Regency Romance: A Duchess in Disguise (Historical 19th Century Victorian Romance) (Duke Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (62 page)

“I could pay you through other means,” he said, leaning over for a kiss.

She pulled away.

“Wait.  Is this why you constantly pursued me for the last while?  You needed to get a tutor for free?”

Henry felt terrible that she thought like this.

“No, that’s not it in the slightest-”

“I can’t believe how far you’d go to keep playing your stupid sport.  You slept with me so that you could save some money on a tutor.  That’s incredibly
low
, Henry.”

Kara closed her books, stuffing them
inside
her bag.  A few of the other patrons of the library were starting to take
notice,
and Henry was getting
really
nervous; something
he
rarely
felt
or allowed himself to feel.

“It’s over,
Henry,
” she said.

Kara stood to
leave,
and Henry wanted to dart up and grab her.  He wanted to do anything to keep her here and tell her the truth, but he was too embarrassed. 

He
let her leave and just sat there in shock.  The one person he thought he could confide in had just walked out of his
life,
and there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

7.

Kara couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried this hard. 
Of course,
it was due to her
own
stupidity.  She finally thought that she’d met a man that she was capable of opening up to and possibly
connecting with
. 
Instead,
she got stuck with a man that lied to her; and made her feel like some
kind of
prostitute.

Her phone rang several times through the night for the last few days.  Nearly every call was from Henry, but she didn’t want to talk to him.  She
nearly
threw her phone out the window to make it stop ringing. 

Kara tried her hardest to sleep early, but couldn’t.  She started analyzing what she did wrong because she wanted to be sure it wouldn’t happen again.

George was calling; Kara answered.

“You’re late, Kara.  Where are you?”

It caught her by surprise; she’d never missed a session before.

“Just wait there, I’ll be right over.”

Kara clicked the phone off and dressed quickly, not caring what she put on. 

When she arrived at the library, in her usual spot, George was already there with his books open on the table.  He’d been studying on his
own,
but it didn’t look like he
really
understood what he was reading.

“What’s got
into you,” George asked.

She sat her things down on the table and plopped into her seat. 

“It’s a boy thing,” she replied.

“Yeah, Henry has been pretty broken up, too.  He was just sitting in a lounge chair in the backyard all day.”

Kara forgot that George lived in the same house that Henry did.

“What, did he finally get kicked off the team,” Kara asked with an annoyed tone.

“No, but coach pulled him early last game.  His head just wasn’t in it.”

Serves him right, Kara thought, Maybe he’d think twice before he gets that close to someone.

“Can we just focus on the task at hand,” Kara asked.

“I only have ten minutes left of this session, so I think I’ll spend them however I want.”

Here it comes, she thought.

“Whatever you did to Henry, he’s broken.  Would
you, at least,
talk to the guy so he can get some closure with all this,” George asked.

Kara sighed; perhaps some closure was a good idea
for
both people. 

“Fine, I’ll talk to him.”

“Good,” George replied.  He stood up and started walking away.

“George?”

Then Henry took a seat across from her, again.  She looked at him with seething hatred before turning away to hide her scowl.

“I know you’re upset.  Would
you, at least,
hear me out before running off,” Henry asked.

“I’m
listening,
but I doubt it’ll help,” Kara replied sternly.

“Okay, this is something that I’ve been struggling
with,
and I don’t want anyone else to know.  It could ruin my entire life and career if anyone knew.”

Kara was curious.

“I’m listening, Henry.”

He let out a drawn out sigh, focusing his thoughts and trying to loosen up.

“Kara, I’m incredibly
poor
,” he said.

“Is that all,” she asked with scorn.

“You don’t understand.  I’m barely able to afford food.  Girls around here see me wearing expensive clothes and spending time with the elite at the school.  I take the clothes that my friends would give to charity.  I do my
own
tailoring and cooking so that I can stay trendy. 

“I need help to
stay
in school; this is my only shot at being something more than a nobody,” he said.

Kara looked at his eyes.  She could see his eyes were already getting clouded with tears. 
She
wanted to jump across the table and hug him, tell him everything would be okay.  But, she didn’t.

“How can I
really
trust you,” Kara said.

“The best things in life are free, Kara,” he replied, “but if you want I can show you my bank statement.  Or take you to the one bedroom apartment my mother raised three
kids in
. 

“Or I could cook the same food that I
cooked
for my younger siblings daily.”

Kara was beginning to believe him.  Perhaps he wasn’t lying to her. 

“You know, you could have told me from the beginning.  It wouldn’t have made me any less interested in you.  It’s the fact that you took advantage of me before telling me the truth.  It’s hard to come back from.”

He nodded.  Tears rolled down his cheeks, and Kara could feel some start to well up behind her eyes. 

“I believe you,
Henry,
” she said.

He moved to the chair next to her and leaned over to give her a hug.  She accepted it readily.  The feeling of warmth didn’t just come from him but also welled up inside her. 

“You know, it’s been a few days,” she said.

He brushed the tears from his eyes and gave her a puzzled look.

Kara looked around the library.  There weren’t that many people
inside,
and she felt a little frisky; feelings that
felt
odd when juxtaposed with her emotional state.

“I think you owe me this one,” she said. 

Kara reached under her skirt and slid her underwear down to her knees.  It seemed that Henry got the hint as he glanced around before ducking under the table. 

The simple but pleasant touch of his hands on her thighs gave her a chill.  She wasn’t entirely sure she was ready for what she asked for, but it was too late to back out now.

His tongue licked along her inner
thigh
and sent tingles
to
all her nerves.  She opened her legs a little further and relaxed her head back into the seat. 

She could feel herself opening up as he inched closer to her slit.  The tip of his tongue met her little
clit,
and she shivered
from
the sensation.  Kara put her hands on his head and pulled him in closer. 

He obliged her and continued to tease her.  Then, a surprising new twist came when
he
slipped his finger inside her dripping sex.  It felt odd at first, but he rubbed along her g-spot
inside,
and the new sensation made her arch her back each time he rubbed it. 

The motions of his tongue started to blur together, and she felt the familiar
welling
inside
her stomach.  She put a hand over her mouth
in an effort to
keep herself quiet, but it didn’t help much. 

She moaned with pleasure with each flick of his tongue.  He seemed to be enjoying himself as well, making his circles shorter and shorter. 

Then she felt a sudden explosion and her body convulsed.  She lost her
breath in
the moment, not realizing that she was crushing his head with her thighs. 

He pulled himself free and snuck to the other side of the table. 

Through heavy panting, Kara managed to say just one thing.

“Okay, I believe you.”

8.

“They’re not going to like me,” Henry said.

“I don’t think they’ll care that much,” Kara retorted. 

It had been a
couple of
weeks since they managed to make up
in
the library. 

“Do I have to tell them,” Henry asked.

“You know it’s wrong to keep lying to people that say they’re your friends,” she said.

“But, what if all the sudden I’m kicked off the team because I’m no longer one of them,” Henry added.

“You’ll always be a hockey player,” Kara said.

“Okay, alright, fine.  You got me.  I’ll do it.  And, I’ll live with the consequences,” Henry said.

They were about to do just that.  Kara and Henry walked down the familiar street; from Kara’s house to the house down the street that Henry
normally
lived.

Henry walked just a little bit slower, and Kara did her best to keep him on track.  He continued to
plead
the entire way, and it drove her crazy having
to constantly reassure
him, but it was for the best.

Once they arrived, they were greeted at the door by George. 

“Hey, you two,” he said, ushering them towards the living room where nearly the entire hockey team had congregated. 

Kara joined a couple of the player’s girlfriends in the back and said her usual greetings.  She found herself spending more time with them as of late.  They weren’t the smartest people, but they were still good people. 

Henry stood at the front of the assembly.  He looked
nervous
like he would have preferred to be anywhere but there. 

“Hey guys,” he started.

“Just get out with it,” George shouted from the crowd.

“Alright, alright.  I’m getting to it.” Henry said. “You know how I’ve been a bit standoffish and rarely go out to the night clubs, or usually eat at home.  Well, there’s a reason for all of that.”

Henry looked into Kara’s eyes for strength.

“I’m not a rich kid like all of you. 
I’m not cut
from the same cloth.  I know a lot of you only like to consort with your
own
kind, and I’m not that.  I’m just
a normal everyday
poor kid who wanted to
be liked
. 

“So, I lied to you all, and I hope you can forgive me.”

The group was quiet for a minute; more or less none of them
really
had an immediate response to his sudden bout of honesty.

“Is that all,” asked George, the loudest of them all.

“Well, yeah.”

The guys all started laughing, and Henry felt ashamed.  He
started
to walk away from the front of the group.

“Here I thought you were going to tell us something
serious
like you were quitting the team.”

Henry paused.

“What?”

George hopped out and grabbed Henry.

“I think I speak for everyone here when I tell you that none of us care where you were born, or where you
come from
.  You’re one of us.”

Henry tried his hardest to suppress the tears that were welling up behind his eyes, but he couldn’t.  The rest of the team shot up from the various chairs and couches to give him a giant hug. 

Henry made eye contact again with Kara from the middle of the crowd.  She stood in the back laughing at the sudden outpouring of emotion. 

The large
crowd
partied the night away, drinking and chatting.  The team threw on their skates again and started another impromptu game of hockey in the backyard. 

This time, though, Kara was there to cheer him on.  He felt revved up, now free from the burden of his
own
lies and ready to make his way towards a more exciting future.