Surrender by Amanda Quick

mistresses before and after marriage, did the same, not always so discreetly.
    But as Lucas watched Victoria’s laughter fade slowly back into a glowing smile, it struck him quite forcefully that he did not intend to let his unsuspecting future bride trod the usual social path from altar to marriage bed to a string of discreet affairs.
    He had always known that he would never be one of those men who overlooked his wife’s infidelities. It was not in his nature to share the woman he considered his own. But the possessiveness he felt was far beyond what he had expected to feel toward the woman who would one day bear his name.
    Once she was his, Lucas decided, Victoria would remain his and his alone. Social conventions be hanged. He was not going to share this half-wild, unpredictable creature with any man.
    “My lord, you are impossible. Utterly impossible.” Victoria wiped the moisture from her eyes and shook her head, still grinning. “Imagine offering yourself in the spirit of intellectual inquiry. How very altruistic. How very noble. You are far too generous.”
    “I shall do what it takes to win you.”
    “And just how am I to be won, my lord?”
    “With adventure and excitement and passion. I will give you all of those things, Victoria.”
    She looked at him, her decision in her eyes. “I will pick and choose among them, taking only as much of any of them as I wish and paying for them as I wish.”
    He inclined his head in acquiescence, quietly satisfied with the victory. “That is your prerogative.”
    She hesitated and then impulsively took one step forward, reaching out to touch his sleeve. “Lucas, do you mean it when you say you want me, just
me
, not my money?”
    He lifted a hand to stroke the fine line of her jaw. “I want you.”
    “I cannot promise you anything,” she said with grave honesty. “I enjoyed your kisses last night, but that is as far as it should go and we both know it.”
    He covered her fingers as they lay on his sleeve. “I understand. Don’t concern yourself with promises now. Together we will find out just how far this liaison of ours will go.”
    She did not move for a moment. She just stood there gazing up at him with a barely suppressed longing that made him want to pull her into his arms. It was not the promise of either passion or reckless excitement he saw in her beautiful amber eyes now, but something else, something sweet and vulnerable, an altogether heart-wrenching look of hopeful expectation.
    “If you’re very sure this is what you want, if you’re sure this will be enough,” Victoria said, “then I accept your offer to be my midnight companion.”
    Lucas exhaled deeply. “Then the bargain is sealed.” He leaned down and brushed his mouth lightly across hers. She trembled at the touch and Lucas wanted simultaneously to soothe her and pull her down onto the tile floor and make passionate love to her. Before he could deal with the conflicting emotions, she was slipping out of reach and thrusting a small piece of paper into his hand.
    “What’s this?” he asked, frowning at the elegant writing on the paper. “A gaming hell? A brothel? A race meeting? A gentlemen’s club?”
    “Those are the first items on my list,” she informed him.
    “What list?” Then it hit him. He had seriously underestimated his opponent, a mistake he rarely made. “Bloody hell. You expect me to take you to a gaminghell and a brothel? Good God, Vicky, be reasonable. A nighttime visit to a fair or the dark walks of Vauxhall Gardens is one thing. It is quite another matter to sneak you into a brothel or take you to a gaming hell. You cannot be serious.”
    “You are wrong, my lord. I am very serious,” Victoria said, unyielding.
    He looked at her and saw that she was. “Damn it, Vicky. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”
    Victoria dismissed the protest. “Thursday night would be an excellent time for our next adventure. I will no doubt see you at the Kinsleys’ ball