To Pleasure a Lady (Courtship Wars)

Her gaze was challenge incarnate, a challenge Marcus couldn’t resist. When he took a step closer, however, Miss Loring promptly quit the room. He followed her out to the corridor and stared after her, totally bemused.

She brushed past his two friends, who were cooling their heels in the corridor, and crossed to the entrance hall, where his butler hurriedly opened the front door for her.

When she swept out, Marcus suppressed the urge to give chase. Yet the tantalizing encounter had left him hungry for more of her.

“Your mouth is agape, old son,” Heath observed, clearly amused.

Marcus clamped his mouth shut, yet he couldn’t deny the truth of the accusation. Arabella Loring had left him with all his primal male instincts aroused.

Shaking his head in bafflement, he returned to the salon and proceeded to pour himself a generous ale, then sank pensively onto the leather couch, contemplating his intense reaction to his eldest ward.

His friends followed suit and settled in nearby chairs. Heath was the first to speak. “You didn’t tell us Miss Loring was stunning, Marcus.”

“Because I didn’t know.” His solicitors had advised him to expect a beauty, but they hadn’t warned him about her vibrancy, her inner fire, or he might have been better prepared to face her.

“She certainly set you back on your heels,” Drew commented, his tone edged with sardonic humor. “From what we heard, she threatened to unman you. You were right-you have a virago on your hands.”

“No,” Heath disagreed. “More like an Amazon or a Valkyrie.” His tone was rather admiring.

“I prefer a bit more calm in a female,” Drew drawled.

“Not I,” Heath replied. “A pity you sent us out of the room, Marcus. I would have liked to witness the fireworks.”

Fireworks was exactly what he’d felt with Arabella, Marcus thought, bemused.

“You still look confounded,” Drew added more seriously.

Marcus nodded his head in agreement. He’d never before experienced that instantaneous, powerful feeling of attraction. Just being near Arabella had ignited a spark of desire in him.

Which was remarkably novel. He’d known countless beautiful women before. Hell, he’d enjoyed more than his fair share of beauties. So what made his eldest ward so different? The fact that she hadn’t fawned over him? That she wasn’t eager to please and gratify him as every other woman was?

“Perhaps,” he rationalized, “I was just taken aback because she was so unexpected.”

“There’s no doubt she will prove challenging,” Heath said needlessly.

She would indeed, Marcus thought, remembering Arabella’s parting declaration of war. Elementally challenging. Irresistibly intriguing. The image of her flashing gray eyes and red-gold hair would be hard to forget.

He took a long drink of ale. Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that his interest had been acutely aroused by an elegant spitfire like Arabella. For months now all his usual pursuits had seemed deadly dull. And he’d been excruciatingly bored by all the women chasing him, ladies and lightskirts alike.

“So just how do you intend to manage the fiery Miss Arabella?” Drew asked.

“Truthfully? I’m not yet certain. I expect I’ll move up my visit to Danvers Hall to Monday.”

“I would say you underestimated your dilemma in marrying her off to some unwitting dupe.”

Marcus laughed inwardly. “No doubt.” The task of arranging her a proper match would be harder than he’d imagined. And whoever attempted to court her would have his work cut out for him. “It may be impossible to find a husband for her.”

“I’m not so certain,” Heath countered. “I imagine any number of men would find her spirit appealing. If she shows half that passion in bed, she would make some man a magnificent mistress.”

Marcus shot his friend a scowl. “Mind your tongue, man. That’s my ward you’re speaking of.”

Heath returned a rueful grin. “True, you can’t seduce your own ward. A shame she’s so well-born. Wouldn’t be honorable. Forbidden fruit and all that.”

Forbidden, true, Marcus acknowledged regretfully. His current connection to the Loring sisters was purely a legal one, and they were all of an age that they didn’t require a guardian to supervise their every action, yet he was still responsible for their welfare.

Even so, he couldn’t deny that taking Arabella for his mistress held a definite appeal. He was between mistresses at the moment, since nothing seemed to satisfy him lately. Slaking his carnal needs in a lush, perfumed body had held little allure recently-until now.

An image of a willing Arabella in his bed ignited another surge of desire in his loins. The thought of having all that fire beneath him, surrounding him, made Marcus shift uncomfortably in his seat.