Page 5 of To Tame a Wicked Widow

“Of course I have,” he replied, scrambling for an answer that wouldn’t make him sound even more pathetic. “Just…er…not many.”

Lady Upcott rose from her chair and strolled toward him, her hips swaying and breasts bobbing gently. “I’m afraid your inclination toward honesty tells a different story, my lord.”

Not as much as his rock-hard cock. He needed to get out of here before he disgraced himself completely. Swiftly, Ethan snatched the first book he could reach from the library shelf. “Ah, that will do. Good evening—”

“Put that down.”

He stilled. “Beg pardon?”

“You don’t need a treatise on crop rotation,” she murmured, standing so close her visibly hard nipples nearly brushed his chest. “Not when there are much better ways to relax oneself.”

“Are you offering to help, Lady Upcott?” he rasped, his heart about to pound right out of his chest.

“Tell me if I’m incorrect…I think perhaps you’ve mastered the theory but not the practical. Me, on the other hand, well, the rumors are true. I greatly enjoy bedsport and make no apology for it. So, if you wish for some no-obligation instruction—”

“Yes. Hell yes.”

She licked her lips, her gray eyes glittering like stars. “Then, Lord Dare, why don’t you come to my chamber in ten minutes or so. I’ll unlock the connecting door, and we’ll take care of this troublesome virginity matter. No one need ever know.”

And just like that, his evening vastly improved.

Chapter 2

So much for keeping Lord Dare at arm’s length.

Madeline added a few drops of rosewater behind her ears, then sighed at her pink cheeks, glittering eyes, and jutting nipples in the dressing table looking glass. No matter what her body thought, this charitable act had mistake written all over it. Not just because of his position and hers, his age, their families, or any of that, but more because…there was something altogether far too appealing about this virgin viscount. His bookish tendencies. His humor and blunt speech. That bloody dimple.

Had she ever genuinely liked a man she’d bedded?

She frowned. Perhaps not. After Sir Josiah it had just been about hard bodies and harder cocks, a chance to forge her own path and make up for years of sporadic, brief, and wholly unsatisfying marital relations. Pleasant gentlemen all, but unmemorable.

Lord Dare, however, might be another matter entirely. And yet a young man, fickle and spendthrift as they tended to be, would never be the right man for her.

“Bah!” said Madeline, picking up her hairbrush and dragging it through her curls with unnecessary ferocity. Why was she even pondering such things? This would be one night of sexual instruction, and then they would say farewell as amiable acquaintances. Nothing more.

A knock sounded on the connecting door, thankfully interrupting her perplexing thoughts.

“Come in,” she called, and her pussy clenched in excitement. Indeed, whatever her mind cautioned, her body wanted this more than anything.

“Good evening again, my lady.”

Oh God.

Lord Dare wore a black silk robe that clung to his shoulders, and yet wasn’t quite tied tightly enough at the waist, inviting her to drink in the sight of a tempting triangle of bronzed chest dusted with dark hair. Although not even that could compare to the prominent bulge tenting the robe further down. Good grief. He was every bit as large as she’d hoped, and she couldn’t wait to touch him. To measure the girth and length of him with her fingers and lips. To be pressed down onto her bed by his huge frame, while his chest hair teased her nipples and his cock plundered…

“My lord,” she replied, barely suppressing a whimper. “Why don’t you come over here and keep me company?”

“Ethan,” he said abruptly as he walked toward her. “My name is Ethan. I’d like to just be me tonight.”

She blinked in surprise, then smiled. “Very well. You may call me Madeline. Now, do untie your robe before your poor cock is strangled to death.”

Color raced across his cheekbones, yet he still raised an imperious eyebrow. “Am I a Tattersall’s thoroughbred to be inspected?”

Oh. He might be a young virgin, but that stern tone made her want to kneel at his feet. And yet she couldn’t allow her thoughts to stray down that path. The nuances of sexual submission were complex, and her need to be dominated, to be held fast in the exhilarating coil of pain-tinged pleasure, was definitely not something he could be expected to understand. Or even desire. She must continue to take the lead, however wrong it felt. “Hardly. That delight is reserved for us ladies. I merely wish to take you in my mouth and suck you until you come.”

His indrawn breath helped restore her equilibrium just a little.

“My first lesson?” he asked unevenly.