Some desires can't be hidden...

Millicent “Missy” Armstrong is entering her fourth London Season, but not for lack of suitors. Since her debut three years ago, Missy has received twenty marriage proposals. But she is interested in only one man—her brother’s best friend, James Rutherford. As a child, Missy looked up to James. As a grown up, her admiration has blossomed into the longings of a beautiful, sensuous woman—and she won’t rest until James admits his love—and desire—for her…

James Rutherford rues the day he let his physical weaknesses get the better of him by kissing Missy. His best friend has made it clear that Missy is off limits, and though he’s avoided her for three years, he hasn’t forgotten the feel of her soft lips pressed against his—and it seems neither has she. For no matter how much James tries to discourage Missy, he keeps winding up in her arms, sharing heated caresses that promise the most delirious pleasure...

"IT'S LUST PLAIN AND SIMPLE"

    James saw her standing ever so still and quiet in the shadowed corner.
   He watched in dazed bewilderment as she stepped forward, her chestnut mane streaming loose to the middle of her back. He swallowed. She could have been an angel dressed in the flimsy white nightdress, but he knew better. To him, she was a temptress in disguise.
    James's desire rose swiftly and violently, clamoring inside him like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Despite the coolness of the air, he was suddenly hot, his nerves protesting the unforgiving confines of his skin.
   “Get out,” he said, his voice deceptively soft, deceptively low. The air around him had grown so dense he could cleave it with a knife.
    Instead of heeding his demand, Missy took several steps forward. The glow from the solitary tallow candle suffused her in a warm light. James swallowed again, his breathing an audible rasp in the silence of the night.
   “I know you felt something when you kissed me tonight,” she said softly.
   James nearly groaned aloud, convinced his worst enemy had sent her to test him, torture him.
   “Yes, and I believe you felt it too,” he replied, his voice harsh.
   She displayed no shock or surprise at his crude reference to just how hard he’d been pressed up against her down in the study. In fact her eyes, appearing more gray than blue at present, grew smoky, her lids weighed down by desire. Her gaze dropped to his chest and then to the unmistakable distention in the front of his trousers.
   James had nowhere to go. He stood exposed and trapped, caged like a hungry lion with a voracious appetite who’d just come upon his next meal.
   “You’re very beautiful and I’m a normal male. It’s lust, plain and simple. Don’t make more of it than that. As I’ve told you before, any desirable female would elicit the same response.”
   Again, she said nothing but took another step forward, the light now illuminating the full glorious length of her slim figure, her nipples jutting impudently against the soft cloth of her nightdress.
   He throbbed. His whole body throbbed.
   “Go back to your chamber,” he said, his voice strained and barely recognizable.
   She took another step closer, bringing her within inches of his tightly wound form. “It’s more than lust.”