Secrets Of The Marriage Bed
Surrender to desire …After one night of passion the dissolute Duke of Dunstan made Julia his wife, but their honeymoon is far from blissful. Alistair trusts no one with his shameful secret, and that means keeping his tempting new bride at a distance…Julia longs for Alistair to yield to the powerful desire between them. But when the dark secrets of the marriage bed threaten their future, this new couple must overcome the past and surrender to their wildest passions to find a new, oh-so delicious beginning together!
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Surrender to desire...
After one night of passion, the dissolute Duke of Dunstan made Julia his wife, but their honeymoon is far from blissful. Alistair trusts no one with his shameful secret, and that means keeping his tempting new bride at a distance...
Julia longs for Alistair to yield to the powerful desire between them. But when the dark secrets of the marriage bed threaten their future, this new couple must overcome the past and surrender to their wildest passions to find a new, oh-so-delicious beginning together!
She lifted her chin and pinned a teasing smile to her lips.
‘Shall we gallop ventre à terre in the other direction?’
Once more a corner of his mouth twitched with the hint of a smile. ‘Now, that really would be rude.’
Hope bubbled in her veins. Was the distance between them closing? This barrier meant for others and not for her?
‘Do we care? Being of the ducal sort?’
His eyes flashed amusement. ‘Behave, madam.’
Thrills chased through her stomach. He’d used that deep seductive growl the night they’d made love. Her insides softened, liquefied. Longing filled her. For him. For his touch. For the way he had made her feel.
‘I will behave if you will,’ she quipped. He had intended to arouse, she was sure of it. The man did nothing without purpose.
You might already have met Alistair and Julia, in One Night as a Courtesan. They are a couple who kept interrupting other stories to remind me that while I had married them off I had not given them a proper happily-ever-after. They were quite insistent that after what looked like an excellent beginning things were not going well, and they needed me to give them a helping hand. So I did.
Along the way I also learned that kaleidoscopes were invented during the Regency era, and learned a new name for a swarm of butterflies.
I do hope you enjoy their story.
If you would like to know more about me and my books you can visit me at annlethbridge.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter, prizes offered with every issue, and find my links to your favourite social media.
In her youth, award-winning author ANN LETHBRIDGE re-imagined the Regency romances she read—and now she loves writing her own. Now living in Canada, Ann visits Britain every year, where family members understand—or so they say—her need to poke around every antiquity within a hundred miles. Learn more about Ann or contact her at annlethbridge.com. She loves hearing from readers.
Books by Ann Lethbridge
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
and Mills & Boon Historical Undone! eBooks
Rakes in Disgrace
The Gamekeeper’s Lady
More Than a Mistress Deliciously Debauched by the Rake (Undone!) More Than a Lover
The Gilvrys of Dunross
The Laird’s Forbidden Lady
Her Highland Protector Falling for the Highland Rogue Return of the Prodigal Gilvry One Night with the Highlander (Undone!)
Linked by Character
Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress
One Night as a Courtesan (Undone!) Secrets of the Marriage Bed
Haunted by the Earl’s Touch
Captured Countess The Duke’s Daring Debutante
The Rake’s Inherited Courtesan
Lady Rosabella’s Ruse The Rake’s Intimate Encounter (Undone!)
Visit the Author Profile page
at millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.
This book is dedicated to my sister-in-law, Ro, who entertains me and my dear husband in grand style whenever we visit her in Wales and never minds if I have my nose in a book or my head in a story.
Contents
This picture of domestic bliss should have sent Alistair, Duke of Dunstan, haring off for a brandy at his club. Instead, standing in the shadows outside his wife’s withdrawing room, watching her delicately ply her needle, he wanted...more. A painful twisting in his chest for something he could not name, along with the far more easily controlled inconvenience of lust. When he really should not want anything at all.
A bitter smile pulled at his lips. The only woman he’d wanted this badly in years he couldn’t have because she was his wife.
What the devil had he been thinking when he’d offered marriage? A question he’d asked himself more than once these past two weeks. He didn’t need a wife. Hadn’t wanted one. Why be tied to one woman when any number of them, from princess to pauper, were ready to fall into his bed? Marriage was his worst idea ever.
And he’d had more than his share of bad ideas.
If she ever learned the truth, she likely would turn away in disgust.
Of course, he hadn’t been thinking the night he’d met her. At least not with the brain atop his shoulders. Drunk on the aftermath of exquisite passion, the legend of the Dunstan rubies had put words in his mouth he would never have uttered had his mind been in full working order. Pride hadn’t permitted a retraction.
