“Ah, Doña.” Ephram reached out to her with a smile, one gloved hand curving around Isa’s bare arm, fingertips brushing against the side of her breast as he drew her in close and touched his nose against her cheek, following it with a light kiss as he took his drink from her. “I was wondering where you’d gotten off to.”
“Not surprising you’d wonder, with a woman who looks like this!” Piotr Popovich slid closer with an ingratiating smile, letting his gaze drink Isa in like she was lemonade on a hot day. He took her free hand and kissed it, lips puckered and moist against her skin as he gave her a meaningful look – even with Ephram standing right there, Isa pulled tight against him. Ephram was tense, breathing a little fast, his own pleasant expression strained at the edges, and as Piotr brazenly looked at Isa he said, “…Isabella has been staying with me during her trip to Soapham. She’s very taken with the city, aren’t you, Isa? You’ve been having a good time?”
A faint note of hopeful desperation coloured Ephram’s question as he looked at her, blue eyes remote and hooded, and Piotr watched while still holding on to Isa’s hand.
“It must be difficult to really get the full range of what fun can be had,” Piotr said smoothly, moving to tuck his own arm around Isa in such a way that Ephram had to let go or look as though he was restricting her ability to move freely. He rocked back on his heels with an awkward look of consternation flickering across his face, and Piotr tucked his nose intimately against Isa’s ear, making her his confidante as he said, “…especially when Mr. Kingfisher’s busy with his fingers in so many pies, right?”
Ephram blanched, curling his left hand with its missing finger away against his side, seemingly struck speechless by the audacity of the brother of the woman who’d cut off that finger. Piotr chuckled viciously, loud enough just for Isa, before saying in an innocent voice, “Let’s walk down to the swan pond! You can come too, Ephram, just waddle on behind us, there’s a good boy.”
“I brought some refreshments, my apologies if I made you wait too long,” she said, her smile contained, the smile of somebody who only puts up with something because she was getting something out of it. Because she had to, because being polite and agreeable was expected of her. “Oh yes, I’ve been having the best time, I’m really lucky I have the pleasure of your company while I’m here,” she added when Ephram asked if she was having a good time, her voice polite while she sent a short glance at Popovich that said it all – no, she was not happy, how could anyone be happy having to spend her time with somebody like Ephram. But him, Piotr Popovich, oh his company she would have loved and cherished.
Men loved feeling inferior to others, feeling like they could be the savior of women. And this time Isa was clearly in desperate need of saving from Ephram. And just like she thought he would, Popovich picked up on it and stepped in with brazen openness about his intentions.
The thing is, Ephram was good at playing his part. He acted like the generous host to a young and beautiful woman whom he wanted to keep all to himself while he also brought her out to society for the first time. He looked tense when Popovich came closer, he pretended to try desperately keep her attention while the young man brazenly and openly slid closer and Isa barely had to do anything and it was already Popovich’s arms that were around her instead of Ephrams.
(The only time that Ephram probably had a genuine reaction was when his fingers were brought up, and Isa assumed the only reason Ephram didn’t do more was because they were in a public place. Then again, he said he wouldn’t be killing this man, so who knows what he would really want to do with him in his head.)
If she was being honest, from what Ephram told her, she thought it would be harder to catch the man’s attention, not that it really mattered or that she minded having to boost the man’s ego enough for him to notice her. She couldn’t tell if the fact that she was in Ephram’s company had any additional appeal to the guy or if it was her charms and look and cleavage alone (and let’s face it, even if Ephram had anything to do with it, at least 90% of it was her and her alone, how could this man resist her?), but it didn’t matter. She had a clear path to making sure Popovich would be wanting to get with her in no time.
Isa giggled, looking like she was trying to contain herself but as if she couldn’t at the whisper of Popovich, looking down as if he said something that made her shy and conscious for a second. “You can’t expect me to say bad things about my host, good lord,” she whispered back, her voice silky and when he asked her to for a walk, she beamed up at him as if he was the sun and the moon at the same time. “There’s a swan pond?” she asked, small gasp in her voice. “I didn’t realize there was a swan pond. I’d love to see it. You don’t mind, right?” she haphazardly turning back to Ephram as if he was a last thought. “The path looks too narrow for three people. You can follow behind us like this nice gentleman suggested.”
And off they went. She pretended to not know who the guy was and asked for an introduction, and after having to listen to him talk about himself for what felt like forever even though it was only a few minutes (while she nodded along and pretended to be listening to the most interesting explanation she has ever heard), she leaned a bit closer, a quick glance behind herself from the corner of her eyes as if she was trying to check that Ephram couldn’t hold back. “I have to be honest with you, your company is the first time since I’ve arrived to Soaphram that I get to enjoy myself. This is the first ball that I’ve gotten to attend to and I’ve been in town for weeks!”
“That is just outrageous. Keeping a beautiful lady such as yourself away from society, away from making connections and having a good time. We are all lucky that you finally could join us. And how very lucky I am that I get to be the one to entertain you.” His hands got bolder and bolder as they talked and Isa didn’t stop him, she just sent looks towards his way that suggested that she was more than enjoying everything he was doing.
They reached the swan pond and it must have been a pretty sight, but it was dark and even though the moon was bright, not a lot of things could be seen. “There’s a bench a little up ahead, would you like to take a seat there? Maybe we get lucky… and the swans come out,” Popovich suggested, his voice full of intent and Isa faked another giggle.
“I’d love to, but…” she pretended to remember that Ephram was right behind them. A disappointed expression crossed her face before she lit up, as if she just got the best idea ever. She turned to Ephram, her hands still holding onto the man beside her while his hands started to tease her in the dark. “I almost forgot, there was a lord who needed to talk to you desperate. He didn’t say his name, but he had a dark blue three-pieced suit on, it sounded important. You should go talk to him, I’ll be fine here.” And sent a look towards Ephram that said something along the lines of ‘If you want him to fuck me, you need to get away, because no man, no matter how bold they are, will do anything in front of you.’ She hoped he got at least enough of it to get the message.
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