I cannot find this book or any others by the same author because I forgot the author's name! I know it was a woman who wrote a whole bunch of historical romances. The specific one I remember is that the heroine was named Althea or Athena or something close to that. She was tied up in a brothel while still a virgin, and this rake comes in not realizing she was a virgin. I think he ends up bringing her home and marrying her at some point.If this rings a bell, please let me know!
Rakish Matthew Dane is out on the Town for a bit of adventure and variety. Visiting a new brothel he has never tried before, he is presented with the most delectable woman he has ever seen, who is tied to the bed and blindfolded.Thinking it is no more than an erotic game, Matthew and the alluring young woman share the ultimate bliss--until he takes off her blindfold, and d Rakish Matthew Dane is out on the Town for a bit of adventure and variety. Visiting a new brothel he has never tried before, he is presented with the most delectable woman he has ever seen, who is tied to the bed and blindfolded.Thinking it is no more than an erotic game, Matthew and the alluring young woman share the ultimate bliss--until he takes off her blindfold, and discovers he has just made love to the last woman he ever expected to see in such a depraved place: his chaste young cousin Althea.Kidnapped from her home, drugged with opium and sold, the orphaned Althea has no recollection of how she got there, and is terrified that whoever grabbed her will try to seize her again. All she knows is that she has always desired Matthew, and Fate seems to have presented her with all she could wish for in their passionate encounters.Matthew is torn between his yearnings for Althea, with every touch and look leaving him craving more of her sensual sweetness, and his shock at what he has done. He is even more haunted by what might have happened if he had not come along in time to save her. Yet to seek her kidnappers is to put her at risk all over again. Althea has been in love with Matthew for as long as she can remember. Tired of being treated like a victim or empty-headed Society belle, she wages a campaign to put behind her the traumatic ordeal which brought them together so unexpectedly.Althea is willing to fight using every weapon in her arsenal to win Matthew's love, and stop her husband from seeking solace with the many women who wish to be his mistress, including cunning Matilda and manipulative Georgina Jerome.When another young woman goes missing near her childhood home, Althea must risk all in a depraved and deadly game to save the kidnapped girl. Althea will stop at nothing to uncover the identity of the criminal mastermind who has engineered the ring of debauchery lurking under the pleasant facade of aristocratic society.Can Matthew save his one true love before it’s too late? ...more