Ruined by Moonlight by Emma Wildes

others seek lovers? That seems to be such a contradiction.”
    At least that was easy enough to address. “Obligation is rarely as enjoyable as the forbidden. I’m afraid that is human nature. It works both ways also. Men may choose their wives with many factors in play, such as political connections and bloodlines, but when choosing a lover, a man or woman usually selects what actually attractsthem in a physical sense. As it is a very physical act, obviously the latter choice is a more enjoyable experience.”
    “How physical?”
    That delicately asked question was a bit more difficult to define without describing the mechanics. He lifted his brows. “Let me say enough so that when done properly the two parties should be breathless and pleasantly exhausted afterward.”
    Her smooth brow furrowed. “I see.”
    No, she didn’t, and he would love to drag her the few feet to the bed and demonstrate, but that was ill-advised. Ran went on. “However, making love is like an intricate game on another level also, since emotions are usually in play. It involves not just the body but the mind. The balance of power is always shifting. It might be a man’s world, but women tend to hold power over men because our sexual desires are more”—his smile was brief—“base, shall we say? In the bedroom, at the least, we are much simpler creatures. When aroused gratification is paramount.”
    The jeweled light shaded the look on her face as Elena obviously contemplated what he’d just said. “In short, you want us more than we want you? Having experienced this season with the fawning gentlemen in attendance, I would give credence to that theory, except the young ladies seem to be just as intent.”
    That was astute. Ran murmured, “But the goals are remarkably different. Men wish to have a willing bedmate and women often want a protector. They both take and give.”
    “A trade, then. How…mercenary. I’m trying to decide which gender is worse.”
    “It isn’t always that way. Sometimes the pleasure isthe only consideration.” He’d bedded married women, but never if they didn’t have an understanding with their husbands. The tendencies toward loveless matches in the aristocracy rendered a set of rules that allowed wives to follow their own inclinations once a legitimate heir had been born.
    Thoughtfully she considered him. “I suppose that must be true. For instance, you are not married, but rumored to have…well…many times.”
    His marital status being contemplated by a very eligible young debutante gave him pause. “As long as everyone understands the rules before the game begins, it is a fair trade rather than a bargain struck.”
    “I suppose what you are telling me is that women
do
enjoy sharing a man’s bed if he is of their choice?”
    And possess some finesse and the desire to please her.
Ran chose not to go into the details of how a man needed to understand the complexities of female arousal. The conversation had gotten uncomfortably immediate already. If the table wasn’t between them she might even notice his growing erection, and that, he would have to explain, was the graphic difference between men and women.
    He could be a great deal more enlightening about
male
arousal but it just wasn’t wise.
    The temptation was, in fact, damned foolish, and he wasn’t a fool. Or so he liked to think anyway, and his instincts with women were usually correct.
    Careful
.
    “It always depends on the two people involved,” he informed her neutrally, a part of his wayward mind speculating that she would be responsive in bed because she was so refreshingly without artifice.
    He had no doubt that her dazzling beauty was why men had flocked to her, but the more perceptive ones would have sensed that underlying sensuality because she wasn’t skilled enough—or jaded enough—to hide it and hadn’t recognized yet the power that aura wielded.
    But she would, because she was sufficiently intelligent to realize it