The Temptation of Laura (5 page)

“Then why did you?” Tess grabbed a chair and dragged it along the floor. She sat in front of Laura. “Adam Lacey is the nicest bloke you’ll meet, I swear to you. Considering his popularity around here, you’d think he’d be a right dandy, but he’s not. He talks to everyone and anyone.”

“So why get so excited about him talking to me? It was the ecstasy on your face that sent me flying out the door, not his. You can’t blame me for thinking there was more to it, the way you stared at us as though your eyes might roll out of their sockets.”

Tess grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “I said, he
talks
to everyone. I didn’t say he stares at everyone like he did you.”

Laura frowned. “So I was right. He can see me for what I am.”

“He didn’t look at you for sex. You know that as well as I do. If the man had been scouting for sex, you would’ve put him in his place. The way he stared at you scared you as much as it shocked me. Admit it.”

She was right, but there was no way Laura would admit that to Tess—or herself. “Why would he ask us to the party?”

Tess leaned back. “I’ve no idea.”

Any residual notions of admiring Adam Lacey’s acting skills or handsomeness disintegrated. “Then what’s he playing at?”

“I don’t know, but as sure as I’m sitting here, we’re going to that party to find out.” Tess pushed to her feet. “Come on. For now, we’ve got work to do.”

Laura leaped up. “Tess, wait. I’m not going to any party. I’ve already told you how ill Bette is. I’m not leaving her to fend for herself while I go off to some theater carrying on.”

“You can’t not go.” Tess’s eyes grew wide. “What if he doesn’t ask us again? It’s not me he wants there, it’s you, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss out on a night of seeing all that finery. If you won’t do this for you, will you at least do it for me?”

Snatching her basket back onto her arm, Laura tilted her chin. “I’m not going. You go. Enjoy yourself. Even tell me what happens. I’m not going.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “Are you going to show me how to shift this lot or not?”

Their gazes locked.

Laura struggled to maintain a semblance of control as her heart raced and her hands shook. For all her words and fervor, the way Adam Lacey gawked at her remained painted in her mind as clear and vivid as a miniature portrait. He hadn’t just admired her, he’d seen through her, to her very soul. It was as though he asked her a million questions. Where have you been? Who are you? What can you do for me?

The notion confused her. Shook her. Made half of her want to seek him out and the other half hide.

When no response came from Tess, Laura emitted a frustrated curse and swept from the room.

Actors speaking their lines and the accompanying clangs and hums of the orchestra drifted through the corridor as she stormed forward. The maze of doors and walkways threw her off balance. How did she get out of here? Back to the auditorium? Back to Bette?

She halted. Closed her eyes. No, she wouldn’t run. When had she ever run from anything? So, she was shaken. Someone had managed to make herself stop. Make herself think. Make herself feel . . .

This was a new time. A new opportunity. This was for her and Bette. No more whoring. Wasn’t that what Bette asked of her while she suffered and fought against the illness threatening to take her down?

Footfalls behind her made Laura turn.

Tess hurried along the corridor, her face etched with concern. She stopped and took her hand. “Where are you going? You’re not leaving, are you?”

Laura released her held breath and forced a smile. “Of course not. It will take more than a man like Adam Lacey to make me run scared from a job.”

Tess’s shoulders dropped and a pretty smile lit her face and eyes. “I’m glad to hear it.” She looped her arm through Laura’s. “Let’s go to work. These folks are ripe for the picking, I reckon.”

Arm in arm, they entered the auditorium and the calls, laughter, and noise of the audience swept over Laura on a wave of possibility. The scent of tobacco mixed with the gas from the lanterns; orange peels mixed with the scent of chocolate from her basket. She stared resolutely forward. Adam’s voice came from the stage to the left of her—masculine, clear, and entirely in control. She ignored the tightening in her stomach and the almost inhuman urge to look at him that pulled at every fiber.

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“Laura?”

She started when Tess whispered urgently in her ear. “What?”

“Why are you staring ahead like you’ve seen some sort of ghost? We’ve got work to do.” Tess frowned. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. How do we do this?”

“Well, there isn’t much more to it than smiling and flirting with the gentlemen and acting envious of the women. The men want to feel as though you long to be with them. The women like you to want to be them.”

Laura nodded. If she was good at nothing else, she was good at making people believe she was happy when inside she yearned to be a million miles away, doing something only other dreamers could possibly understand.

She drew in a long breath. At least this time she was dressed and no one was pawing at her cunny or kissing at her breast. For tonight, she was Laura Robinson making her way without any man’s money or muscle.

Adam meandered down the theater steps onto the street. Somehow, he had managed to get through the second half of the play without leaping from the stage and talking to Laura. He smiled. Despite the added energy to his performance, the agony of knowing she wandered amongst the audience and being unable to so much as look at her had been pitiful. Her presence, the anticipation of seeing her again, put a bounce in his step and set a strange fluidity through his limbs.

Intellectually, he was acting like a sap. Who had ever heard of someone seeing another person and sensing an excitement, a purpose, just by looking into their eyes? It was madness, but the wonder and surprise in her gaze was not a figment of his imagination. She had to have felt the connection too. It was their destiny to explore what it meant, surely?

He glanced left and right along the street before checking his pocket watch. By the time he had changed and was ready to leave, the theater had emptied of its patrons, along with Laura and Tess. Part of him knew Laura would be true to her word and not come to the Rooms, but he hoped Tess would at least deliver her address to him. Not that it mattered nearly as much now—he’d since discovered Laura worked at the theater. He would see her soon regardless.

His heart stuttered.

Which meant he would talk to her then if he could not tonight. Things had a way of turning out how they were supposed to. He would take the time to get his excitement under control and show her he was not a madman but a playwright. A playwright who, unbeknownst to her, had written a part for which she was perfect.

“Adam, you’re waiting for me. You are surely the sweetest man in the whole of Bath.”

He turned. Monica swept through the doors on Victor’s arm. Adam smiled and offered her his arm too. Her fingers curled around his forearm, her pretty features alight with happiness. “Well, look at me, being escorted by two of Bath’s finest gentlemen.”

“And it is our pleasure. Isn’t that right, Victor?”

“Absolutely.” The director smiled. “Shall I send a message for my carriage or are we happy to walk?”

Monica tugged them closer. “Oh, I’m more than happy to walk and be seen considering my current situation.”

Adam laughed. “You are an outrageous flirt, Miss Danes.”

Her eyes widened. “Says he who is never without an adoring female answering to his every whim.”

Adam pressed his free hand to his chest, feigning offense. “I am desperate for the attention of one woman and one woman only.”

Monica’s eyes sparkled. “Oh? And who would this honored woman be, might I ask?”

He winked. “That is for me to know and the rest of the world to . . .” Adam glanced over her shoulder and pulled his arm from Monica’s hand as Laura came down the steps. He swallowed. “Laura.”

She turned, her eyes widening for a brief moment before she pulled back her shoulders. “Mr. Lacey.”

He blinked and collected himself. He extended his hand toward Monica and Victor. “Might I introduce Monica Danes and Victor Talisman.”

Laura nodded and smiled. “It’s an honor to meet you. The play is excellent.”

“Thank you.” Monica smiled. “You must be the last to leave. We finished well over an hour past.”

Laura glanced toward the ground and back again. “I wasn’t in the audience, Miss Danes. Tonight was my first night working here. I sell sweets and such.”

“Ah, I see. That’s why I haven’t noticed such a pretty girl before.” She tilted her head toward Adam. “As opposed to my fellow actor here, who has clearly noticed you to already know your name.”

The lanterns cast Laura’s face in an amber glow, so Adam couldn’t be sure if she blushed as she dipped her head. “Well, it was lovely to meet you, but I must hurry home. Have a nice evening.”

She moved to leave and Adam stepped forward. “Might I just have a very quick word with you?”

“I’m sorry. I really must—”

“I’ll walk with you.”

She stiffened and glanced toward Monica and Victor before facing him once more. “I thank you, Mr. Lacey, but really, I’m quite all right unaccompanied. Maybe we could talk when I’m next working?”

“Tonight will do just as well.”

Her soft violet eyes turned to hard amethyst under the lamplight. Adam quickly faced Monica and Victor, and bit back the bubble of laughter in his throat at the sight of their identical expressions of interest and curiosity. He bowed slightly.

“I will catch up with you once I have seen Miss Robinson home.”

“Of course.”

“As you wish.”

With a final frown at Adam and a hurried smile at Laura, Monica and Victor strolled away. Satisfied he was finally alone with her ran like hot, honeyed water through Adam’s blood.

“Now then—”

“How dare you.”

He blanched. Her face was set in stone, her eyes flashing a fury he had never encountered in a woman. “Sorry?”

“I said, how dare you.” She poked a finger into his chest. “Let me tell you something,
Mr. King of the Theater
. . . I might have a lifelong love of the stage, I might have totally and completely fallen in love with the costumes, the atmosphere, even the damn lighting, but no one—not even you—presumes to infringe on my time or company without my say-so. Understand?”

He stared at her lips and he wrapped his hand around the finger at his chest and held it there. “I am pleased to hear you are falling in love with the theater. In fact, I am more than pleased, I am ecstatic.”

Her finger trembled in his grasp, but her gaze never wavered. “And why’s that?”

“Because you belong on that stage. I knew it the moment I saw you.”

She snatched her finger from his hand and huffed. “My God, you really are a piece of work. You must think I was born yesterday.” She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders and stepped around him. “I’ll bid you good night.”

“Laura.” His tone was firm. Probably firm enough to ignite that fiery temper of hers to explosion, but there was no way she was leaving. Not yet. He had to at least charm her into liking him more than hating him.

She spun around. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you so intent on seeking my company? If there’s something you want from me, why not be a man and just say it? You’re toying with me like a cat after a mouse. I’ve seen more masculinity in a dog in heat.”

He froze, stunned beyond laughter or offense. Her soft, dulcet tones had changed in her anger to that of an intelligent, knowing, and mature woman way beyond her youthful and beautiful looks. Yet, instead of lessening the fire burning inside him, her displeasure stoked it. Attraction licked at his insides and rode all the way to the center of his stupid chest.

He could not remember when last a female spoke to him in such a way. She was glorious. He laughed. “Well, I guess that told me.”

“I’m serious, Mr. Lacey. For all your success and skill onstage, you know very little of how to treat a woman. I daresay the fancy, rich ladies who seek your company don’t know any better or they’d run the other way.”

The minx no longer scowled or spat feathers. Instead . . . she grinned. His breath caught. Her eyes sparkled and her gorgeous apple cheeks shone with a rich and rosy gleam.

He slowly approached her.

She tilted her chin, her smile still fully in place. “Are you daring to speak with me again?”

He considered every aspect of her face, especially her lips, before coming to a mesmerized stop at those deep violet eyes. “You are—”

The growl from deep within his throat was a new and fearful reaction. His mouth covered hers and he took without thinking. He swallowed her gasp and hitched her tight against him. His hands clasped a waist so tiny, so perfect, it fit in the splay of his hands.

He waited for her shove, her push—her slap, but it didn’t come. Her rigid body turned pliant as the weight of her hands rested on his shoulders. She kissed him back. Matching his need with equal fervor. She moaned into his mouth with a passion that sped his heart. Her hot tongue touched his. The glide of her hands to his neck and hair sent tremors of desire thundering into his cock.

Abruptly, she pulled back. Satisfaction, desire and—dare he think it—need stormed in the depths of her eyes. Her lashes, as dark as night, sparkled with tears that shone like diamonds.

Adam shook his head. “Who are you?”

She grinned and swiped her fingers under her eyes. “More woman than you could ever handle, Mr. Lacey. Good night.”

“Wait.”

She brushed past him, her glorious behind swaying nonchalantly from side to side as she waved and disappeared into the darkness.

 

Laura pushed the key into the lock of her and Bette’s house. The walk—or run—from the theater had done little to steady her nerves. What had she done? She’d kissed Adam Lacey. No, she hadn’t kissed him. She’d
devoured
him. Yet, she couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at her lips as she quietly slipped inside.

The breath-stealing emotions had brought tears to her eyes. Tears! Why had she reacted in such a way?

She bent over to untie her boots
. I know exactly why. The man kissed me like he wanted to possess me.
The tension between them had been like an exploding stream of fireworks.

She collapsed onto the bottom stair and covered her mouth with her hand to smother her laughter. Her heart raced, her cunny pulsed. It was a phenomenon. A miracle. She’d risen to his challenge and left him standing on the street alone. Now, though, she ached for more of him. God, she was terrified a man could evoke such need in her, such lack of control.

Her smile vanished as she glanced toward the living-room door. Attraction to Adam Lacey was the last thing she needed or expected. In all her years as a whore, she’d turned numb whenever a cully touched, caressed, or sexed her. Her lack of sexual interest had been enough for Bette to infer on more than one occasion that Laura was meant to be with a woman. Except, of course, Laura always seemed to notice the man who ran the ironmongers down the street. . . .

She shook her head.
Noticed him
being the important thing. She’d more than noticed Adam Lacey.

The cracking and wheezing of Bette’s coughing roused Laura from her muddled contemplation. She leaped to her feet and hurried into the living room that now also served as Bette’s bedroom.

“Sorry I’m back so late.” Laura sidled onto the bed and lifted a glass of water from the cabinet to her friend’s lips. Bette’s pallor was gray and sheened with sweat. “Here.”

Bette shook her head and flicked her hand, gesturing for Laura to get rid of the glass.

Icy-cold dread seeped into Laura’s stomach. Tiny blobs of blood crusted on Bette’s mouth. She flitted her gaze to the covers to hide her panic. Smears of blood colored the edge of the sheets as though her friend had used them to swipe her mouth.

She looked up. Bette stared at her, tears glazing her eyes.

Laura swallowed. “When did it start?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It
is
something. It’s something important.” She clasped Bette’s hand. “I need to get the doctor.”

“What you need is to pray to God you don’t get struck down, too, looking after me like this.” Bette closed her eyes.

“I’m in and out of this house so much, there’s little chance of me getting anything from you. Don’t talk daft.” Laura blinked against the hot sting of tears. “I just want to make a wish and have this go away.”

“Isn’t the doc coming tomorrow?”

“First thing.”

“Good, then we’ll worry what this blood means then and not before.”

Laura bit back a sob. What would crying, screaming, or cursing do? Nothing. What would dancing and singing onstage or kissing a star do? Nothing. Heat burned like acid in her heart. She was selfish. Selfish and entirely unfocused on what was important. Bette.

Adam Lacey’s dark brown eyes and heart-melting smile wouldn’t fix her beloved friend. Money, safety, and security were what Bette needed. It was up to Laura to provide that until Bette was well again. Then everything would go back to normal. Back to the two of them against the whole damn world.

A tear dropped onto her clenched hands and Laura whirled away from the bed. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m bored and lonely. Tell me what happened tonight. Did you find a gentleman or, as I asked, land yourself onstage? Which one lucked out?”

“Neither.” Laura squeezed one eye shut. “I kissed Adam Lacey instead.”

“You kissed . . . Well, damn.” Bette rasped out a laugh and Laura turned. She hadn’t seen the wicked light that shone in Bette’s eyes for such a long time. “When you said you were going to go after a gentleman’s protection, I didn’t think it would be the star of the stage.”

Laura smiled. “This isn’t good or funny. What was I thinking? More importantly, what was
he
thinking?”

“What are you talking about? Have you taken a look in the mirror lately? My God, Laura, you’re prettier than any damn actress, princess, or lady. I give this Adam Lacey credit for seeing that from the moment he laid eyes on you.”

“Or, rather, he could see I was a whore the moment he laid eyes on me.”

“What?”

Laura’s heart thudded with disappointment. “What if he knows what I am?”

“Then better to be protected by the likes of him than Baxter.”

Laura’s stomach twisted and she pressed her hand there. Of course he does. Was he laughing at her when he mentioned her and the stage in the same sentence? “You think that’s it? You think he wants me for his exclusive pleasure?”

“Don’t you?”

A slash of something she didn’t want to contemplate struck her heart. “No, at least I hope not.”

Bette raised an eyebrow. “So, what do you hope?”

Turning away from her friend’s insipid gaze, Laura faced the window. “I don’t know, but I’m not about to become Adam Lacey’s whore, no matter what he might think. I’ve thought about what you said. I’m better than that. Hell, I’m getting too old for that.” She faced Bette. “I did the rounds with Tess. I sold those wares, and laughed and joked with gentlemen and thieves alike. I was good at it. I sold the lot.”