To Bed a Beauty (Courtship Wars 2)

Roslyn’s heart sank. Any scandal she caused would certainly reflect on her sisters-just when they had finally gotten out from beneath the cloud of shame that had hovered over them for four long years.

“And what about your academy?” Arden asked. “How will the gossip impact your position there?”

She nearly groaned. She would have to stop teaching when word of her affair with the duke got out. Their pupils’ parents would never approve of a scarlet woman tarnishing their precious young daughters, nor should they. Jerking on her stocking, Roslyn muttered an invective that no lady should even know, much less say aloud.

Ignoring her outburst along with his sodden cravat, Arden sat in another chair to don his own stockings and boots. “You must admit,” he added congenially, “in the eyes of the Beau Monde, being betrothed to a duke will make up for a multitude of sins.”

Roslyn abruptly straightened, her arms crossed defensively over her chest. “Perhaps, but you don’t love me, and I don’t love you.”

“We have friendship at least. We enjoy each other’s company. And I expect our married life will rarely be dull.”

She couldn’t defend against that argument. She did enjoy his company immensely. No doubt life with Arden would be challenging, exhilarating, even exciting.

But for how long? How long before he found another woman to interest him and keep him from the marriage bed?

Their matrimonial goals were vastly different, Roslyn knew. He only wanted a wife so he could beget an heir. She wanted a real family, children to love and cherish. Arden was not the kind of man to put much store in family.

And without love, what kind of marriage could they hope for? Would he expect her to accept his connubial demands, bear his children, run his home, plan his entertainments, and never question his liaisons? Would he leave her languishing in the countryside while he cavorted in London with his latest paramours? Would he continue keeping a mistress after they married?

She couldn’t bear having a libertine husband. Her mother had endured her father’s outrageous philandering for most of their twenty-year marriage. Not only hadn’t Sir Charles bothered to hide his dalliances and indiscretions, he had flaunted them in his wife’s face. It had been a prime source of contention between them.

Would Arden flaunt his affairs and make his duchess an object of gossip and pity?

But the subject was a trifle too embarrassing for Roslyn to argue with him just now.

And then he interrupted her dark thoughts with a casual comment. “Come now, a marriage between us won’t be so bad.”

“How can you say so?” Roslyn said crossly. “I shouldn’t think a determined bachelor is competent to judge the quality of a marital union.”

“You must admit we are physically compatible.”

“There is a great deal more to marriage than physical compatibility!”

“Perhaps, but that is more than I ever expected with my bride. It’s one of your prime attractions-that you act more like a mistress than a wife. Ladies are not supposed to enjoy passion, but you have a healthy appetite for lust.”

Roslyn felt her cheeks turn red. “I wish you would not remind me.”

He bent to wrestle with his first boot. “Husbands are not expected to pleasure their wives, either,” he remarked provocatively. “But I can safely promise that we will find connubial bliss in our marriage bed.”

Roslyn’s mouth curved without humor. “I have no doubt you would make a splendid lover, your grace, but you would likely be a wretched husband.”

“No worse than most any other man.”

“I take leave to differ.”

Not responding for a or the moment, he pulled on his second boot with difficulty. “I’ll wager that Haviland has never aroused you as I do,” he said then.

Roslyn fell silent. No man had ever aroused her the way Arden could. Just looking at him now rekindled the delicious sparks between them. She swallowed, aware of her humming nerves, the hollow flip-flopping sensation in her stomach, the tingling warmth between her thighs.

“Isn’t that true?” Arden prodded when she wouldn’t answer.

“I can’t deny that I feel a physical attraction for you,” Roslyn replied, her tone grudging.

“But you still hope to marry Haviland.”

She looked away. “What I want is no longer the question. I couldn’t possibly marry him now.”

“Why not?”