A Husband for Mary

“You’ll have to come out of there for me to be of any help,” he reminded her.

She remained still. Staring at Ellis, so he returned her scrutiny, admiring how lovely she looked in a passion-tossed bed, red hair wild across her pale shoulders. She would be utterly naked when she came out of there, and he suddenly covered his groin with his hands as his cock pulsed with arousal.

He was naked now and on display…with a rampant erection bobbing between them, reminding her of what they’d been about to do together.

His cock thickened further, despite any attempt to explain to it that the woman, a virgin with her eyes wide open now, did not want anything to do with him unless it was to further her ambition to marry well.

He turned away, grabbed his Roman costume, and tossed one scrap of fabric aroun

d his hips. There hadn’t been much to his costume. Sadly, evidence of his arousal remained, jutting out beneath the flimsy garb.

“My apologies,” he muttered, realizing that his nakedness might have stunned her into immobility. Tonight was probably the first time she’d ever seen a man without clothes, let alone an aroused one. When they’d walked the ballroom below, she has been so fascinated by the hair on his arms that she’d actually stroked him. Her touch had been heavenly. Given the way she continued to stare now, her fascination with the male form had not ended with the revelation of his identity.

But whether it was to his benefit or detriment, he couldn’t say.

Once he was more or less properly attired, Mary stretched one slender leg from beneath the comforter and stood. The coverlet fell away slowly, revealing her breasts, generous hips, and the bright patch of curls hiding her sex. Gods, he’d nestled the head of his cock right there before sanity had returned.

He swallowed hard, shoving away his remaining lust, as she bravely stepped toward him without a stitch of cloth hiding her charms, her arms rising to aid in her dressing, causing her breasts and bells to jiggle. Hell. She was more beautiful, more of a temptation than she could possibly know. His hands shook as he began to wind the fabric from her left hip and around and around. Her nipples had hardened by the time he looped the fabric up and over her shoulder. He could see them jutting out at him as they had before they’d come upstairs.

Ellis still wanted to make love to Mary Vine.

Surely the pleasure of kissing her senseless again could be worth the risk of an unhappy match. Mary had seemed to like him very much before, but he’d not imagined their attraction tonight. It might seem implausible that Mary had wanted to do wicked things with him, and their bodies clearly had their own agendas still.

He finished dressing Mary, frowning as his thoughts veered from flight from the situation or fight for a second chance to win her over. When they were decent, he led her through the throbbing mass of debauchery in the halls and ballrooms, doing his best to shield her from the worst of the sin on display, and returned her home without another word about what they’d almost done together.

However, he could not stop thinking of how much he’d enjoyed their reckless evening, and whether or not she would escape the scandal they’d made together. As they parted ways in her garden, he had a sudden selfish wish that she’d be caught, and that she would send for him to make things right.

Chapter 5

Daybreak only worsened Mary’s impending sense of doom. She’d kissed Ellis Worth. Kissed him, touched him, pressed her bare body to his and proved herself a woman of low and utterly alarming morals. Ellis had pretty much dubbed her the female equivalent of a rake, and he might be right. That he’d not finished the job of ensuring her ruin was gratifying and yet unsettling.

She punched her pillow. For a rake, Ellis was not living up to his reputation for seduction.

Oh, his kisses had been very fine.

More than fine.

Mary pressed her pillow to her face and growled her frustration into the feathers.

He was exceptionally good at kissing, and other things. Things he’d not wanted to continue once he’d discovered her real identity. It was so very lowering to be cast aside so swiftly because of who she was and not because of how she felt in his arms.

She flipped over to her back but turned her head toward the window to watch the bright day begin. Ellis was Douglas’s best friend. They saw each other practically every day. Ellis would come to call on Douglas, not her, and she’d be forced to watch him from afar, knowing what lay beneath his clothes and that she’d fooled herself into thinking him the love of her life for a very brief time last night.

What sane woman could love a rake?

Her breath caught. Mary might have if given a chance.

It might amuse others to imagine bringing such a man to his knees and hearing a sweet proposal tumble from his lips, but Ellis Worth was the last person to ever consider falling in love. Certainly not with her, and never now that he’d seen her true colors.

Last night had been all her fault.

She had tried to seduce him, she’d led him on, absolutely kissed him first. She could not deny his accusations because they cut so very close to the bone. Everything he’d claimed about her behavior was utterly true. For a supposedly virtuous woman, she was decidedly not when faced with the temptation of his powerful and naked body.

He was beautiful. Arousing. Desirable.

Oh, she was utterly ruined now. Mary pulled her pillow over her head as her face burned with the heat of a blush, remembering how he’d made her feel him with her hand. She would not be able to look at him now without remembering how much she had wanted to experience his love and desire. It had almost hurt to draw back from the brink.

Tap, tap, tap.