Convenient Wife, Pleasured Lady

Alice felt her face go pale as she realized she was to be the sacrifice on the altar of her brother’s recently acquired liking for the card table. “We have had no chance in which to even become acquainted with each other, my lord.”

Daniel’s patience with this conversation had come to an end. “I assure you, that omission will have been rectified by this time tomorrow.”

Alice’s mouth tightened. “No.”

He raised questioning brows at her vehemence. “No…?”

She gave a determined shake of her head. “Understanding your reason for marriage is one thing, my lord, accepting my own role in that cold-blooded plan is something else entirely.”

Daniel’s mouth thinned. “You are refusing to marry me?”

The fact that she swallowed hard before answering showed Daniel that Alice was not as composed as she wished him to believe. “I assume that if I do then my brother’s debts to you would become pressing?”

“You assume correctly,” Daniel grated.

She stood up, a slight figure in her pale yellow gown against Daniel’s superior height and heavier build. Slight, but most definitely not downtrodden, Daniel acknowledged with grudging admiration. He had expected—hoped—that Alice would be an obedient and biddable wife, but perhaps a wife with at least some fire in her might be less tedious to his jaded palate.

Damn his father to the hell in which he belonged, anyway!

The dissolute life Daniel had chosen to live these last ten years had been the only way he could think of in which to repay his father for his years of neglect and cruelty to Daniel’s mother before her death. It was a retribution his father had more than returned by placing these conditions in his will.

“I have every intention of becoming your wife tomorrow, my lord,” Alice softly interrupted the bitterness of Daniel’s thoughts.

“I am sure that your brother will be relieved to hear it,” he drawled mockingly. “Tell me, why does he gamble when he is obviously so bad at it…?”

Her perfect bow of a mouth turned down slightly. “I believe for the same reason I have agreed to marry a man I do not know, let alone feel—affection for.”

Daniel’s mouth tightened. “Which is?”

“You are acquainted with my stepmother, my lord.” It was a statement rather than a question.

Yes, Daniel had met Lady Constance Fortesque several times.

And each time he had disliked the woman more than the last. In fact, if anything could have deterred him from offering for Alice Fortesque then it was the thought of having the shrewish, social-climbing Lady Constance as his mother-in-law.

Alice sighed. “Unfortunately she is not only Jonathan’s stepmother but also his mother-in-law. It was Jonathan’s marriage to her daughter Charlotte that brought Lady Constance into our lives,” she explained. “And that of our father,” she added heavily.

“Good God…” Daniel was stunned at Jonathan’s misfortune.

“Indeed.” Alice gave a graceful acknowledgment of her head. “Our stepmother has become even more impossible to live with since our father died two years ago.” She frowned.

“Forcing Jonathan to find his entertainment outside of his own home,” Daniel drawled knowingly.

Her green eyes flashed resentfully. “Only when it comes to the card table. I believe Jonathan is still faithful to Charlotte and their marriage, that he does still love her.”

Daniel nodded. “Then it is only the mother-in-law he despises. In that case, why does he not ask her to leave his home?”

Alice gave a humorless smile. “To go where, my lord?”

“Hmm, you have a point,” the earl murmured ruefully. “Poor devil.”

“Yes.” Alice sighed. “As I have already stated, I have every intention of becoming your wife tomorrow. However—”

“It has always been my experience, when a woman begins a sentence with ‘however,’ that I am going to heartily dislike what follows.” Daniel sighed impatiently.

“I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject,” Alice acknowledged dryly as she looked at him with calm green eyes. “It is my intention for our marriage to initially be in name only. In other words, my lord, until such time as we know each other better, I agree to share your home but not your bed.”

No, not tedious at all! “In that case, Alice, perhaps we should make a start on ‘knowing each other better’…?”

Daniel was suddenly standing much too close, Alice realized slightly dazedly, the warmth of his breath stirring the tendrils of hair at her temples, her own eyes wide with trepidation as his mocking blue gaze held her captive.

Then his head lowered and his lips were soft against hers, gently exploring as he took her into his arms before deepening the kiss. The warmth of his tongue stroked against her lips, parting them before thrusting inside, the caresses making Alice’s body burn as his hands moved down the length of her spine to curve about her bottom and pull her into him.

Alice was at once aware of the hardness of his thighs and of the way they pressed so intimately against her, causing a sudden heat between her own legs. Her breasts swelled against the tight bodice of her gown, her pleasure deepening as Daniel moved a hand to cup one of those burgeoning mounds, his thumb caressing the hardened tip with an expertise that left her breathless.

At the same time Alice suddenly became aware of exactly where, and on whom, she had last smelled the woman’s perfume that now clung so insidiously to the earl’s elegant jacket.

“No!” Alice regained her dignity with effort as she put her hands firmly against the earl’s chest and held herself away from his seduction. “I am firm in my resolve, sir. I refuse—I will not become your wife, in the fullest sense of the word, until you have wooed and won me.”

Daniel’s eyes widened incredulously as his arms dropped from about her and he took a step backward. “‘Wooed and won’ you…?”

“Exactly, my lord.” Alice gave a measured inclination of her head, grateful that the length of her gown hid the slight trembling of her lower limbs. “If you wish for me to fully become your wife, the mother of your heir, then first I will need to be convinced that your emotions are as engaged as other parts of your body.” A delicate blush colored her cheeks in acknowledgment of her awareness of the earl’s arousal.

She might well blush, Daniel scowled darkly. How dare this chit come here and ask—no, demand!—that he court her like some lovesick youth? “That will only happen when hell freezes over!” he bit out harshly. Having observed during his childhood and beyond the deep and abiding love his mother felt for his father, as opposed to his father’s complete indifference to her, he knew that love for one’s spouse was as destructive as it was painful.