To Bed a Beauty (Courtship Wars 2)

His heart, which was already thudding with tension, started pounding wildly when he met the glimmering blue eyes behind the glittering mask. The seductive, mysterious beauty was none other than Roslyn.

That she wore her hair down, her pale gold tresses spilling in seductive disarray around her shoulders, surprised Drew most of all.

“Your grace,” she murmured in a low, husky voice as she stepped aside to let him enter. “I am delighted you could come. Welcome.”

Without waiting for his reply, Roslyn shut the door behind him, then turned and glided toward the nearby staircase. When Drew stood rooted to the floor, staring after her, she glanced over her shoulder at him and crooked her forefinger, beckoning. He hesitated a moment before gathering his wits and following her up the stairs.

He found his tongue as they reached the top landing. “I suppose this is Fanny’s secret love nest,” he remarked, trying to discipline his apprehension. “Does she entertain her more exclusive clients here?”

“No, never,” Roslyn said unexpectedly. “This is her personal hideaway where she can enjoy a few moments of privacy now and then. Fanny conducts business at her main residence and never invites her patrons here. She loaned this house to me for the evening.”

Impatiently wishing that Roslyn would tell him the purpose of her invitation, Drew accompanied her down a dimly lit corridor. “I admit I was surprised to receive your message,” he prodded. “You said you had a proposition to put to me.”

“Indeed, I do.” Roslyn sent him an enigmatic glance. “I want to be your mistress for the night.”

His eyebrows rose, but before he could reply, she led him into a large bedchamber that glowed softly in the light of myriad candles. Taking in the romantic ambience, Drew nearly found himself speechless again. “I can’t say I understand, sweeting,” he finally said.

“I want to pretend that I am your mistress and that you are my patron.”

Her response made his breath catch and his heart thud. He had no time to ask any of the urgent questions running through his mind, however, for Roslyn took off her concealing mask, then unfastened her domino and let it fall to the carpet.

Drew’s mouth went dry. She was dressed like a male sexual fantasy. She wore a red lace corset cunningly shaped to push up her high, ripe breasts and show her bare nipples, and black silk stockings held up by red garters, but nothing else. His cock swelled instantly at the lush sight of her, while his voice turned hoarse.

“What do you think you are doing, Roslyn?” he asked warily as she moved toward him.

Her eyes were dusky pools of temptation as she gazed up at him. “Making love to you, what else?”

“Hold just a moment…”

Her lips, full and wet, pursed provocatively. “You don’t want to make love to me, darling?”

“You know damned well I do. But if you intend to wed Haviland…Don’t torture me like this, Roslyn, playing these wanton games.”

“Oh, but I don’t intend to wed Haviland,” she rem

arked to his scalding relief. “I turned down his offer.”

Drew expelled a long, harsh breath, yet her declaration still couldn’t calm his anxiety. “Why did you refuse Haviland?”

“Because I don’t love him.”

He hesitated a long moment, almost afraid to ask the infinitely more crucial question. Finally he ventured to say even more hoarsely, “And do you think you could ever come to love me?”

When her smile wavered, Drew hardly dared to breathe. Then she laughed softly. “All in good time, darling. I must keep some secrets, mustn’t I?”

Drew wanted to curse, to argue, to plead, yet he didn’t think it would help his cause. Not when Roslyn was so intent on her own inexplicable purpose.

Reaching up to untie his cravat, she slid the fine cambric from around his neck and tossed it to the floor. “You are wearing too many clothes. Let me take them off.”

“I can manage.” Not trusting his fortitude if Roslyn touched him, Drew forestalled her assistance by stripping off his coat and waistcoat and shirt himself. But when he reached for the buttons on his evening breeches, she smiled. “Please…allow me.”

Provocatively, Roslyn trailed a finger down his bare chest and over his flat abdomen to the front placket of his breeches. Drew sucked in a sharp breath as the teasing pressure of her fingers made his throbbing erection ache even harder. Yet he forced himself to stand still for her pleasurable torment.

To his growing frustration, she slowly unfastened the buttons, holding his gaze until she finally freed the thick length of his arousal. When she glanced down, irrepressible heat shot through Drew, not only because a beautiful woman was gazing at his burgeoning cock, but because the woman was his lovely Roslyn.

The heat assaulting him turned even hotter when she deliberately closed her hand around his swollen shaft.

Groaning, Drew grasped her wrist. “Roslyn…what the devil are you up to, tormenting me this way?”