“It’s the obvious solution, Charis.” An unexpected moment to realize he?
?d started to use her real name naturally. He spread his gloved hands as if appealing to her to see things his way. “If we’re wed, I have a husband’s legal rights.”
Since she’d met him, becoming his wife had been a hopeless dream. Now he proposed, and she wanted to run away and cry her eyes out. Because he married her to save her, not because he wanted her as his life companion, the woman in his bed, the mother of his children.
“You said you’d never marry. Never have a family.” Her lips felt as if they were made of wood. “That’s changed?”
“No.” He held himself rigid as a soldier on parade. His voice was implacable. “It will be a marriage in name only.”
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Tempt the Devil
Olivia Raines has ruled London’s demimonde with an iron will and a fiery spirit. Sought after by London’s most eligible men, she has never had cause to question her power until she meets the notorious Julian Southwood, Earl of Erith. From the moment he saw her, Julian knew he must possess her. So when he discovers a secret that could destroy her livelihood, Olivia has no choice but to bargain with the devil.
Even as Olivia spoke the words to place her in Lord Erith’s bed, her instincts screamed to deny him. Her mind told her she risked no more than she’d risked with any other keeper. Her deepest self insisted the earl threatened everything she’d created since she’d accepted harlotry as her inevitable fate.
Unreasoning fear tightened every muscle.
Fear was her oldest, most insidious enemy. More powerful than any man.
I will not surrender to fear.
And why should she be frightened? Since reaching womanhood, she’d never met a male she couldn’t dominate. Lord Erith was nothing special. She’d have great pleasure proving that. To the world. To him. To herself. Her reluctance now was just part of the odd humor that had gripped her since she’d ended her last affair, months ago.
A sharp ache in her wrists made her realize how hard she clutched her hands together. Deliberately, she relaxed her grip, although she already knew he’d noted the betraying gesture.
Something—satisfaction, triumph, possession?—gleamed from under his heavy eyelids.
“Good.” He stood and stared down at her. She’d never been so conscious of his impressive height or the latent power in his body. “I’ll see you tonight, Olivia.”
It was the first time he’d used her Christian name. Given what they’d soon do to each other, the small intimacy shouldn’t matter. Somehow it did. That deep voice saying Olivia shredded her protective formality and laid her bare as if she already stood naked before him.
I will not surrender to fear.
She tilted her chin and glared. “I don’t entertain my lovers in this house,” she said icily.
“I didn’t imagine you would.” His narrow, sensual mouth curled into a sardonic smile. “I want every man in London to know you’re mine. I want to see you. It builds the…anticipation.”
How could he make such a harmless word sound more decadent than all the profanities she’d heard in a lifetime of whoring? The temperature of her voice sank another couple of degrees. “I belong to no man, Lord Erith.”
“You’ll belong to me,” he said steadily.
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Untouched
When Grace Paget is kidnapped and spirited away to a remote manor and told she is to grant the inhabitant his every desire, she risks everything to save her virtue…Lord Sheene knew nothing of the plan to bring him this woman, and wants nothing to do with the scheme. But as the unlikely pair find themselves ensnared in a deadly web, they also discover freedom and breathtaking passion in each other’s arms.
Lord Sheene kept his back to Grace as he looked out into the twilight. Yet again, his isolation struck her. His physical isolation. And also his spiritual isolation. Perhaps that alone constituted his madness. So far, she’d seen little other sign of his affliction.
He spoke without turning. “Stay away from Monks and Filey. They don’t make idle threats.”
Again, that instinctive animal awareness of what happened around him. Were all madmen so attuned to their surroundings?