Page 55 of Duke of Wickedness
“Tonight, you will see a lot of things that people want,” he said darkly. “That’s the rule here—theonlyrule. As long as everyone involved wants what is happening, nothing is forbidden.”
The things that were happening in front of Ariadne would be forbidden anywhere else, however, that much was increasingly obvious to her with every step into the house.
Two men were seated at the piano, which wouldn’t have been remarkable in and of itself, but while one of the men was playing, the other one was kissing his neck passionately.
“Oh,” Ariadne let out quietly.
“Shocked?” David asked her, and she wondered if there wasn’t a note of defensiveness in his tone.
“Shocked isn’t the word,” she murmured.
And that was true. She was…
She wasenthralled.And not a little heated under her beautiful, feathered gown.
“I didn’t realize,” she said—which, frankly, was a good description of nearly everything happening here.
“It’s quite illegal,” David said simply. “But that doesn’t deter people from following their hearts—and, occasionally, other parts that lead the way. Some men find other men attractive. For some, they exclusively find other men attractive. For others, it is part of a more expansive set of tastes.”
There was something in his tone that made her ask.
“Have you…?”
He shrugged an unconcerned shoulder. “I had a few instances of experimentation in my younger days, but alas, I find that I am one of those boring, conventional types that prefer ladies alone.”
He again sounded as though he feared her censure, so she merely shook her head at him.
“Yes, Iwasgoing to bring that up. You are far too boring and conventional for my tastes. I shall just leave then.”
She made as though to pull away from him, but he grabbed her around the waist, laughing, all the worry gone from the parts of his face that weren’t hidden by his mask. He tugged her tight against his side, then pressed a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth.
“Don’t leave yet, little bird,” he said. “There’s more to see.”
And there was. Ariadne tried to keep the surprise from her space with each new thing she saw. She knew, for example, that the idea that men were more sensual than women was a myth—she was living proof of that herself with this little adventure of hers. But she found the sight of two women in a passionate embrace far more surprising than the two men.
She suspected that she herself was—to borrow David’s words—a bit boring and conventional in that she didn’t find herself even passingly curious about kissing a woman herself, but there was something…wondrous about knowing that these two women, who kept pulling back to murmur sweetly to one another, could do that, even if only in this place.
“People like this,” David said, when they passed a person with a blacksmith’s broad build and a rugged beard wearing a gorgeous, elaborate frock that would have been the envy of every woman at Almack’s, “need a place to go. There are few places that are safe for those who prefer to partner in less traditional ways.”
“So you have provided them one,” Ariadne observed. It was easy to get distracted by the many, many exciting things happening around her, but something was tugging at the back of her mind about what David was saying.
He didn’t quite meet her eyes as he shrugged.
“I have the means,” he said, as though it was as simple as that. “And, jokes aside, I reallyamconventional compared to people who could end up imprisoned or transported for so stupid a reason asloving someone.” Those last words were disgusted, as though he couldn’t think of anything more corrupt.
And something inside Ariadne twisted with—she couldn’t call it anything else—fondness.
“And I have power,” David went on. “Yes, people talk about my reputation, but it’s never cost me a business deal. I’ve never been cut. Maybe some of the prissier aristocrats don’t want to talk to me but—well, let’s be realistic. I don’t want to talk to them either.
“But others.” He paused. “They have their lives ruined. They have constables storming into their homes, their businesses. But nobody will ever raid this house. Not when it belongs to the Duke of Wilds.”
There was a bitterness to the way he said his title.
Ariadne grabbed his hand.
“David,” she said. “You are a good man.”
And David, God bless him, looked horrified.
