“Certainly you are to blame,” Raven retorted. “If not for your deception, I would never have agreed to…to what you proposed.”

His grin was slow and unequivocally rakish. “To satisfy my sexual needs, you mean?”

“Yes…that. I consented only to keep you from lusting after other women when you are supposed to be showering me with the attention due a new bride.”

“I hope you don’t intend to back out of our agreement now.”

“I would have every right! My decision was made under false pretenses.”

Having finished tying his neckcloth, he drew on a simple leather waistcoat. “I don’t see that the circumstances have changed since last evening. Regardless of Miss Walsh’s status, if you want me to show you fidelity, the surest way is to honor your conjugal obligations.” He gave her a penetrating glance as he fastened the buttons. “That’s more than you’ve promised me, vixen. I don’t see you offering to give up your fantasy lover for my sake.”

Raven’s brows drew together. “The situations are not at all similar. Having an imaginary lover cannot be compared to taking a real live mistress-which legally could be considered adultery.”

“Some men might consider it more insulting,” Kell said softly, “being cuckolded by a fantasy.”

“You know very well why I resort to fantasy.”

“I think I do. You’re acting the coward.”

Raven gave him a genuine scowl this time. Biting back a tart retort, however, she managed to say with remarkable calm, “I don’t intend to let you provoke me. And in any event, I won’t be able to see to your…carnal needs for much longer. I will be leaving at the end of next week to join my grandfather for the holidays.”

“I know. Luttrell said as much in his letter.”

“What letter?”

“He sent me an invitation of my own, asking me to spend Christmas at his estate.”

Raven stared at Kell in surprise. “He did? Whatever for?”

“How the devil do I know? Perhaps because I’m your husband.”

“I suppose he wants to make amends for the shameful way he treated you.”

Kell made no reply as he shrugged into his tailored burgundy jacket.

“Well, do you mean to go?” Raven asked impatiently.

His expression remained infuriatingly enigmatic. “I haven’t decided yet.”

She wanted to hit him.

“I expect it would be good for appearances,” he added casually before she could erupt. “We could keep up the pretense of marital bliss and lay to rest once and for all the question of our union…about it being a love match.”

“Yes,” Raven replied with a troubled frown. “I imagine we could at that.”

“I’m presuming, of course, that we can refrain from indulging in anything more intimate than sex.” He shot her another arch look. “I believe I could manage it; could you?”

“I suppose so,” Raven said reluctantly, although with far less conviction than she felt.

Kell flashed her a crooked smile. “You needn’t be so afraid. Our agreement is for conjugal relations, nothing more. Merely a convenient physical arrangement.”

When she didn’t reply, he crossed to her. “I will see you tonight then.”

“Tonight?” Raven echoed, looking up at him in surprise.

“I intend to leave the club early and be home by midnight.” Bending, he gave her lips a brief, hard kiss. “I want you to be waiting for me. In bed. Naked.”

Speechless, she stared after Kell as he turned away and let himself from the room.

For the entire remainder of the day and evening, Raven wavered in indecision.

One moment she had every intention of refusing Kell her bed. It vexed her thoroughly, his assumption that he only had to command her and she would obey. And he had deliberately misled her about Emma’s status as his mistress.

Yet when Raven recalled the incredible passion they had shared last night, her resolve faltered. Why shouldn’t they enjoy each other physically? What would be the harm? If they kept their intimacy to a minimum, there would be little risk of falling in love with him. Was she really such a coward that she had to deny herself what little pleasure her marriage could offer?

Admittedly, she wanted Kell. In his presence she felt more alive than she had imagined possible. Like her fantasy pirate’s, Kell’s erotic touch excited her and challenged her restless soul.

As the evening drew on, Raven couldn’t quell her sense of anticipation at the night to come. By the time midnight struck, her nerves were screaming with sensual tension. A short while later she heard Kell in their dressing room.

When eventually he entered her bedchamber and shut the door behind him, her heart leapt. She had turned down the bedside lamp, but in the dim glow she could see he wore a dressing gown of black and gold brocade. Even across the room, his intense magnetism affected her.

He went to the hearth first and stirred the fire before coming to stand beside her bed. The heat of his gaze was just as arousing as it had been this morning; his first comment just as provoking and provocative. “Are you naked as I asked?”

Raven drew a sharp breath. “As it happens, I am,” she observed coolly. “But if you expect me to be your obedient servant, you can think again.”

His mouth curved in a sensual smile. “I cannot imagine you being obedient unless you choose to be. But I’m pleased that on this occasion, you decided to honor my request.” His gaze skimmed the outline of her body under the covers. “I have thought of you all day, vixen…” Untying the sash of his dressing gown, he let it fall open to reveal his own nude body. “As you can see.” His arousal stood pulsing and erect.

Raven’s blood began to race.

“Have you been lying here, thinking of me coming into you?” he asked in a rough-velvet murmur.

She couldn’t deny she had been doing exactly that, but she didn’t wish to give Kell the satisfaction of knowing it. Before she could think of a retort, however, he held out a black satin bag.

Raven suspected the contents even before Kell sat beside her on the bed and showed her. There were several sponges with thin strings attached, along with a small bottle of amber liquid.

“The precaution you requested,” he said as he wet one of the sponges.

“What is that?”

“Brandy.” He gently tugged down the covers to bare her body. “Open your legs.”

She shivered in the cool air, yet she didn’t protest when his fingers probed between her thighs. Instead she shut her eyes and let him press the brandy-soaked sponge deep inside her. The sensation was thrilling, and even more arousing when his thumb deliberately stroked the bud of her sex. Raven bit back a moan.

“I would say you are ready for me,” Kell said in approval. “Hot and wet and eager…”

When his fingers buried inside her, her hips arched up off the bed, but he left off teasing her.

“Not so quickly,” he murmured with an edge of amusement. “Last night I did most of the work. Now it is your turn.”

When she opened her eyes to stare up at him in frustration, he shook his head. “You are supposed to be pleasuring me, wife, remember?”

Shrugging out of his dressing gown, he pushed the covers aside and lay back upon the bed.

Disbelieving his audacity, Raven raised herself up on one elbow but found her gaze riveted by the sight of him. His male nudity enticed her senses; he was beautiful, so beautiful she forgot to breathe.

“Well?” he taunted softly. “Do you intend to take all night?”

She cursed beneath her breath, trying to deny the pulsing need running rampant inside her. Yet his vital intensity was like a magnet, drawing her to him.

She let her gaze roam over him; over his erection that lay arched against his belly, over the powerful thighs and calves that were lightly dusted with hair…

When he saw where her fascinated gaze was fixed, he arched his back slowly, like a big sleek cat stretching, flaunting his manhood even more. “Are you afraid to touch me?”

“No, I am not afraid,” she lied. “Only vexed by your insufferable arrogance.”

Kell gazed at her steadily, the promise of sexual pleasure gleaming in his dark eyes. “Then touch me,” he demanded, his voice seductive.

Steeling herself, she reached down to brush his loins with her hand. His phallus surged eagerly against her fingertips, almost burning her.

“If you need instruction…” he said when she hesitated.

“I don’t.”

Defiantly, she rose to kneel over Kell and placed both palms on his hard-muscled chest, determined to make him swallow his taunts.

His skin was heated velvet when she caressed him, his muscles smooth and firm beneath her fingers. She ran her hands down his body, exploring his tapering chest, his lean waist, his flat belly…his towering erection.

He tensed when she stroked him there, but she didn’t stop. Deliberately she fondled him, applying the erotic methods she’d learned from the journal, the same exquisitely sensual methods Kell had used on her last night.

She suspected, however, that her assault was proving just as arousing to her as to him. She loved the feel of him under her hands, the way he pulsed and hardened to her touch, the way he seemed to relish the pleasure she was giving him. But she knew from the journal how she could increase the pleasure.

She left off stimulating him and reached for the brandy bottle he had left on the bedside table. One dark eyebrow shot up in question when she wet her fingers with the liquor, but when she touched him, Kell shuddered and gave a low groan of sensual pain. His response delighted Raven and sent her pulse thrumming in her veins.

“Does it please you when I do this?” she asked, her own tone provocative.