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Category: Erotica/Erotic Romance/Historical Fiction
Description: Forced to seduce the dark and dangerous Earl Fforbes-Hyde, Dorian, Lady Lily Mercer soon learned that there were more dire consequences attached to seducing a man like Dorian than the threat that had driven her into his bed to start with.
eBook Publisher: New Concepts Publishing, 2012 2012
eBookwise Release Date: September 2012

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [336 KB]
Words: 80568
Reading time: 230-322 min.

While the bustle that was happening around her sent a sizzle of excitement through Lady Lily Mercer's veins, it also brought a thrill of fear.

The hundreds of people roaming around her aunt's London townhouse were here for her, and their numbers were steadily increasing as the hours passed.

On a deep inhalation, Lily walked slowly into the crowd and knew that even last week, when she had attended court and been presented to the sovereign herself, she had not been so nervous. There was something distinctly unnerving about a come out. Here, all eyes were on her, on any faux pas she might make, on her dress, on her deportment. The number of errors she could make were numerous and almost the entire guest list would relish the idea of a good gossip at Lily's expense.

That was another fact that she had come to dislike about London, the maliciousness of the people and all because they were bored! Lily had never known anything like it!

Had she had her mama at her side and not her aunt then Lily knew that she would have been fine. Instead, her aunt was here and her mama was at the family seat in Cheshire, hibernating from life in the family estate as she mourned Lily's papa's passing. Although her father had died eighteen months earlier, her mother still grieved him as though mere hours had passed and not almost two years.

Gathering her skirts in her hand, Lily grimaced as the action prodded her into looking down, and, once again, she spied the golden bodice of her dress. It appeared as though her dear Aunt Millie had slipped a whispered message to Madame Boliage when she had been measured for the dress by her aunt's modiste, one that meant her niece's coming out dress was not the respectable white linen it ought to have been and, instead, was a clinging white crepe-back satin in the Empire line, but to her provincial sensibilities, the bust was entirely indecent.

She had to quell the overwhelming desire to rush upstairs and return to her suite to hide at least a small part of her decollete with a fichu. The urge was uppermost in her mind and, strangely, it eased her nerves to some extent. It was with difficulty that she turned from the refreshment tables and cast a weary eye over the proceedings.

The ballroom took up one whole floor of her Aunt Millie and Uncle George's London mansion. The heat was oppressive and came from both the crush and the extraordinary amount of candles. It made it hard to breathe and she wished that she could walk out on to the balcony without being missed, but, as the epicenter of this event, she could hardly disappear as she so wanted.