Blooming: Veronica Read Online Free PDF Page A

cylinders in engines. The fleeting glimpse of pussy only added to his fascination. Primed and ready to go, he would trot himself off to the North End. Bypassing taverns—drinking hard spirits was not one of his vices—he would duck into one of the many brothels dotting the gaslit streets. One that offered clean linens as a precaution against bedbug bites, healthy whores as a precaution against acquiring the accursed French Disease, and closed-mouthed madams as a precaution against tarnishing his professional reputation.
    If the mud press ever got wind of his little hobby, the resultant story could destroy his publishing company. To guard his confidentiality, he paid thousands in hush money all for the privilege of doing nothing.
    But look.
    Whereas peeping at Miss Cooper with her unkempt companion cost him nothing. Then again, you get what you pay for.
    In this case, nothing.
    An amount equal to the satisfaction Miss Cooper seemed likely to receive from the dock rat.
    The author’s fountain pen had to be wetter than her quim, understandable given the longshoreman’s ineptness. Her lover had yet to touch her, kiss her, or do anything else that warranted her fevered declaration of—
    “Oh, Robert, I beg you, enter me. Do! I shall expire if you hold yourself back from me a moment longer.”
    Hold himself back?
    Talbot must have blinked and missed something. Because never, not in all his voyeuristic days, had he witnessed a more tepid foreplay. And he had viewed a few in his time.
    The dock rat had hardly broken a sweat. As to Miss Cooper, her effusive entreaty rang false to Talbot’s ears.
    The lady doth gush too much.
    In marked contrast to her genuine but sparse writing style in Diary where her prose had been evocative without reliance on flowery constructs. Her innocently candid yearnings had wrung him dry, and he had the stuck-together book pages to prove it.
    Rather than falling victim to lust, Miss Cooper appeared to be acting a part, a waste of her thespian skills. Her lazy partner deserved none of her role-playing.
    With a heave, the longshoreman made short work of the penetration, Miss Cooper’s pained expression telling Talbot the entry was more an arid poke than a slippery slide. Careless thrusts followed and raced to the finish line, leaving her waiting at the gate for the starting whistle to blow.
    Talbot rolled his eyes. A sneeze would have shaken Miss Cooper more. Where was the wild flailing? Her breathless cries? His grunts and groans? Their naked and quivering flesh?
    Debauchery this was not. A romantic tryst this was not. What the hell was this?
    Definitely not a voyeur’s dream come true. Sunday-morning prayer service at Trinity Church offered more fevered abandon. Had Talbot spent cash for this peep, he would have demanded the return of his good coin.
    Miss Cooper had publically proclaimed herself an advocate of free love. Now he knew why. Who would pay for a nonevent like this?
    The grand finale, always the best part of the show, swiftly approached. The dockhand was about to climax. His face had grown taut; his expression had darkened—signs of impending ejaculation.
    And then…and then…
    “Thank you, Robert.”
    Out in the hall, Talbot’s mouth gaped.
    What ? That was it? If that pathetic end to the fuck was the dock rat’s idea of a big finish, what the Christ had she thanked him for?
    For that matter, what was Talbot still doing here?
    Right. Protecting Miss Cooper from the thug.
    Talbot shook his head. Sex had disappointed him before, both doing and watching, but this time took the cake.
    Miss Cooper glanced away from her lover. “You were wonderful, Robert.”
    Huh?
    Talbot stifled his gag so as not to give his presence in the hall away.
    She called that wonderful?
    Only if a travesty was wonderful. Only if a parody was wonderful. Leading Talbot to conclude that her feverish declaration was either a lie or Mad Hatter delusion.
    Her darting gaze supported the former. Liars could never