A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel (The Doomsday Books, #2)

by K.J. Charles

Oh God, he was making such a bad mistake. He knew it all too well, but Luke was very good at not thinking about things he didn’t want to face: he’d been well trained. The realisation only hit home at occasional moments, such as when he found that he’d been daydreaming of Oxney at his desk, and realised his prick was thick and heavy with it. This was stupid beyond belief. He’d lost his last position because his employer had wanted his body as well as his talents; he ought to know where that led. Admittedly, he’d been very happily seduced by his employer in the position before that, to no ill effect, but Lord Corvin was an excellent man to be seduced by, mostly because he was quite frank about what he offered. Entertainment if you care for it, no hard feelings if you don’t, he had said in so many words, and Luke had indeed been entertained. That wasn’t this. That was nothing like this, because while Luke had liked Corvin, he hadn’t cared for him in the slightest. That was why he’d fucked him: because for all his vaunted brains, Luke was painfully aware that he did not love intelligently. So he tried his best not to love at all. He chose as partners men who could fuck with friendliness and part without dramatics, because he had control of his life these days, and didn’t intend to lose it again. But there was still a kernel of him that was a desperate, lost, hungry thing, and no matter how hard he tried to starve it out, it was always there, poking its head out at a sniff of a...