Page 94 of The Duke and the Disciple

“So you want to watch me writhe in pleasure until I go mad,” she said with a bland grin. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “So you can listen from your bed and touch yourself without breaking any rules about what’s allowed in this world?”

Rahn hung his head in mock shame. “Alas, my plan unravels.”

She sat up straight, pulling the blankets around her waist. “I don’t think that will work for me, Scholar. I’m sorry.”

Rahn was more relieved than anything. It was an absurd idea, and there was simply no way of knowing what the long-term effects might be, nor whether she might be allergic to any of the ingredients, a fact which would be unpleasant to discover after the fact, though he would have tested it first on her hand?—

“Scholar? You still with me?”

He snapped his gaze to hers. “I have other ideas for suitable distractions, not to worry.” He withdrew the bowl, but she snaked her hand out and pulled it back.

“You misunderstand me.” She dipped one finger in the mix, regarded it with a squint, and then spread it over the top of her hand. He watched her in perplexed, breathless anticipation. “Ahh!” she squealed, her eyes widening in delighted surprise as she turned them his way. “I knew something was coming, but it was still so unexpected. Every minute, you say?”

“From what I gathered from reading, one’s physiology affects how the body responds, and how frequently. For some, the stimulations have only seconds between. For others, minutes. For me, it was between fifty-four and sixty-nine seconds.”

Aesylt grinned. “You timed your self-pleasure?”

Rahn balked. “Are we not scientists, Aesylt?”

She laughed and yelped again. “I should have been timing it.”

“Forty-seven.”

“You were counting? Of course you were counting.” She rolled her eyes, tilting the bowl in her hands. “How many nights have we listened to each other pleasure ourselves?”

Heat flooded his cheeks. “Plenty.”

“There’s a suggestion in the ballroom section of the curricula that proposes—in the addendum, where they go into more detail on the hypotheses and expected outcomes for each test—that scenarios in which the researchers engage, inpublicfornication, may produce such a unique series of stimuli that it cannot be replaced or replicated with any other activity. The thrill of being caught in the act engages a part of our brain akin to committing a heinous crime or attempting to escape mortal danger.”

Rahn had read that part as well, but he wasn’t following her point. “Fornicating in front of the Derehams is out of the question.”

“I wasn’t suggesting we rut like wild animals on the table, though thatwouldbe something,” Aesylt replied. She twisted her mouth back and forth, staring at the bowl. “We have just enough time to get dressed and make our way to the keep before supper is served.”

He began to see where she was taking him. “No... no. The effects could last an hour or more. We cannot know how you’ll respond.”

Aesylt dipped a finger into the bowl and lifted her skirt with the other hand. Rahn’s breath faltered as he watched her work the paste between her legs, her eyes turning upward before she extracted her hand. “There we are. This should solve two problems for me.”

Rahn tried to swallow before speaking, but his mouth and his throat were dry as a desert. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. She actually intended to sit at a table full of Derehams—not to mention a hawk-eyed Imryll—while... overstimulated.

In none of his considerations had he accounted forthat.

A cloudy look passed over her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it again, beyond what I’m about to say. Yesterday I lost control, in a way that has not happened to me in many years. I’d like to prove to myself it was a chance slip and not a sign of a bigger problem. If I can will myself into compliance while my body is actively working against me, then I’ll know I’m not...” He heard the start of the wordbroken,but she cut herself off and smiled instead. “Oh, I really need to get used to thisbeforeI ask someone to pass the bread.”

Rahn cleared his throat. She was serious. She was actually going to do it, because she felt she had something to prove to herself, and even if it wasn’t too late, even if she hadn’t already spread the paste, he could see the single-minded determination burning in her eyes. “I think it may be best to have our meal sent up tonight,” he said, one last attempt.

She grinned. “Have some faith in me, Scholar. You know I’ve never met a challenge I wasn’t ready to destroy.”

They werelate for supper on account of Aesylt’s struggles. Several times she’d stopped along the way, but by the time they reached the keep, she was feeling considerably better about her ability to normalize her body’s reactions.

Everyone else was already seated when they took their places at the table. Aesylt missed a step when a tingle hit her, but only Nyssa seemed to notice, with a slight narrowing of her eyes.

“We were discussing my invocation,” Nyssa said testily, a saccharine smile plastered across her face. “You remember, Aesylt, my coming-out ball?”

“Your soiree, you mean?” Pieter asked, mocking her between slurps of his soup.

“I said what I meant, brother.”

“And unless Mother has radically expanded the guest list, you’re still wrong.”

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