Pleasure House Ball: Brenton, Lord Mallory, attends his first courtesan’s ball in ten years to appease his concerned friends, though he’d rather stay home and read to his motherless daughter. Though mortified that Brenton unmasks her at a scandalous ball, Lady Lillian Armstrong doesn’t regret their night together. Book 3 Irresistible Aristocrats books2read.com/suzilovePHB

Excerpt

‘Brent, why are you eager for me to risk a repeat of my miserable marriage?’ Lady Lillian asked. ‘When you’ve declared that you’ll never marry again.’

‘Because you’re a woman and I’m a man.’

Lillian’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s a very biased view, and I thought you better than that.’

Brent groaned. ‘You’re right. It’s unfair to tell you to risk more unhappiness when I won’t.’

‘Everyone knows you’re avoiding your family because they push eligible ladies towards you. They want you to remarry and give your daughter a new mother.’

‘They’ve no right to interfere in our lives, mine or my daughter’s. We’re happy as we are, the two of us.’

‘Your wife hurt you, deeply, and so you’ve refused to even speak to the women your mother thinks suitable.’

‘I speak to you.’

‘Only because I visit you and drag you away from your house to go riding. I refuse to let you retreat from the world. You’re a wonderful man with a lot to give to another woman. To another wife.’

‘You’re the only lady that I can tolerate being near for more than ten minutes.’

‘And you’re the only man I’d select for a second husband, and you’re against marriage.’ She looked towards a group of men smoking at the far end of the verandah. ‘Hence my venture into the unknown tonight. The sedate balls are full of married men or old lechers, as all the exciting men are here instead.’ She pointed towards the cluster of five or six young men. ‘Perhaps one of them might be the boost I need to restore my faith in the male gender. A virile young man who knows about pleasurable sex.’

He scowled as he watched the young men laugh and slap each other on the back. ‘Those pups are too inexperienced to give a woman pleasure. At that age, it’s all over too quickly. You need someone who will leave you limp with pleasure.’ He shook his head and seemed to collect himself.

Lillian swallowed. She didn’t doubt that Brent knew many ways to make sex exciting and unforgettable, but there was no point imagining herself with him when she knew how studiously he avoided contact with women these days. Well, except for her and his cook.

‘Not all men are cruel,’ he was saying when she paid attention to his words rather than the way his trousers stretched across his groin when he had his hands on his hips and his coat tails pulled aside. ‘Some husbands value their wives and treat them like queens.’

She sighed. ‘A nice thought, Brent, but unless you can introduce me to one of those paragons of husbands, I’m reduced to finding my excitement with one of the gentlemen here tonight.’