A Promise of More by Bronwen Evans

wish to feel this flare of heated desire when he looked at his wife.
    Now his thoughts were in a strange turmoil.
    What the devil had gotten into him? Beatrice had every right to blame him for Doogie’s death, but the last thing he needed just now was a wife to complicate his life. Certainly not a woman they called Henpeck Hennessey. His wife; he swallowed back his choking fear at the word. Beatrice was the sorrow-filled, antagonistic elder sister of the man he had killed in a duel. God help him .
    Yet he’d had every chance to refuse her proposal. And he had been certain she would find the idea of being married to a man like him repulsive. He glanced sideways, and to his horror he had to confess intense pleasure at the prospect of taking this woman to bed. That’s what scared him. He was supposed to feel nothing for his bride. That had been his plan since boyhood.
    Sebastian gave his head a slight shake, hoping to clear the bemusement. How ironic that his plan should backfire on him so thoroughly. He couldn’t remember the last time his pulse raced at the mere thought of having a woman in his arms. Yet Beatrice Hennessey, the spinster who had been sitting on the shelf for five long years, had his heart pounding like a thoroughbred’s after a race.
    “Forever,” he murmured to himself. Dread began to invade and crawl over his body.
    “My lord?” she asked quietly.
    “Nothing.” He studied her with a slow possessive gaze.
    It had been an eternity since a woman had made him this excited. He had tasted the charms of the world’s most beautiful women, and no one had intrigued him quite the way this composed woman, who was now his wife, did. With her stunning combination of vulnerability, defiance, and undisguised beauty, the hunger she aroused in him arose effortlessly.
    Briefly he shut his eyes, remembering the way she’d looked with garments soaked and clinging to her skin, her ripe breasts exposed to his view … and his own wild reaction grew. The simple glance as she lay on the deck of his ship had inflamed him beyond reason. He should have taken that as a warning but thought it had been because of his enforced lack of female company on the voyage home.
    He should have walked away from her outrageous proposal. Now, just the touch of her tiny hand on his arm had his blood surging thick and hot.
    Sebastian stiffened as heated images of her flickered before his mind’s eye. What would she look like naked, her glossy hair spread across his bed? He imagined her lush and wanton, arching against him as he explored the mysteries of her silken body …
    The sensual image set him on fire.
    He feared this unexpected arousal. It had been weeks since he had enjoyed a woman, what with his trip back from Jamaica. He wasn’t accustomed to abstinence. His beautiful Jamaican housekeeper had been the last warm body in his bed, in a long line of warm bodies, and he had been forced to abandon her when he returned to England.
    He had left her the house in Jamaica. He knew she would take good care of it, and he would always have a warm welcome if he ever needed to return.
    Beatrice gave a small cough by his side and his thoughts again turned to what he was going to do with a wife. This wife.
    His eyes briefly glanced at her face. Her eyes reflected fear and awe at the position she found herself in. She continually ran her little pink tongue over her bottom lip, and heat flicked at his groin. Why he should find the lady so provocative, so enticing, particularly considering her obvious dislike of him, was beyond a sane man’s reasoning.
    But heaven forbid, he wanted her, and up until now, he’d had no intention of really ever desiring his wife.
    He had wanted an uncomplicated marriage. He had wanted a marriage inwhich both parties understood and agreed why they were marrying. And the reason would have nothing to do with love. He had watched his parents’ jealousy turn their house into a battleground, a war that no one was ever