This is a steamy historical romance short story (word count 4,991).

Claire, despite having to persuade her father, an influential Earl, of her choice of husband, is happy to be marrying her fiancé, Marcus, the second son of the landed gentry. He has everything she could hope for in a groom: intelligence, wit, an adventurous and easy nature, not to mention the fact that he is dashingly handsome and excites her in more ways than one!

Despite seeing all Marcus’s good qualities, she cannot overlook his colourful past reputation, with the result that she reluctantly asks him on the eve of their wedding day if he will promise to remain true and be faithful to her. Claire knows full well that she stands to lose Marcus, if he wishes to keep a separate private life.

Marcus, for his part, is taken aback by Claire’s ultimatum, which is not at all the custom among London society. It is not that he does not have a liking for his fiancée—in truth, he finds Claire to be beautiful and of good character—it is just that he is unsure if she will be able to cope with his desires, or even if he wants her to, as his perception of Claire is only that of a good and pure gentle lady.

It is only when Claire and he have a brief moment of passion that Marcus starts to realise that his future bride may have a very passionate side of her own. And if he should dare agree to her demand, he might just find out that Claire is all the woman he will ever need or desire!

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!