Forbidden (Scandalous Sirens) by Tracy Cooper-Posey, Julia Templeton Page A

Munroe. What she really wanted to do was grab Vaughn’s lapels, shake him violently and take back his attention that way.
    With each peal of Natasha’s carefully cultivated laugh, the tension in her twisted a little tighter.
    Time passed. Slowly. Elisa picked at her food enough to prevent further questions regarding her behavior and tried to not eavesdrop on the low conversation across the table.
    “Madam, Vaughn tells me you are an accomplished rider. How is it you never told us of this?”
    Elisa glanced up at Natasha, who waited with a polite smile for her answer, her eyes glimmering, her flawless skin radiant under the light of the chandelier. She looked a little flushed and flustered. As well she might, if Vaughn was practicing the same intense, blunt conversational sallies on her as he had on Elisa the previous evening.
    Elisa sought to turn the dangerous subject and the focus of the conversation, away from her. “Do you ride, dear?”
    Natasha shrugged. “A little, though Mother tells me it is not proper to enjoy it too much.”
    Proper. That was not something she had ever been accused of being. Well, perhaps at one time, when she was a young girl of Natasha’s age, desperately in love with a fiancé whose reputation had been deplorable. Her only sin had been loving a husband who had but one use for her—to get himself an heir. After Raymond’s birth, the only time he had slept with her had been when he’d had no one else at his disposal.
    Her throat tightened. For a short time she had forgotten society felt she was not a proper woman, regardless of the truth. Now she found herself here, desperate for the attention of a man she could not have.   She was, indeed, the improper woman society had painted her to be.
    She focused her gaze fiercely on the ivory damask of the tablecloth, fighting the need to look at him once more. Then she felt a soft pressure on the toe of her right slipper, which quickly moved to her ankle, then up the inside of her calf. Warm flesh was smoothing its away up her leg.
    She looked up abruptly to find Vaughn watching her, the picture of complete innocence. His stockinged foot inched higher under her petticoats, against her pantalets. He was stroking the flesh of her inner thigh through the fine linen and her legs fell open without resistance.
    He coughed and in so doing sank into his chair, while turning his complete attention to the young woman at his side.
    Elisa couldn’t move. It was as though she were made of stone. She dared not move unless she destroy the moment. His toes crept ever closer to that part of her that had begun throbbing the second she’d realized it was his foot that slid against her leg.
    She reached for the water glass, trying to disguise her sudden inattention to the conversation. She took a sip, nearly choking on it when Vaughn grew ever bolder. Her breath left her in a rush as his toe slipped between the edges of the opening of her pantlets.
    The sides of his mouth curved into a devilish smile as he glanced in her direction, a dark brow lifted in silent challenge.
    “Madam, will you be attending the ball?”
    Elisa forced a smile. “Ball?” Her voice came out a squeak and Vaughn’s grin broadened.
    “Yes, Mama is throwing a ball for my coming out, just shortly before I leave for London. Please say you’ll come.”
    “Certainly, I’ll come.”
    She heard Vaughn laugh under his breath. “I knew Elisa would not disappoint.”
    Elisa realized with a cold shock she was allowing Vaughn the liberties that just a short while ago in her room she had promised herself she would not give him. So much for her resolve—she had been undone by the simple threat of Vaughn’s favors wandering elsewhere.
    Remember Raymond .
    “So...you will be spending the season in London?” Elisa asked, pulling her chair back the slightest bit, causing Vaughn’s foot to fall from between her thighs. He would have to literally slip beneath the table to touch her now.
    He sat up