Read Online Master of Pleasure by Delilah Marvelle - Free Book Online

if he didn’t want the world to know he was interested. “Don’t you worry. I’ll ensure you’re out the door in less than ten minutes.”
    A window swung open on its creaking hinges from high above, making them both look up.
    Mrs. Henderson, who clutched her prayer book against her shawl-covered bosom, peered down at them with a perusing squint. Her eyes widened. “Leona.” Her white ruffled cap fluttered with the movement of her gray head. “You know full well you aren’t allowed to associate with any men. Are you wanting me to put this in a letter to your aunt? Are you ?”
    Leona sometimes felt she was being held hostage by a seventy-two-year-old canoness. Trying to be polite, she set the broom against the railing of the tenement and called back, “This here is the gentlemen who is hiring me!”
    Mrs. Henderson paused and squinted again. “He doesn’t look an earl. He doesn’t look respectable.”
    Leona sighed. “I assure you, he is both.”
    “Prove it,” Mrs. Henderson prodded. “Have the man prove it.”
    Oy. This had to stop. “The poor man is already proving it. Do you see him trying to touch or kiss me right here on the street?”
    Mrs. Henderson gasped. “The Virgin Mary wasn’t touched or kissed, and look how she ended up! Do you want another child out of this? Hell awaits you if you keep at it!”
    Leona winced. Eyeing Lord Brayton, she let out an awkward laugh and thumbed toward the direction of the entrance. “Don’t mind all the barking. Much like my aunt, she thinks men are a menace. She may ask you more questions than a jury at trial, but she nobly held my hand through the worst of it. And when I mean the worst, I mean…childbirth. For that alone, I forgive that woman anything. Shall we go in? Do you mind her?”
    Lord Brayton held her gaze. “Why would I mind? I’m going in for your company, not hers.”
    Those husky words warmed the pit of her stomach. What was it about this man that made her very breath jangle? He wasn’t dashing or beautiful. Not at all. He was overly large, rugged and his features were unpolished, especially with that scar fingering its way from his ear to his jaw. But his presence and those ice blue eyes dominated the space between them as if he were demanding she and every breath she dragged in be his and only his.
    It was a bit overwhelming.
    Frantically brushing off her apron from clinging flour in an effort to distract herself, Leona gathered her skirts. “It’s been a while since Mrs. Henderson and I have had any guests. Please. Follow me. And mind each step. Some of the boards are warped.”
    She turned and hurried up the outside stairs of the three-level tenement through the open door propped open by a brick. Everything grew quiet. Trailing a hand against the uneven yellow wallpaper, she paused halfway up the narrow stairwell, turned and waited. As she stood waiting, it occurred to her that he was the first male she had willingly invited into her home since giving birth to her son.
    She bit her lip knowing it.
    Lord Brayton hulked his way up, using massive strides to take three stairs at a time. Coming upon her, he came to a quick halt, his large hand grabbing the wooden railing beside them. His firm hold on the banister was enough to make the black leather of his glove creak. He eyed the stairwell. “What? Are we eating the scones right here?”
    A choked laugh escaped her knowing he hadn’t even meant to be funny. “No. I was waiting for you.”
    “Were you?” He lifted himself a step closer. “How nice.”
    In the mugginess of the narrow stairwell, she could smell the crisp tonic that had been brushed into his dark brown hair. There was also another more distinctive scent that lingered. It wasn’t cologne or anything a man would usually wear. Whatever it was, it reminded her of an orchard. He smelled like…apples. It clung to her very breath.
    With him being only two steps below, the jagged scar that traced his face from ear to jaw had