable with the