Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James

his heels.
    Charlotte blushed again. “Oh, you know, at a masked ball,” she said vaguely. “This time I knocked you over,” she added.
    Alex frowned again. What on earth was this beautiful girl talking about? Just his luck: He’d met the first interesting woman of the whole evening, and she was around the bend. His glance drifted down. From here, he could see straight into her gown. She had the most beautiful, creamy breasts he’d ever seen. They were lavishly round, and soft, and perfectly shaped. His hand actually twitched. My God! He’d almost touched her right here. Suddenly he became aware of piping little voices around them, enquiring about injuries and calling for help.
    He reached out a hand and brought her to her feet.
    “Is your back all right?” Alex asked, ignoring her nonsensical comment about masked balls. Now he liked her even more. She was just the right height, tall, and when she raised her head her mouth was kissably close to his. Alex drew her over to the side of the hall and without even thinking, reached out to rub the middle of her back where she must have struck the stairs.
    His hand instantly stopped. Her gown was so thin he could feel the rising swell of her bottom, and he was rocked by one of the most powerful surges of lust he had ever felt. He must be losing his mind, Alex decided. It had been too long since he had a woman.
    Charlotte didn’t even feel his hand on her back, or notice when he snatched it away. “Did you … do you remember me?” she asked, finally, looking straight into his eyes.
    Alex frowned again. He’d never met her, that was certain. He looked at her carefully. She had a delectable, triangular face enveloped in soft curls: a perfect straight nose, and high cheekbones. Her mouth was a natural dark red. Her eyebrows were exquisite: high and winged, a woman’s version of his own. For a second, some memory stirred, but …
    “I’ve never met you,” Alex said, smiling at her. He wouldn’t forget meeting a woman as beautiful as this.
    Charlotte’s mouth fell open slightly. He took someone’s virginity, and he didn’t even remember? What were men, anyway? Did he do that every week?
    Alex took her arm again and led her toward the parlor to the right.
    “You must have met my brother,” he said. “We’re twins.” He looked down at her and smiled. “You are not the first to mistake the two of us.”
    Charlotte smiled back without thinking, and her heart gave a huge thump. “You are a twin?” she repeated. Her mind seemed to have gone numb.
    “Yes,” Alex said cheerfully, having figured out the whole problem. The girl wasn’t insane; she was just thinking of Patrick. “Even our mother couldn’t always tell us apart.”
    Charlotte looked up at him. She knew exactly who he was—well, she didn’t know who he was, but she knew that he was the one. She even recognized the dimple in his right cheek and the shape of his lips. But he didn’t seem to be pretending; he genuinely didn’t remember meeting her. Charlotte’s heart sunk. Her virginity had mattered so little that he didn’t even remember taking it.
    Her steps slowed. Where were they going, anyway? She had to get back upstairs, to her mother. She calmly took her arm out of his grasp and brought them to a halt.
    “Thank you so much for helping me up, sir,” she said softly. “I apologize for knocking you to the floor.” Without waiting for his reply she turned and almost—not quite—dashed up the stairs.
    Alex stood dumbfounded. One minute she was there; the next minute she was gone. He looked after her wildly. Who was she?
    Suddenly he heard an anxious voice at his ear and turned to see Braddon. “What do you think?” Braddon asked. “Isn’t she devastating?”
    “Oh, yes,” Alex said, grasping the whole situation in mere seconds. “I’m going to marry her. What did you say her name was?”

Chapter 5

    W hen Charlotte reappeared from the ladies’ salon she was swept into a crowd of