A Matter of Sin by Jess Michaels

place.”
    Serena hesitated, but then she nodded. “I will.”
    Isabel slipped her arm around her and began to lead her to the door. “Now we will go down to the ball and you will laugh and dance and forget about your chaperone…within reason.”
    Her sister giggled as she opened the door. “Always within reason.”
    But even as Isabel laughed while she followed Serena to the main staircase, inside she was a jumble. Queries about her happiness, her contentment, only tangled her up even more. And made her question, on every level, if she would ever find her place in this world again.
    Seth stood to the side of the dance floor for the first time since the night had begun hours before. As host—and as a man searching for a wife—he had been forced to make the rounds, dancing with what seemed like every lady and her chaperone.
    Except one. He had not yet danced with Isabel.
    With a scowl, he looked across the room and found her as easily as he had all night. It was hard not to notice her, with her auburn hair and a beautiful gown that seemed to brighten her eyes, not to mention accentuate the curves of her body.
    She was standing at the punch table with Seth’s neighbor in the shire, Sir Gregory Foxfire. The rich squire leaned toward her with every word they exchanged, his interest blatantly obvious, though Seth couldn’t call it lewd.
    Seth fisted his fingers at his side as his mind slipped treacherously to Isabel’s words earlier in the day. She had said she wished to take a lover. It was a slip she obviously hadn’t meant to make, but every time he thought of it, his body grew hard and heavy, ready to claim. Her words, her breathy voice when she said those words, tormented him.
    And annoyed him, for he didn’t like the idea of Isabel shopping around for a lover, perhaps under his very roof. Especially if she was going to choose a man like Foxfire, who was far too old for her. What a waste that would be.
    “You could ask the lady for a dance,” Jason said as he slipped up beside Seth and held out a drink.
    With a scowl for his friend, Seth snatched the cup. He was already in an ill humor—the last thing he wanted was Jason’s nonsense.
    “Who?” he snapped.
    “You know very well who,” Jason said with a chuckle. “Lady Avenbury.”
    Seth looked at her again. Foxfire was still talking to her and now the situation was even worse. The Earl of Monthaven had joined the pair. Widowed, he had come to the party as chaperone to his eldest daughter, who was probably not even ten years younger than Isabel herself.
    “She is otherwise occupied,” Seth growled through clenched and grinding teeth.
    Jason examined her across the room. “She is a popular widow indeed. And from her charming smile, I can see why they circle her. However, you have been staring daggers at every man who has dared dance, speak or even pass too closely by her all night.”
    Seth turned on his friend with outrage he had to force, since he knew Jason was absolutely correct in that assessment. “I have not.”
    Jason rolled his eyes and ignored the denial. “I fear the consequences for all the gentlemen here if you do not get her…and it out of your mind.”
    Seth glared at him. “It?”
    “Your interest in her,” Jason explained with a matter-of-fact shrug. “It is written all over your face, and soon enough others will notice. I don’t think that is what you would desire.”
    Although Seth hated to admit his friend was right in anything he did or said, Jason wasn’t off the mark this time. The last thing he wished for was to hurt his chances on the marriage mart. He couldn’t afford that.
    “You are an idiot,” he managed to choked out as he folded his arms and looked toward Isabel once more.
    The two men were still fawning all over her and she was smiling . Not an uncomfortable smile, but a friendly one. An open one. An inviting one. Blast it.
    “Of course I am,” Jason said with a smug expression. “Now the music is about to