Ashton Laytham was a happy little boy until, at the age of seven, he lost his parents. Sent to Fayerweather to be brought up by his uncle and his uncle’s wife, he was perceived to be an unhappy, unlovable child. Shunned by family and servants and permitted no friends to visit, he grows to adulthood alone and aloof, with only an occasional illicit rendezvous to lighten his days. When his uncle dies, leaving the estate virtually bankrupt, it’s left to Ashton to make good on his uncle’s gaming debts and save Fayerweather. But how? The family talisman, worth thousands of pounds, has been stolen and the suspects vanished in the night, leaving Ashton to face the loss of the home he’s come to love. Geo Stephenson, who works in His Majesty’s civil service, has ghosts of his own. The product of a marriage of convenience, Geo has known all his life his father never loved his mother, and he vows that will never happen to him. Marked by a physical scar earned in battle, none of his previous lovers could bear looking at it without shuddering; his mental scars are due to the many friends lost in useless battles. Geo arrives with a fistful of Sir Eustace Laytham’s IOUs and a solution: Ashton accommodating him in bed, thereby paying off the debt. Attracted to Geo in spite of himself and desperate for any human kindness, Ashton agrees ... never expecting to lose his heart to a man who has sworn he’ll never give his. Can these two men find a measure of happiness together?

Bless Us With Content

I expected to find myself whirled around and carelessly thrust back against the door, an action my still-tender back would regret, but before I could open my mouth to object, Geo pulled me against him with negligent ease.


Oddly enough, I didn’t in the least feel overpowered, but nevertheless, I did feel the need to protest his handling of me. “Sir, I—”


The fight went out of me immediately. I’d thought what with him being the first man to kiss me that perhaps I’d built up the experience all out of proportion, but it was even better than I recalled. I kissed him back with everything I had, kneading the muscles of his shoulders as they bunched and flowed, uncaring I might be revealing too much.


“Really, sir. There was no need to maul me,” I murmured as I pressed myself against him and nuzzled the side of his throat.


“I apologise, Ashton. I hadn’t expected to leave just yet, at least not until we’d had more than one night…”


Chapter 48