An Introduction to Pleasure Read Online Free PDF Page A

probably never saw the sun but for a few visits to the countryside each year. And then there were his eyes.
    They were the brightest green she had ever seen and they were focused on her, running up and down her body, though they reflected no answer as to what he thought of her.
    But what could he think? She was a woman far below him, dressed in the gown of a fallen woman that she had been forced to borrow and she was here to beg him to take sex in trade for money and training. There was little good to come from those facts.
    “Lysandra Keates, I presume?” he said, and his rough voice seemed to weave its way into her chest. She felt peculiar as she stared at him, hot and odd and out of sorts, but none of the sensations were unpleasant, just unexpected.
    He tilted his head when she didn’t answer right away. “I assume you can speak.”
    Hot blood rushed to Lysandra’s cheeks and she nodded swiftly. “Oh yes, I’m sorry. A-are you Lord Callis?”
    His lips thinned, once again drawing her attention to the line of them. Assuming he didn’t kick her out of his parlor out of sheer disappointment in her appearance, he was going to kiss her with that mouth. She found it rather thrilled her to wonder when and how he would do so.
    “Andrew,” he said softly. “Under our rather unusual circumstances, I believe it would be better to limit formality. In public, a mistress would address her protector by his title, of course, but in private his given name or an agreed upon nickname would be proper.”
    Lysandra nodded. Ah yes, so this was to be the training Vivien had promised she would receive from this man. At least, part of it.
    “Andrew, then,” she said softly.
    He reached back to close the door behind himself and then took a long step closer.
    “You don’t belong here,” he said, almost on a whisper.
    Lysandra squeezed her eyes shut. So it was obvious and now there would be the inevitable rejection.
    “Please don’t turn me away,” she said, humiliated to have to beg as her voice cracked with high emotion.
    When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that Andrew had moved closer again. Now only a sliver of distance separated them. She could smell the warm, woodsy scent of his skin, feel his body heat as it reached out for her and made her want to move closer.
    “I am not turning you away,” he said and his hand reached out to curl around her shoulder. “I only meant that you are too beautiful to be here. You should be protected, but not the way Vivien arranges. What in the world would make you turn to this?”
    Lysandra stared up at him, shocked that he would ask such a thing, that he would care about those details of her rather small life.
    “A great many complicated things have brought me to your parlor,” she answered.
    She would tell him more if he pressed, but she was hesitant to do so. There was a heated spell being woven in the room, shrinking the world down to just the two of them. If she told him all the sad details of her life, she feared that bewitching enchantment would be broken and she would never see where it might lead.
    And to her surprise, her curiosity had nothing to do with the duties and desperation that brought her here. It was born from her own forbidden thoughts.
    His hand slid down from her shoulder to her collarbone. Lysandra shifted. He was not wearing gloves, and the neckline of the dress she had borrowed from Vivien was shockingly low, at least for her. His bare skin seemed too hot against hers, yet her back arched ever so slightly and her breath expelled in a sigh.
    Andrew’s gaze flitted to her face and for the first time emotion existed in those captivating green eyes. Something heated and dark and passionate that she couldn’t name, mostly because she had never seen such an expression before.
    “You are very responsive,” he said quietly. “That will serve you well.”
    “Responsive?” Lysandra repeated, focusing on the training he was meant to be giving her so