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

It didn’t take long for me to reach the summit and tumble over.


Of course I would have enjoyed it even more if it had actually been Geo touching me.


He had instructed me not to touch myself, but what could he do if he found out I had disobeyed him? Refuse to speak to me? Treat me coldly? I would not be precisely comfortable with that situation, but I was used to it, having been treated that way by John.


And there was the matter of the debt. We were tied together by that, and according to his calculations would be for the next three decades. I rather thought that no matter how displeased he was with me, unless he was willing to write off twelve thousand pounds completely, he would still come to see me for a few days each week.


I shivered, growing chilled now the heat of sexual excitement had been assuaged. I cleaned off my palm, drew on my nightshirt once more, and settled myself to sleep.


Chapter 69