“Cooper?” Emily’s breath leached from her chest as she stared at what appeared to be her husband. Except, just a moment ago, Miranda, one of the ladies of The Market, had been sitting right there.

“Good evening, wife.” His dark eyes glittered in the low light of the alcove. “Which of the three vignettes would you choose?”

Oh, no. He was there. Next to her. And his friends—she had certainly recognized the three handsome men—were just on the other side of the glass. Having sex. A great deal of sex.

“G-good evening.” Was her face on fire? Her cheeks burned as though someone had set them alight with a match.

He leaned into her, so close his breath only added to the conflagration that was spreading over her body. “You have yet to answer my question.”

Every thought her brain had contained fled as soon as he spoke. “Your question?”

What was her husband doing at The Market? How had he known she would be there?

“Which would you choose?” He waved his hand toward his friends on the other side of the glass.

Slowly, she turned her head and took in the scene. Things had progressed since she’d last looked at them. Wolf was now plunging his cock in and out of the tied-up woman’s pussy. With each thrust, she rose up on her toes. Linc was stroking his shaft as he exploded, shooting across the sheets as the woman continued to shuttle in and out of his arse. And then there was Flint, who occupied two ladies. The man had the blonde woman on her knees as he pumped into her from behind while she buried her face between the brunette’s thighs.

And her husband wished to know which was her preference? He was not angry? He was not shocked that she was there? Apparently, he simply wished to know which grouping appealed to her.

“Wolf and the redhead.”

Cooper reached up and drew a finger across her collarbone and down over her cleavage. Gooseflesh rippled across her skin in his wake as her breath hitched.

“Would you perhaps like to explain how you came to be here this evening?” His voice rumbled in his chest.

What could she say? She wanted to learn about his sexual preferences? Needed to find a way to learn to trust him? To get him to trust her?

“I…you…sex.”

He let a wickedly erotic grin stretch his lips. “Oh, my little hellion. Cat got your tongue?”

Annoyance bubbled to the surface, pushing past desire and shock. “I am here trying to understand what it is you desire in bed.”

“I’d be happy to show you what I desire.” He rose from where they sat and held out his hand to her. “Come with me.”

Determined to seize the opportunity to explore what she had seen earlier with her husband, she stood and took his hand. He led her down the hall and then into a room that was a familiar blue.

Emily’s mind and heart raced. “Cooper, what if this is someone’s room?”

He offered a lazy smile as he stripped off his coat. “The doors here remain locked unless the occupant unlocks it—an invitation of sorts—or a member of the staff does. I assure you, Miranda made sure to leave the door unlocked for us once I joined you.”

“Oh.” Emily could not hide her surprise. Though when she considered her husband’s patronage of The Market and how quickly Miranda had departed upon his arrival, perhaps she should not be astonished in the least.

Cooper sat on the bench at the foot of the bed. “Come and sit with me, Emily. I believe a chat is in order.”

Hands trembling, she clasped them together in front of her as she took a seat beside him. He appeared so calm, though she had noticed the rather prominent bulge in his trousers.

“You saw many things this evening. Perhaps even heard a few that you may have questions about.” For the first time, she spotted the concern in his gaze. “I am at your disposal and will answer them as best as I am able.”

She blinked. Was her husband finally opening up to her? Trusting her with his secrets? Her heart stuttered. “Do you enjoy tying women up?”

He nodded. “I do. I enjoy having you at my mercy and knowing that your pleasure is mine to give.”

“And spanking? You enjoy doing that as well?” She bit her lip as she once more imagined Cooper tying her up and spanking her as Wolf had done to the redhead.

“If my partner enjoys it, then yes. I do not enjoy inflicting pain for pain’s sake. But a small amount of pain to heighten the pleasure is erotic indeed.” He shifted on the seat beside her.

Emily had so many more questions now, very specific ones. “How long were you with Miranda and me?”

“From the first window. I stumbled upon you downstairs.” He tugged at his necktie.

From the beginning. So, he had heard everything she’d said. Heat splotched her cheeks once more as she focused on her hands in her lap. “And if there were things I viewed that I wanted to try, you would be willing to try them with me?”

He reached over and tipped her chin up with the edge of his finger until she had no choice but to look him in the eye. “I catalogued every scene that evoked a soft ‘oh my.’ Every moment that caused you to squirm where you sat. Every touch that caused your breath to hitch. And I plan to explore every one with you in time. The question you need to answer is: Do you trust me to see to your pleasure?”

With their gazes locked and her heart slamming into her chest as though it needed to break free, she considered his question. She reached deep within and pulled out that small, delicate part of her soul that cried out and shrank away from so much exposure. A tear slipped from her eye as the truth nearly brought her to her knees. Silence stretched as she struggled within, even as she watched his face blanch.

Then she drew a deep breath, his obvious pain pushing her to speak the truth. “I want very much to trust you. I simply don’t know how.”

Despite the hurt she saw leech into his gaze, he nodded. “I much prefer your honesty to any false words meant to sooth my ego. If you are to learn to trust me, we must be completely honest with each other. If you do not enjoy something we try, you must tell me, and I you. Do you understand?”

A tendril of fear curled through her, but her desire to learn to trust him was far greater than her concern over emotional damage. “I understand.”

A small smile curved his lips slightly. “Good. Emily, I want very much to kiss you right now.”

Her own lips trembled with want. “Yes, please,” she whispered as she leaned toward him.

He swooped in and captured her lips, and drew his tongue along the seam seeking entrance. When she parted for him, he seized her mouth in an erotic tangling of their tongues. All the sexual tension that had built up as they had moved along the hall of mirrors ignited into a flame of desire that burned so hot, she was certain she’d be scorched.

Then her husband hauled her into his arms and continued to kiss her as though his very life depended on it. And for the moment, her heart seemed to agree.

Slowly, he drew away from her mouth to kiss and nibble her sensitive skin as he edged toward her ear. He sucked on the lobe for a moment, causing tingles to spiral down her spine and her nipples to harden beneath her corset. Arms tangled around his neck, all she could do was hang on as he discovered sensitive spots on her body she’d never known existed.

With his lips making a trail back toward her mouth, his clever fingers unhooked the back of her dress before he tugged and pulled at the laces of her corset.

She pressed a hand to his chest. “Cooper, let me.”

And then she stood. Her bodice was loose and slid easily down her arms. Then she reached behind and unfastened her skirt as his dark, mesmerizing eyes drank in her movements. Her skirt sagged while she found the ties of her over petticoat, hoop, and then her under petticoat. With everything loose, she pushed the bulk of the material down her legs. Unsure how to step out of the pile of fabric, her dilemma was solved as Cooper scooped her back into his arms and extracted her from the heap. With her pantalets, corset, and chemise all she had on, she stood before him once he set her down.

“So lovely,” he murmured as he removed his waistcoat and wasted no time in hauling his shirt over his head.

His chest was trim, though not overly muscled. And while she had seen her husband naked many times, something about the glint in his eye made her heart race as he stepped forward. With economic movements, he stripped her of her corset and chemise. Pausing to heft each breast in his palms, he stroked her puckered nipples with his thumbs. There was no possible way to hide the trembling of her body as she responded to his touch.

And when he leaned over her to suck one tip into his mouth, she moaned at the sheer bliss of his hot mouth engulfing her flesh. “Cooper,” she whispered, and slid her hands around his head and neck as though she might not let him go.

He shifted to her other breast, lavishing it with the same attention. With her knees gone soft as aspic, she clung to him to stay upright. He moved her back toward the bench they had recently occupied as he released her breast and untied her pantalets. Naked, she stood before him, both scared and enthralled with all the possibilities that lay ahead.

“Emily, do you remember the scene where the man was strapped down and whipped?” His rich voice had turned into a low rumbling that stoked the dull throb between her legs.

She nodded, her mouth gone dry.

“Speak to me. I need to hear you so I know you are with me in this.”

She licked her lips and tried to find what little moisture remained in her mouth. “Yes, I remember.”

“Good. Now, before there is more pleasure, we must address your recklessness,” he said as he turned her to face the bench.

“My recklessness?” Confusion muddled by need made it difficult for her to follow his intention.

He grunted. “Indeed. You must be punished for worrying me and for allowing yourself to be placed at risk by visiting The Market without me.”

Annoyance flared enough to clear the fuzziness of her thinking as she spun back around. “Now just one moment, husband. This is the very same location you had me come alone to in order to conduct our affair. How was that a safe choice and tonight is not?”

“I was here to meet you every time. You were here under my protection, which meant Madame de Pompadour was ensuring your safety.” He growled. “Tonight, you were traipsing through the hall of mirrors with naught but Miranda as escort. Any drunken fool could have stumbled across you and mistook you for an available woman.”

“Psh. Foolish man. I was here tonight under Madame’s protection…as your wife. I was perhaps safer now than I was as an unwed woman walking these halls.” Emily glared at him.

Cooper frowned. “Very well, perhaps not so vulnerable as I had thought. However, you did not discuss your visit with me. In fact, you purposefully hid it from me.”

She was stymied, because he was right. She had hidden her visit from him with the intention of trying to understand his needs and desires so she could better understand the man. “I did hide my intention to visit this establishment. But I had good reason.”

One of his brows rose in question or disbelief, she couldn’t decide which.

“And that would be?”

She bit her lip. Then, with a sigh, she turned back around to face the bench. “I’ve already told you why I was here.”

“I beg to differ. You told me what you hoped to learn…but not the reason for wanting to learn it.” He pressed his chest to her back and reached an arm around her waist. “Why were you here, Emily?”

Her eyes closed as she tried to find some version of the truth to appease him. But since she did not yet trust him by her own admission, she dared not give him her heart. “My reasons are my own.”

A small exhale laced with disappointment drifted over her left shoulder as he released her waist. “Then you will bend over and accept your punishment, my hellion.”

Her breath caught in her chest. He had spanked her once before, and she had loved it. The notion that she would love it once again both excited and scared her. Everything about her husband scared her, because she knew he could hurt her so deeply. With each new day, as she discovered the depth of her feelings for him, she realized her worst fear had come to pass. She was madly, deeply, irreversibly in love. And now she was married to him.

“I suppose I shall.”

“Bend over,” he growled as he placed his palm between her shoulder blades.

Doing as he bid, she bent over until her hands were flat on the bench.

“Lower, on your elbows.” He tapped her upper arm.

Again, she followed his guidance and found herself with her bottom high in the air. Then he nudged her feet apart until her pussy was exposed to the cool air.

The warmth of his palm settled on her upper back, and then he stroked down her spine and over her left cheek before moving over to the other side. “You will learn very quickly that I cannot abide lies between us. No more subterfuge. No more sneaking around London. Do you understand, wife?”

“I do,” she rasped as her nerves jangled in anticipation of the first blow.

“Very good.” He smacked her backside.

Heat bloomed along with a sharp pain that quickly dissipated into a dull throb. The second smack landed on the other side, and a matching heat and pain radiated over her flesh. He continued on with the next four spanks. The same as before, the pain fuzzed into pleasure, and all she could register was the heightened sensation that made her quim heat and her channel ache with the need to be filled.

As his palm repeatedly made contact with her backside, she edged deeper and deeper into needy desire. When he landed the final spank against her exposed pussy, she gasped as her body trembled on the verge of orgasm.

“Good God, you are soaked with need.” Her husband stroked her drenched pussy and slid a single finger deep inside her.

Her legs shook as she leaned heavily on her arms to keep from collapsing into a puddle of lust. When Cooper rubbed his hand over her heated buttocks and licked her slit, she lost all control. As he lapped at her from behind, she came hard. The room splintered into a thousand pieces, and her body melted into the cracks as bliss swept through her. His hands on her thighs braced her as her knees gave out and she all but collapsed into him. He held her up and continued to lick her until she was floating back to where they were.

Unsure of when he’d moved, she found herself lifted and deposited on the bed. Redolent with the aftermath of orgasm and a fresh wave of desire, she lay there and watched as her husband finished disrobing. She took in the sight of his strong thighs, well-formed calves, and the hard length of his cock as it jutted from his nest of dark curls. And she wondered what he would do to her next.