Page 113 of A Gentleman's Wager

Provoked, Bella struck. The whip slapped against his lower back, raising a thick red weal. Vaughan laughed through his teeth.

“Is that the best you can do? Here, give it to me, I’ll do it myself.”

Again, she struck his flanks.

“Feeble. Do put some effort into it. I’m at your mercy after all. If you want an apology, you can easily beat it out of me.”

“Sixty guineas,” she cursed.

“Considerably more than you were worth.”

“You’ll take that back.”

“Make me.”

Bella raised the lash again and again, striking him until his rear was criss-crossed with welts. “Whoreson. Fraud. Lecherous, mean-spirited meat-monger.”

“Are they all the bad words that you know?”

“Mandrake, varmint, scapegrace, churl.”

“Money-grabbing trollop. Aren’t you supposed to count?”

Bella stamped her foot in frustration. He wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this. “You’re nothing but Lucerne’s catamite.”

“And you’re his doxy. Except of course that he hasn’t even paid you yet. I did warn you about that, did I not?”

Bellowing with rage, Bella slashed at him again. The tail end of the whip snaked between his parted legs and caught him at the base of his ballocks. He instantly lurched forwards in the chains, a hiss squeezing between his gritted teeth.”

The horsewhip hit the floor with a thump. Bella scurried forward. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Oh, my God, I’m sorry.” Had she maimed him? Unmanned him?

“Please just release me.”

She unclasped the shackles from his wrists first, then bent to do the same of his ankles. By the time the last of the pins were released her tears were blinding her vision. Vaughan gently clasped her around the shoulders and pulled her to his chest.

“What are you crying for you silly fool? Didn’t you realise it’s supposed to hurt?”

“I know that. I do know that.” She snuffled into the warmth of his bare shoulder. He smelled of musk and sandalwood, and a hint of rose. Nor did he seem to mind that her tears were wetting his skin. “Now I feel dumb. I just wanted you to apologise. I wanted you to smart. Is it not enough that you already have his love, but you had to make a fool of me too?”

Rather than pushing her away, he continued to hold her close. “Bella, it was never about that. You weren’t even supposed to be part of it. Though God knows, wager or not, I’d still have done all I could to divert you from your pursuit of Lucerne.” He drew his hands through her hair, dislodging the pins, so that her ringlets coiled around his fingers. “Charles added the part about you and Lucerne. He seemed to think you’d prove more of a challenge than Miss Stanley. I do not think he knows you half so well as he imagines, for it was apparent from the off how to best attract your attention. You do so hate to be overlooked.” He nudged her chin up with his finger, forcing her to meet his violet gaze. A flood of salty tears ran over her lips. Vaughan cupped her face and brushed them away with his thumbs. “It was only ever meant to target Wakefield.”

“You’re beastly.” She sniffed. Her tears dappled his bare chest.

“And you love that. It makes your heart sing.”

“Don’t fool yourself.”

“It makes you feel alive.” He kissed her bee-stung lips open, but no viciousness followed. His attention was devoid of the bite she’d grown to expect from him. This new tenderness was how she imagined him to be when he kissed Lucerne. “More?”

Bella turned her tear-streaked face upwards. “Aren’t you hurt?” She swore she’d near unmanned him.

He kissed the tears from her eyelashes, the rivulets from her cheeks. “Believe me, it stings, but I’ve had worse, and from a more experienced hand. Benefits of a classical education.”

His fingers danced along the ridges of her shoulders, moved down over her breasts to the ties of her dress. “Why don’t you let me apologise in a different way?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s what you want—what you actually want from me.” His lips travelled to her neck. One hand captured a nipple. Desire so intense she almost swooned drew her to him, meanwhile, he was waltzing her towards the pallet in the corner.