“Never so…vividly,” she said, gesturing to the meticulously detailed testicles in front of her.
“Does it frighten you?”
“Frighten me?” she said. “No. It intrigues me.”
He expected many possible reactions from her, but that was certainly not one of them. It was, however, not an altogether unwelcome one.
Dropping the subject, they moved on, passing from one sculpture to the next. From one male nude to another. Suddenly, the room seemed dominated by the masculine sex, and Linley began to wonder if Berenice had not been right, after all. She’d seen women without their clothes on many times, especially in Africa, and it never once affected her. Yet she couldn’t get the image of the naked man out of her mind. Was it the same for gentlemen, too? Did Patrick experience these same feelings every time he saw a woman without any clothes on?
“Have you ever seen a naked woman?” she asked. “In the flesh?”
Patrick looked around the room to see if anyone overheard the question. Fortunately, they were alone. “I don’t think that is something you should be asking me.”
“Probably not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t answer,” Linley said with a nudge. “Is it because you’ve never been with a woman?”
“I have been with women before.”
“Many women?”
“Linley!”
She leaned in close to him and whispered, “More than five?”
“No.”
“Less than three?”
“This is really none of your business.”
Stepping away from him, Linley took a turn around the room, relishing in how uncomfortable he seemed. “I don’t understand why it is perfectly fine for men to sleep with as many women as they want, while women are expected to remain virgins.”
“Because men are jealous, stubborn creatures,” he explained. “We cannot bear the thought of another man possessing something we desire.”
“Desire.” Linley grinned. “What an interesting choice of words. Did you come up with it on your own, or were you inspired? By something in this very room, perhaps?” She toyed with the lace around the collar of her dress.
“Do not tempt me,” he told her. “Just because I am a gentleman does not mean I will always act like one.”
“I don’t think you could be ungentlemanly if you tried.”
Somehow, she had managed to gain the upper hand in the conversation, although Patrick wasn’t sure exactly when. How glibly she pranced between the statues! She mocked him. Baited him. Patrick couldn’t stand it. If she wanted to play like an adult, he was damned well not about to stop her!
Without another word, he leaned down and kissed her squarely on the mouth.
Linley blinked up at him, stunned. She had not expected that. She’d only meant to tease him. To push him just a little, to see him blush and fluster and fidget. She never in a million years thought he would pull her into his arms and press his lips to hers…and certainly not in the middle of the British Museum.
“I can’t believe my very first kiss was in front of Elgin’s marbles.”
Patrick was suddenly aware of their marble audience. The room was full of cold, blank eyes, and they all seemed to be turned toward the flushed young couple in the center.
“Your first kiss?” he asked her.
Linley nodded.
“Oh good Lord.” Patrick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “How have you made it this long without being kissed?”
“Who would have done it? Archie? Reginald?”
“You have a point,” he said, taking her by the arm. “But this was not at all what I had in mind when I said I wanted to show you London. Perhaps we would have been safer with Mrs. Hastings, after all.”
“You might be safer,” Linley teased. “Though I really can’t blame you for getting carried away by my charms. Truthfully, I was beginning to wonder if, underneath all those fancy clothes, there was a man in there.”
“I’m sorry to have disappointed you.”
“Oh, I’m far from disappointed,” she said as she led him through the doorway to the next room. “It isn’t every day a girl gets kissed by the third most eligible man in England.”
***