The Rakehell Regency Romance Series
Volume 5
Sorcha MacMurrough
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Book 13: EXPERIENCE
Book 14: THE MODEL HUSBAND
Book 15: RUTHLESS
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series
Book 13
EXPERIENCE
Sorcha MacMurrough
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
REVIEWS
COPYRIGHT
CAST OF CHARACTERS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR'S NOTES
INTRODUCTION
On the eve of his wedding, Lawrence Howard's simple mistake regarding an address propels him straight into the arms of Juliet Lyons Dane, an unworldly young girl just up from the country for her first London Season.
Lawrence is convinced he is spending his last night as a bachelor with the capital's newest sensational Bird of Paradise. But his final fling brings with it the most shocking consequences.
Resentful of having been so compromised, and convinced he's been betrayed by her brother Matthew, a former business associate, Lawrence is determined to make Juliet suffer. He is certain that somehow she is part of a nefarious plot to ruin him and his family. That beneath her act of innocence lies an experienced woman of the world out to get whatever she wants.
But the more Lawrence learns of Juliet, the more he recognizes his mistake. Suddenly he sees that innocent or experienced, Juliet is the perfect woman for him. Can Lawrence make his wife fall in love with him before it's too late?
"Tell me what you're thinking right now," Lawrence demanded.
"Thinking? Now?" Juliet gasped, her eyes already glazing over with passion as he moved under her and the coach vibrated over the ruts and fissures in the road.
"Tell me."
"That I've never known how such pleasure could exist. Oh my."
"Look at me. No, don't close your eyes, look at me."
She obeyed, fearful of the consequences, that he would pinch or twist the way some men had at soirees or assembly balls. Or worse still, that he would stop the compelling rhythm within her.
"Tell me what it feels like."
"Like my soul is being torn from me."
His eyes narrowed. "A woman like you doesn't have a soul. Try again."
"Like we're blending and fusing into a single entity. I can feel your heart beating with mine," she panted.
"You haven't got a heart. Try again."
"Like I want to take all of you inside me and never let go. Yet even as I do, you possess me utterly."
He gave her a long slow caress at those words. "Yes, indeed I do. Then I'm just going to have to keep reminding you of that fact, aren't I? You're nothing and no one without me. Give up any notion of your family helping you, or you having been anything other than what you are now, what I choose to make you. Or not, as the case were. You're Juliet Howard now. Forget you ever heard the name Dane."
"But I was never-"
At her unwitting words which appeared to be of protest, he rose with her on his lap and flattened her onto the opposite seat. His body was never still upon, within her. "Tell me who you are."
"Juliet Howard."
"What are you?"
"Your wife."
"What else?"
Mindless though she was with need, she was not going to say what he wanted her to. She was not.
Juliet looked straight into his silvery eyes, and clamped her hands down on his buttocks, cupping the tight orbs as she arched up against him. "Whatever you think you want me to be, darling."
REVIEWS
"Another fascinating romp through Regency England. Reading Ms. MacMurrough's novels are always a pleasure because they have it all: wonderful characters, fantastic settings, and plenty of sensuality and suspense. The historical details are always endlessly intriguing, and the secondary characters create a wonderful world we can step into effortlessly. She excels at capturing the true delight of falling in love, with all its pitfalls, difficulties and dangers which her unique couples always rise above."
-Evelyn Trimborn
"Experience has the hallmarks of a MacMurrough novel, suspenseful, full of dastardly villains and a marvelous hero and heroine who fight for each other tooth and nail. And all the things we have come to expect from a Rakehell novel: the wonderful secondary characters who support Lawrence and Juliet in their quest for love, and the heady sensuality of a couple whose passion and love are greater even than all their enemies put together."
-Jacqui Jerome
"Another fascinating book. The heroines keep getting more and more remarkable, the villains more and more sneaky and nasty. I adore the hero--a fallen angel if ever there was one. What I love about her books is how she is able to focus on the hero and heroine falling in love, (not try to set up a bunch of dull sequels!) and let's us travel the path to the happily ever after with them. Yet she still manages to give us quite a few surprises. Enjoy!"
-Annabelle Stevens
"Yet another Rakehell returns to the fold. This time it's the fabulously ambitious tea trader Lawrence Howard, all set to be married to the foul Matilda, last seen in Ravished. He has believed all of her hideous lies. So when he ends up with innocent Juliet, he thinks he has been duped, and is determined to make her and her entire family regret ever forcing him into the match.
"Matthew pushed forward the marriage to protect his sister, and to save his former friend from a fate worse than death in marrying the foul Matilda. But neither man can protect Juliet from the enemies swarming around them if Lawrence cannot trust her. Haunted by his past, he must come to terms with the deaths of his parents and brother if he is ever to achieve happiness with his innocent young wife. Another tempestuous and sensual, not to say erotic, novel by this remarkable author."
-Carolyn Stone
EXPERIENCE
A Rakehell Regency Romance Novel
Sorcha MacMurrough
HerStory Books
Copyright 2006, 2009 by the author
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Under the 1988 UK copyright laws, the author asserts the right to be identified as the creator of this work.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-58345-825-9
Published by HerStory Books
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
Lawrence Howard, former Rakehell, tea trader just home from India
Robert Nash, Lawrence's factor in the tea trade
Stuart Howard, Lawrence's eldest nephew
Andrew Howard, Lawrence's youngest nephew
Matthew Dane, a Rakehell, Juliet's brother, former business associate of Lawrence's
Althea Dane, his wife
(For their story, see Ravished)
Juliet Lyons Dane, Matthew's sister
Miranda Lyons Dane, Matthew's youngest sister
Lady Pemberton, their aunt, prominent London Society hostess
Matilda Barnet, Matthew Dane's former mistress, Lawrence's fiancée, Nash's cousin
Philip Marshall, a Rakehell, works with Alistair Grant, barrister
Jasmine Marshall, his wife, friends with Isolde
(for their story, see The Mistaken Miss)
Dr. Blake Sanderson, a Rakehell, a doctor in London and Somerset
Arabella Neville Sanderson, his wife
(for their story, see Guardian of the Heart)
Michael Avenel, a Rakehell, Randall's eldest brother
Bryony Avenel, his wife
(for their story, see The Model Master)
Martin Jerome, Blake's cousin, an honorary Rakehell
Eswara Paignton Jerome, his wife, a healer from India who works with Blake
(for their story, see The Model Mistress)
Ash Paignton, Eswara's son
Ellen Paignton, his wife
(for their story, see The Model Husband)
Randall Avenel, a Rakehell, Earl of Hazelmere
Isolde Avenel, his wife
(for their story, see Innocence)
Clifford Stone, a Rakehell, owner of Stone Court
Vanessa Stone, nee Hawkesworth, his wife, a great scholar
(for their story, see The Mad Mistress)
The Duke of Ellesmere, Thomas Eltham, a Rakehell, lives at Eltham Castle
The Duchess of Ellesmere, Charlotte Eltham, nee Castlemaine, his wife
(for their story, see The Missed Match)
Jonathan Deveril, a Rakehell, vicar of Brimley and Eltham
Pamela Deveril, nee Ashton, his wife
(for their story, see The Miss Matched)
Sarah Deveril Davenport, Jonathan’s youngest sister
Alexander Davenport, her husband, a Rakehell
(for their story, see The Matchless Miss)
Alistair Grant, a Rakehell and barrister in London
(for his story, see Ruthless)
Experience is a mere whiff or rumble, produced by enormously complex and ill-deciphered causes of experience; and in the other direction, experience is a mere peephole through which glimpses come down to us of eternal things.
George Santayana. Letter, May 1933, to the Marchesa Iris Origo. The Letters of George Santayana, ed. Daniel Cory (1955).
Experience… is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and co-ordinating. Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
Aldous Huxley. Texts and Pretexts, Introduction (1932).
Experience cannot be transferred. We may give wise advice, but we cannot give wisdom to follow it.
H., contributor, American Ladies Magazine, pp. 230-3 (May 1828).
PROLOGUE
Juliet came slowly awake, her lips parting in a sigh of pure joy as Lawrence teased them open. Surely this had to be a dream....
But no, he was real, solid, and buried deeply within her most secret core, and moving until her face flamed with desire.
"Good morning, my sweet. I was hoping you'd wake."
"Lawrence, what are you--"
"I can't resist a repeat of last night. You're so magnificent, I can't help it. I want all of you, so much. I want to stay here forever and never let you go. But go I must."
She nearly wept with frustration and opened her mouth to plead with him to stay. He pulled out of her pulsating softness, but apologised tenderly. "I'll be back with you in a moment, I promise, love. I need to taste you everywhere."
His mouth glided over her breasts so delightfully that by the time he had kissed his way down to her thighs she felt no shame or fear.
She was so delicious, honey-sweet. He inserted one finger inside her incredible tightness and curled it upwards, until she was shuddering against him once more.
"Too much?" he laughed.
"Oh yes, or not enough. Please, I want all of you."
"What, tongue and fingers aren't enough? You greedy little girl. I ought to punish you for that."
"Oh, please, it's too good," she panted as his fingers and tongue continued to move slowly and rhythmically.
"But you asked for more. So have more."
He gently opened her further and inserted a second large finger, causing her hips to buck upwards desperately. He held her still with one hand on her breast, and she rose on the wave of passion and began to float downwards.
Or would have if he had not begun to stroke her even more intently, now nibbling the roseate whirl with his teeth.
"More, love?"
"Oh, yes, please, all of you. I'm on fire."
As Lawrence glided up her body, his fingers and now thumb delighting her, he could see she was not exaggerating. Her elegant cheekbones and lush lips were flooded with colour, and he kissed her blisteringly and pressed into the luxurious cradle of her body once more.
She climaxed in an instant, taking him with her before he even had a chance to glide fully within. Just inside her entrance to paradise his pleasure was wrung from him in great shuddering bursts.
Here was truly a feast of the senses. He had travelled the world over and never met any woman as exciting or voluptuous as Juliet.
"Beautiful. Just beautiful. Your breasts. Manna from the gods." He leaned forward to lave each nipple, nibbling and suckling her tenderly until the throb in her womb grew too great to be ignored. "Your sweet moisture, like nectar. Your skin, sheer ambrosia."
Juliet gasped and called out his name, and he chuckled against her breast as she clutched his soft hair and climaxed.
He gave her a smile of triumph. "Remarkable. No one has ever responded to me like that before. Let's see what else I can do to you to make you zenith."
"All you have to do is look at me," she admitted, panting.
"Hmm, now that I would like to see. But touching you is so thrilling, I just can't seem to stop. Oh, my, what are you doing to me?"
"The same as you're doing to me?" she gasped as his huge length began to fill her once more.
"Listen, Juliet," he said, kissing her tenderly on the cheek and lips. "I really want to stay with you all morning, every morning, but I need to leave for a couple of hours to take care of some unpleasant duties. Then I promise you I'll come back and we'll talk."
"Talk?" she said, her eyes already glazing over again with desire.
He grinned. "Aye, talk. And any other kind of intercourse you'd like. I need to know where I stand with you. We need to discuss our future. I can't just leave this at one night."
"Future?" she echoed. "What kind of future?"
He blushed like a schoolboy, and looked around the rich yet modestly appointed chamber decorated in gold and green. It wasn't quite what he expected of her….
"I don't know, Juliet. I mean, I've been engaged twice in my life, but it was never, well, it was never romantic. This time I want to do it right."
"This time? You mean me?" she gasped.
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