Forever My Love (Berkeley-Faulkner #2)(59)

“As always, I don’t want to let you go. You are an unprincipled scoundrel, which is why you are such a marvelous lover.”

“As long as the performance matched your expectations,” Alec murmured in a tone which caused Georgiana’s feline smile to falter for a split second.”It was more than a performance I hope,” she said. “When we are together I feel close to you… in a way that I never did with my husband. You are able to touch my heart and spirit so easily. Each time we make love, I feel more and more as if I belong to you.”

Alec’s gray eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Georgiana delivered a convincing performance. She spoke with apparent sincerity, her expression smooth and guileless. But there was something else in her face, an expectancy, that betrayed her true thoughts. She had decided that she wanted to be Alec’s wife, but not for reasons of love, as she would have him believe. It was well-known that her debts were beginning to mount up, the creditors knocking at the door. If she was waiting for him to propose, she was wasting more time than a woman in her position could afford. Though her face and figure were attractive, they would soon begin to fade from the rigors of the overindulgent way of life. She drank too much, she spent far too much time going to parties and gambling… both before and after the recent death of her elderly and harried husband.

“Georgia,” he said softly, using a nickname that she would tolerate from no one else, “why don’t you let me settle up with your creditors?”

“I…” She looked startled at his suggestion. “I… Whatever brought up such a subject, my lord?” She took a deep swallow of coffee, closing her eyes as it burned its way down her throat.

“Let’s stop the game,” Alec said gently. “You’ve been refusing gifts from me for the same reason that you refuse to allow me to pay your bills… because you like to pretend that you’re more than just my mistress.”

“I’m not your mistress!” Georgiana snapped, standing up from the bed. “I’m your lover.”

“Georgia, I have no desire or need to marry any-one,” he told her flatly. “Call yourself whatever you like, my lover, mistress, or friend, but facts being what they are, our association has developed to its fullest potential. In other words, things have gone as far as they’re going—so you might as well take advantage of the situation and stop waiting for a proposal of marriage that you’ll never receive. You’re never going to be the Duchess of Stafford, but you will profit well enough from having been my mistress. I am willing to be generous with you—”

“Please. Please don’t say such things to me,” she said, a sparkling mist clouding her pale blue eyes. “I don’t understand what you’re—”

“It’s useless to resort to tears,” Alec said, a trace of derision coloring his voice. “I’m immune to them.”

“Bastard.” Georgiana’s misty tears dried instantly, and she favored him with a cool glance as she went to her dressing table and sat down to brush her hair. Alec smiled slightly, meeting her gaze in the mirror.

“At last the genuine Georgia shows through,” he commented. The solid shoulders flexed as he folded his arms in back of his head. “Suddenly I find you more appealing than ever before.”

“That’s because you are the kind of man who only wants a woman who despises him. You don’t like anyone who dares to be nice to you.”

“I like any kind of woman as long as she’s genuine,” Alec replied. His thick lashes lowered to conceal the expression of his eyes. “As long as she’s honest. It’s difficult to find a woman who doesn’t play a role in bed.”

“We all do,” Georgiana informed him curtly, drawing a brush roughly through her long golden hair. “You poor stupid men don’t like us as we are. You want a virgin every time.”

Alec grinned. “Deliver me from women who like to pose as virgins when they’re not—or worse, as ladies,” he said, and then his amusement disappeared in atwinkling, as if an unpleasant memory had crossed his mind. “After the authentic experience, the imitations are difficult to bear.”

“Whom are you thinking of? Was she an authentic virgin or an authentic lady?” Georgiana demanded, the sharpness of her voice jolting him back to considerations of the present moment.

“Both,” Alec said, brushing a hand across his chest in an absentminded gesture. He had worn the Falkner medallion around his neck for so long that he had still not become accustomed to its absence. “You haven’t yet answered my question. “Would you like me to settle your accounts or not?”

“Is paying a few paltry bills all you’re offering?” she asked silkily, causing him to laugh.

“From what I’ve heard, they’re far from paltry. But I’ll throw in a gift for you as well—”

“Emeralds.”

“Diamonds,” Alec corrected lazily, stretching and standing up from the bed. “You’re not worth emeralds, Georgia, though I’ll admit you’ve been very entertaining this morning.”

“Perhaps I can convince you of my worth,” she said. Slowly she walked toward him, staring at the naked, powerful lines of his body. “In a few minutes I’ll have you begging to give me emeralds…” Enticingly Georgiana dropped her wrapper. Alec’s gray eyes flickered over her nude form thoughtfully. Then he smiled with a peculiar bleakness and placed a kiss on her forehead with a casualness that infuriated her.