Carole Mortimer, $3.49, ISBN 978-1-914336-02-7
Historical Romance, 2022
The Wager is the first entry in Carole Mortimer’s series, the ominous-sounding Ruthless Regency Dukes. The basic premise is that there were once six dukes that were all buddy-buddy until one of them was killed, and now, like Voltron, all five of them will combine to track down the killer. One story at a time, of course, because mommy has a series to sell.
So there will be at least five titles in this series, although a part of me has a strong feeling that the dead duke will turn out alive after all for the sixth entry.
This one is about Grayson Vaughn, the Duke of Flint. You know the drill: he’s cold-hearted, ruthless, blah blah blah.
Then, there’s our heroine Chastity.
Which was probably why it had come as such a surprise to Chastity, the first time she set eyes on Grayson Vaughn, to feel what felt like an inferno blaze into life inside her.
The center of that heat had been between her thighs.
The purpose of the tiny nubbin, hidden amongst the folds above the entrance to her channel, had been something of a mystery to Chastity until the moment she looked at the Duke of Flint, when it had immediately stood erect and become plump and aching. There had also been a wetness between her legs that dampened her drawers.
Oh my god, the power of thighs, er, Christ compels thee!
Her breasts, something she had hitherto believed were only to initially nurture any offspring she might eventually have until a wetnurse took on the task, had become so swollen inside the bodice of her gown, it had become uncomfortable for her to breathe. The rosy nipples her aunt had forbidden her to look at before, during, or once out of her bath, had tingled and swollen to what felt like the size of ripe raspberries. They had also felt so sensitive that every brush of her camisole against them caused Chastity to draw in a shaky breath as it sent that heat coursing through her body to her core.
I have to admit, though, it’s refreshing to come across a heroine that openly admits that she’s a horny hungry hippo, instead of one that disguises her lust as some kind of true love or some martyred cause for her father or whatever.
However, her father is involved in the picture: he’s playing way too deep against Grayson, and she’s determined to extricate her father from that man before they all end up on the streets.
On his part, Grayson suspects that the old man is involved in his friend’s death, because the old man is teetering at the brink of financial ruination, so hey, it’s justice to completely ruin him at the basis on him possibly being guilty. Oh, the old man has a daughter? Well, he’ll ruin her too, because the old man dares to be a suspect in the murder mystery.
Our hero will fit right in in Twitter today, and he’d probably be proud of his blue check mark too.
The throb of Grayson’s rapidly engorging cock indicated that might be the case.
He could not remember ever being so instantly attracted to any woman, let alone one so young and unsophisticated as this one.
But perhaps it was the thought of debauching that innocence that was the attraction?
At least, Grayson presumed she was innocent.
Ah yes, how dare the heroine be some kind of ho! She better not be!
Even the thought that Chastity might not live up to her name did not please him.
Thinking of some other man touching all her silky loveliness pleased him even less.
People, this is what happens when you do not hug your children enough. They grow up to become this jackass.
The rest of the story sees him going all “Undress and let me paw you, because your father is in debt with me!” and she trying to give him lip, and later on he will wonder whether she dislikes him. You know, if my estimation of him hadn’t reached rock bottom by then, it surely would have after reading that bit.
Could it be that Chastity was, as Lincoln was implying, a devious young miss willing to do anything to protect her father?
Had Grayson, like the fool Lincoln was implying him to be, fallen for what he had believed to be Chastity’s innocence but was actually a deliberate plan of seduction on her part?
Damn it, if nothing else, Lincoln was perfectly correct in questioning what innocent young lady of Society would know how to perform fellatio in the expert manner Chastity had upon Grayson the previous evening.
Dear God, he had been taken for a fool!
A blind and sexually befuddled fool who was old enough to know better.
If she’s a virgin, she would displease him in bed. If she pleased him too much in bed, oh my god, then she’s a ho that dares to seduce him and trick him… after he deliberately made sure that she has no way out of the web he has lured her to.
Is this man bloody stupid, or is he just a poor darling that, as a child, fell down the stairs and hit his head against each step on the way down?
Oh, and yes, Grayson is wrong about her father. Oops. Still, the author has him acting like the most self-righteous twat in the land anyway, and it’s really a good thing that Chastity is so horny for him that it’s true love after one too many rogering has clearly unhinged her mind.
I normally prefer not to swear as that will be crude and unbecoming of me, but Grayson Vaughn can absolutely go shove his head up his arse and roll down a rocky cliff for all I care.
