Page 25 of A Whisper of Desire
“Bloody hell!It won’t seem strange?You want me to act the fop? My father was known to engage in numerous perversions; I’ve taken great pains to ensure there are no such rumors like that about me. Besides, I’ve just got married.”
Arend waved that point away. “A rushed marriage to a friend’s daughter. It could almost look as if it was a cover. As a duke, you’ll be expected to sire children, regardless of your inclinations.”
Maitland nodded. The reasoning was sound, but he didn’t like where this was heading. He valued his reputation, and putting it in jeopardy was not to be borne.
“If a dandy accompanied you, it may seem, now that you are safely married, you’re freer to indulge your other tastes.”
Maitland looked at Arend in horror. “This is my reputation.”
“It’s our lives, or the life of Marisa, Helen, the other wives.”
“Christ, I need a drink.” He rose and poured himself a brandy. Sitting back down, he eyeballed Arend. “I might be prepared to use my money to break the house, but over the days I play at the club I will be expected to indulge these tastes you wish me to embrace, and I am certainly not up for frolicking with my own kind.”
Arend sighed. “Just listen. This is the part that may annoy you.” He looked at Maitland before looking away. “I suggest we dress Marisa up as a young man and she can accompany you. Her build is similar to a young man’s. That way when you go upstairs for ‘fun’ you’ll not garner suspicion or have to do anything that repulses you.”
Maitland sat there, stunned. “Did you just suggest I take my wife to a sodomites’ den, perhaps putting her in danger?”
“I’m happy to bow to any other suggestions. If you’d prefer to take me, and go upstairs with me, then by all means.”
Maitland considered this a far better solution. “Well, that sounds far more sensible.”
Arend leaned forward. “Do you want to suck my cock or shall I suck yours?”
“What the hell?” Maitland spluttered.
“They have spy holes. Someone will be watching to begin with, to ensure you are indeed ‘one of them.’ I thought we may well get away with it if you had your wife on her knees. Just keep her clothes on, your clothes can come off.”
Maitland’s body rollicked with revulsion. “You really are a coldhearted bastard.” How did he explain to a man like Arend that one did not ask one’s wife to get on her knees and…God damn, his body tightened at the thought. He must be sick like his father to get aroused by the idea of his wife using her mouth on him while others watched.
Arend simply sat, taking sips of his coffee as if they were discussing the weather. Unable to hold on to his temper he slammed the cup down. “Maitland, do you think I’d be here suggesting this if I had thought of another way?” He ran a hand through his hair. “We are running out of time. Either Angelo is in our enemy’s employ or he is trying to gather more information on her, so he can play us off against each other.”
“Or, in fact, he knows nothing.”
“True, but he probably knows something now. I have been having his men followed. He has started investigating the name we gave him. Either way, I want the truth, and only hitting him where it hurts will we get the truth from him.”
Maitland sat watching his friend for several moments. Arend’s dislike of Angelo seemed personal. “Have you encountered Angelo before?”
Maitland watched myriad emotions cross Arend’s face. Hatred, shame, anger, and despair. “I know him, and he knows me. We have a past. A past I’m not going to talk about.”
“Will this past relationship endanger this charade? I don’t want Marisa getting hurt.” Maitland refilled his tea. “By the way, I’ll leave it to you to tell Sebastian of this plan—all of the details. He’s likely to call you out.” He took a sip of brandy and stretched his legs under the table. “A brother always loves to hear that his sister is to be taken to a Molly club to pretend to be one, and that she will be watched performing a sex act on her husband.”
“It’s not as if she’s not seen it being done…”
Arend’s mouth snapped shut as he suddenly remembered who he was talking to, Marisa’s husband.
Maitland’s body tensed. “So it was you she saw.” His voice sounded like a growl to him. He hated that Marisa had seen Arend like that. The only man she should think about in his bed is him. He surprised himself at how much the idea of Marisa’s getting turned on by looking at Arend annoyed him.
“She told you?”
Maitland looked him in the eye. “Marisa is my wife.”
Arend had the grace to look sheepish. “It was not my fault. I had no idea that she was there.”
“Then we will talk of it no more.”
The two men eyed each other like gladiators before Arend nodded and looked away.
Only then did Maitland’s fists unclench. He didn’t like the emotions roiling in his gut. He could quite easily reach across and beat his friend to a messy pulp.
