'I had determined never to touch another woman this way until she had consented to be my wife.' 'I can marry you,' Rachel said eagerly. 'I have given into a temptation I thought I had under control,' he said. And she had never been kissed thus, with lips that moved over hers, parting and persuading hers to do the same. Rachel had never been held thus, against the full, warm length of a man's body. It was a challenge Rachel could not ignore-from a man she could not resist… Gower made it clear that the ravishing Rache represented everything he scorned, and that he was the very last man in the world she could ever ensnare. Every gentleman, that is, except Lord Rivers' closest friend, the studiously unfashionable and splendidly handsome Mr.

Every gentleman in aristocratic society, including her devoted fiancé, Lord Algernon Rivers, fell a willing victim to Rachel's dazzling beauty and bewitching charm. Lady Rachel Palmer was quite used to men falling helplessly in love with her. I had no wish to see you last night, I had no wish to drive with you this afternoon-and I should be happy never to see you again.' That, she told herself, should be that.

And when you came to me with your insulting offer of marriage, I thought I had made it abundantly obvious that I both hate and despise you. Mainwaring,' she informed him, 'when I refused to dance or converse with you at the marquess's ball, I believed, I had made it clear that I had no wish to renew our acquaintance. Now, when he informed her that she had been acting most unladylike toward him, her patience snapped. William Mainwaring simply would not abandon his pursuit of her-and his campaign to reconquer the heart he had so sinfully won and then so shamelessly abandoned was casting a dark shadow over Helen's glittering London Season. Miss Helen Wade had been driven to the limits of self-restraint. HOW COULD SHE LOVE A MAN WHOM SHE COULD ONLY DESPISE? How could Lady Helen Wade possibly love a gentleman like William Mainwaring handsome and wealthy as he might be? How could she love this object of her two older sisters matrimonial designs? How could she love this cad who was shockingly involved with another man's wife? How could she love this rogue who shamelessly employed his seductive skills on an innocent young country miss he came upon in the woods…especially when he was so successful in planting Eros's arrows and when his willing victim was Helen herself…?

Unforgiven by mary balogh