The Duke's Indiscretion by Adele Ashworth

Brixham’s sister, I don’t now have the funds or the opportunity.” She huffed. “Not to mention the fact that he’d never allow me to do what is in his mind an utterly disgraceful thing.”
    He thought about that for a moment, then asked lightly, “And if I…finance your tour, you’ll give me what in return?”
    She creased her brows. “I already told you. I’ll provide you with a good home, a proper wife, and an heir if you so desire.”
    â€œOh, Lady Charlotte,” he whispered in a husky tremor, “if I actually go through the immense trouble of engaging myself in a simple marriage, I would certainly so desire.”
    His quick response, at once both tactless and intimate, took her aback. Her eyelashes fluttered and hermouth opened a little.
    Giving her a sly grin, he stated, “But really, I can sponsor a tour for you without the legalities a marital union would require.”
    That hurt her a little, though she tried to ignore the feeling of being brushed aside as a lady to be courted. “You don’t approve of marriage, your grace?” she prodded, her tone conveying only the hint of disbelief.
    â€œOh, I approve of it wholeheartedly,” he replied at once, “for everybody but myself.”
    That stumped her. She hadn’t expected him to be so against what was required of him and his duty to reproduce. “But you’ll need an heir.”
    â€œYes, so I’ve been told by everyone I know. Repeatedly.” His smile went flat. “Still, I’d rather be the one to choose the lady, and the time to marry her.”
    It suddenly occurred to Charlotte that he might turn her and her generous offer down. Leaning forward, she reemerged as the Lottie he knew, the fantasy that had him wanting her so desperately. “Of course you would, Colin,” she agreed in a sultry murmur. “I’m merely suggesting that we work through our options together, that the time couldn’t be better for either of us. And I know how much you adore my singing, my…persona on the stage.”
    He lifted his brows a fraction, though his eyes narrowed with calculation as she altered her demeanor. “Indeed I do. But I’m not certain how that’s relevant.”
    â€œYou’re not? What was it you said to me? That being with Lottie English was something you’d desiredfor years?”
    His expression grew sober, his gaze piercing hers in a measure of defiance. “I think I recall saying as much.”
    â€œThen I’m here to tell you, sir, I am a properly bred lady, the sister of an earl. I would never take a lover, regardless of his appeal—or how very, very much I desired him. But I will fully and happily consent to being bedded by my husband.”
    She said that in a dark and husky whisper, her fingertips caressing the slope of her cleavage nearly imperceptibly, noting with satisfaction how his gaze lowered and lingered.
    He adjusted his large, masculine body in his chair and began rocking, his palms flat on the armrests, his eyes assessing. “I suppose that is the proper thing for a lady to do,” he dryly remarked.
    She’d trapped him, and he knew it. There wasn’t any chance on earth that Lottie English would become his mistress without the Lady Charlotte Hughes first becoming his legally married wife. And she was a perfect choice for that. His decision, then, rested on how badly he needed her physically; how much he truly wanted her as a woman.
    â€œDo you find me appealing, Charlotte?” he asked moments later. “Do you desire me that much? Or is your act as Lottie only that—an act?”
    She felt color rising up her neck and into her cheeks, but she could hardly back down after tempting him as she had. With a light shrug of one shoulder, she countered, “Does it matter?”
    He laughed, though the sound carried absolutely no humor. “Yes, I believe it does. Will I be