No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (The Rules of Scoundrels #3)(45)

Sally met his gaze over Pippa’s shoulder, laughter in her eyes. “Thank you, my lady.”

Well. At least she’d used the honorific.

“May I speak plainly?” Pippa asked, as though she had not been speaking plainly for the last four days. For her entire life.

“Please,” Sally said.

The moment was getting away from him. Something had to be done.

“No,” he interrupted, inserting himself between the two women. “No one is speaking plainly. Certainly not to Sally.”

“I’m happy to speak to the lady, Cross,” Sally said, and he did not miss the dry humor in her tone.

“I’ve no doubt of that,” he said. “And yet, you won’t. As you have somewhere to be. Right now.”

“Nonsense,” Pippa protested, edging him out of the way with a firm elbow at his side. Actually, physically moving him. “Miss Tasser has already said she has time for me.” She blinked up at him from behind thick lenses. “You are dismissed, Mr. Cross.”

Sally barked her laughter.

Pippa returned her attention to the prostitute, taking the woman’s arm and walking her away from Cross, toward the main entrance of the club. She was going to exit the casino, onto St. James’s in the middle of the day, on the arm of a prostitute. “I wonder if you might be willing to teach me how you do it.”

“It?” He hadn’t meant to say it aloud.

Pippa ignored him, but answered the question. “To smolder. You see, I am to be married in eleven days. Slightly less than that now, and I need to—”

“Catch your husband?” Sally asked.

Pippa nodded. “In a sense. I also require your obvious knowledge in other matters of . . . marriage.”

“What kind of matters?”

“Those relating to procreation. I find that what I thought I knew about the mechanics of the act are—well, unlikely.”

“Unlikely, how?”

“To be honest, I thought it was similar to animal husbandry.”

Sally’s tone turned dry. “Sometimes, my lady, I’m afraid it isn’t that different.”

Pippa paused, considering the words. “Is that so?”

“Men are uncomplicated, generally,” Sally said, all too sage. “They’re beasts when they want to be.”

“Brute ones!”

“Ah, so you understand.”

Pippa tilted her head to one side. “I’ve read about them.”

Sally nodded. “Erotic texts?”

“The Book of Common Prayer. But perhaps you have an erotic text you could recommend?”

And there it was—the end of his tether.

“Did you not lose a wager with me that prohibited precisely this kind of interaction?” The words were harsh and unkind. Not that he cared. He turned to Sally. “Leave now, Sally.”

Pippa raised her chin in what he was coming to think of as her most frustrating stance. “I promised no questioning other men. There was nothing in the wager relating to women.”

He opened his mouth to reply. Closed it.

She nodded once, filled with self-satisfaction, and returned her attention to Sally. “Miss Tasser, I assume from what I witnessed that you are clearly skilled . . . at least, Mr. Cross seems to believe so.”

Was she out of her mind?

“Cross and I have, unfortunately, never . . . done business,” Sally said.

Pippa’s mouth fell into a perfect O. “I see,” she said, when she clearly didn’t. “You must be discreet of course. I appreciated that. And I would be happy to pay you for the instruction,” she added. “Would you be willing to visit me at my home?”

He had been wrong; there was the end of his tether.

She would learn nothing from Sally. Nor from Temple. Nor from Castleton, dammit—it didn’t matter that he was her fiancé.

Cross didn’t want anyone touching her.

Not if he couldn’t.

He reached for Pippa, taking her by the arm, pulling her away from Sally, away from whatever scandalous path she had been considering taking. He ignored her gasp of outrage and the way his fingers fairly rejoiced at their contact. “Sally, it is time for you to go.” He turned back to Pippa. “And you. Into my office, before someone discovers you here.”

“The club is closed. Who would discover me?”

“Your brother-in-law, perhaps?”

Pippa remained unmoved. “Bourne and Penelope are fishing today. They left for Falconwell this morning. Back tomorrow.”

“To fish.” If he had an eternity to try, he could not imagine Bourne lakeside, fishing.

“Yes. They’ve fished together for much of their life. I don’t see why it’s such a surprise.”

Sally shook her head. “Tragic when a rogue of Bourne’s caliber goes soft.”

Pippa met her gaze. “I suppose it is for most . . . but my sister seems happy with the results.”

“No doubt she is. Bourne has always been able to keep a lady happy.”

Pippa considered the words for a long moment. “Do you mean to say you have . . . with Bourne?”

“She means no such thing.” He gave Sally a pointed look. “Out.”

The prostitute tilted her head, a wicked gleam in her eye. “I’m afraid I can’t leave, Cross. Not without giving the lady the information she requests.”