Melissa's father is dead and has left behind him a creditor from London's underworld, who threatens to strip her of everything she holds most precious. Most horrifically he will take her and her young brother, in pursuit of his money.
She did not want to take this path, but she desperately needs funds to rescue herself and Peter from that fiend. She has no choice. She must auction the one asset she has: her innocent body.
At the auction for her virgin night, James Carstairs buys Melissa. She enchants him beyond anything he has known, then disappears. Can he find her, and make her his?
From the book:
"Even James was moved. He thought of himself as civilised, but the delicate confection who stood on the tavern's excuse for a stage woke in him a feral response. Sardonically he measured it as two parts lust, one part an instinctive protectiveness towards the vulnerable, and a last part the competitive desire to best all others and win a desirable sexual prize.
These shows were not to his taste. If the woman was truly a virgin - which he usually doubted - then she was to be pitied rather than desired. No good prospect lay before her.
Something about this one occasion roused more than pity and disgust. He examined the woman as best he could, standing less than two dozen feet from her in the crowded and smoky room.
Her face pale and still, only her eyes moved. They roved the room searching for - what?
She looked straight at James. He felt that look almost like a touch, a palpable connection. There was a plea there in her gaze, and desperation. Suddenly he was certain this one was indeed a virgin, alone and helpless in a roomful of men who saw nothing of her but an object for their lust; nothing of the person within. One of them would take her, use her roughly, maybe brutally, and then she would be discarded, broken.
This seemed suddenly the most heinous sort of crime against a woman of such peerless beauty. She was a treasure who should be worshipped, initiated gently to the arts of love. Brought to a knowledge of the true potential her body held for its own and others' pleasure. What a courtesan she would make!
No one in this room could teach her that better than he. For bedroom sport was his favourite of all the sports in which he indulged, and he knew how to cherish a woman and awaken her to herself. Oh, an experienced lover was usually his preference, but even those were often unacquainted with the true heights and depths of the bedroom arts.
He was tempted, he was sorely tempted by her. He could answer that plea he saw in her eyes and bring her more delight than she had never known.
He could rescue her.
James took a step forward."
She did not want to take this path, but she desperately needs funds to rescue herself and Peter from that fiend. She has no choice. She must auction the one asset she has: her innocent body.
At the auction for her virgin night, James Carstairs buys Melissa. She enchants him beyond anything he has known, then disappears. Can he find her, and make her his?
From the book:
"Even James was moved. He thought of himself as civilised, but the delicate confection who stood on the tavern's excuse for a stage woke in him a feral response. Sardonically he measured it as two parts lust, one part an instinctive protectiveness towards the vulnerable, and a last part the competitive desire to best all others and win a desirable sexual prize.
These shows were not to his taste. If the woman was truly a virgin - which he usually doubted - then she was to be pitied rather than desired. No good prospect lay before her.
Something about this one occasion roused more than pity and disgust. He examined the woman as best he could, standing less than two dozen feet from her in the crowded and smoky room.
Her face pale and still, only her eyes moved. They roved the room searching for - what?
She looked straight at James. He felt that look almost like a touch, a palpable connection. There was a plea there in her gaze, and desperation. Suddenly he was certain this one was indeed a virgin, alone and helpless in a roomful of men who saw nothing of her but an object for their lust; nothing of the person within. One of them would take her, use her roughly, maybe brutally, and then she would be discarded, broken.
This seemed suddenly the most heinous sort of crime against a woman of such peerless beauty. She was a treasure who should be worshipped, initiated gently to the arts of love. Brought to a knowledge of the true potential her body held for its own and others' pleasure. What a courtesan she would make!
No one in this room could teach her that better than he. For bedroom sport was his favourite of all the sports in which he indulged, and he knew how to cherish a woman and awaken her to herself. Oh, an experienced lover was usually his preference, but even those were often unacquainted with the true heights and depths of the bedroom arts.
He was tempted, he was sorely tempted by her. He could answer that plea he saw in her eyes and bring her more delight than she had never known.
He could rescue her.
James took a step forward."
