Robin Schone

Set in 1812, Devine's "The Pleasure Game" finds the virginal Lady Regina Olney conspiring against her protective, scheming father by learning the ways of the world from the proverbial boy next door. Set in 1750, Small's "Mastering Lady Lucinda" finds the young, widowed Lady Lucinda Harrington publicly humiliating three suitors. Incensed, they conspire to have her kidnapped and trained to enjoy the pleasures of matrimony. Lucinda, however, is a woman ahead of her time, and has a trick or two up her sleeve. "Risking It All," Johnson's contribution, also features a young widow. She is Felicia Greenwood, who gambles in Monte Carlo to save her villa. Just as she is about to lose her fortune, a handsome stranger offers assistance. Victorian-era principles notwithstanding, Felicia repays her mysterious benefactor by spending some wanton hours with him. Finally, there is Schone's "A Man and a Woman." The protagonist is a 48-year-old vicar's widow named Megan who trades places with a local prostitute to experience a night of sexual abandon with a man dressed as an Arab. (excerpted from Publisher's Weekly 2000 review)

The Price of Pleasure Anne Aimes is a lonely spinster who has spent her entire life caring for ailing, elderly parents. She is not beautiful, but she is wealthy. With no one left to love and nothing left to lose, she hires Michel des Anges—a beautiful man she briefly glimpsed 18 years earlier during her disastrous coming out—to give her one month of passion, memories to warm a cold, barren future. Michel des Anges—Michael of the Angels—is a beautiful prostitute renown for his expertise at bringing women pleasure. But a killing fire destroyed his beauty five years earlier. Now whores cringe at his touch. Yet one woman still desires him ... He accepts her offer: one month of pleasure for ten thousand pounds. But the price of pleasure is not paid in sterling pounds; it is paid in blood and flesh. Because everyone Michael has ever loved has been murdered. By using Anne as bait, he will draw out the killer. She doesn’t deserve her fate. But neither had the ones before her ...

LET ME BE YOUR FANTASY MAN ... FOR AS LONG AS THE STORM LASTS. Lady Abigail Wynfred escapes to a seaside cottage to bid her dreams farewell before marrying a staid English lord to please her family. Colonel Robert Coally convalesces in a nearby cottage to recuperate from a battle wound before returning to the Boer Wars. When a storm strikes, Robert takes refuge with Abigail. He has seen too much death. She has experienced too much loneliness. They vow to fulfill each others fantasies until the storm ends. But passion, they discover, is as unpredictable and life-altering as the elements ... * Originally published in the anthology "Captivated"

WOULD YOU CRY FOR AN ANGEL? Penniless and desperate to escape the London streets where a mysterious man stalks her, Victoria Childers auctions off her virginity at the infamous House of Gabriel, a tavern where every carnal pleasure can be satisfied. But Gabriel, the untouchable proprietor who purchases her, doesn’t want her innocense. Too late Victoria discovers she is a pawn, sent to Gabriel by the man who had viciously violated him fourteen years earlier. A man Gabriel will do anything...sacrifice anyone...to kill. WOULD YOU BEG AN ANGEL? Irresistibly drawn to the beautiful, dangerous proprietor who has walled himself away from human touch, Victoria vows to free Gabriel and give him the intimate pleasures he denies himself. Sexual acts that he, a former prostitute, provided for a price ... and paid for in pain and betrayal. WOULD YOU DIE FOR AN ANGEL? Victoria’s guileless passion plunges Gabriel into a masterminded plot in which he must choose between revenge and redemption, death and desire. LET THE GAMES BEGIN...

When thirty-nine-year-old Elaine Metcliffe awakens one morning, she is astounded to find herself in a strange bed, in another century--inhabiting the body of another woman. In this, her "new" life, she is married to English baron Charles Mortimer--dark, breathtakingly handsome--and bent not only on seducing the resentful young woman he believes her to be, but educating her in practices of physical pleasure Elaine has never dared to imagine. Torn between fidelity to the passionless husband she left behind and the exquisite temptation Charles offers with every touch, Elaine will discover that the dark magic responsible for her transport to this time and place is no match for the carnal delights that make her want to stay...

Four all-new hot tales of yore, by the queens of erotic fiction. USA Today bestselling author Robin Schone shares a tale of a man and a woman in a notorious club, who learn how very dangerous desires of the flesh can be. Claudia Dain heats up this collection with the story of two voyeuristic young courtesans who might just take part in a very public seduction at the theatre. Allyson James has a card-playing, cunning widower and a desperate young widow learn that passion is the ultimate wild card. And finally, Shiloh Walker introduces a short story of a woman saved by a shapeshifter. Now, if only she could think of a way to repay him? Rarely does such blush-worthy, heated erotica exist-and almost never all in one book.

Married young to a man hand-picked by her father, Elizabeth Petre is an ideal Victorian lady. She has borne two sons and endured sixteen years of selfless duty in a passionless marriage. Craving a man's loving touch yet loyal to her wedding vows, Elizabeth is determined to seduce her coldly indifferent husband. She knows of only one man who can teach her the erotic secrets of love. The bastard son of an English countess and an Arab sheik, Ramiel Devington was reared to embrace both Western culture and Eastern pleasure. Scorned by society and challenged by prim Elizabeth's request, he undertakes her instruction in the art of sensual delight. But when the lessons become a temptation neither can resist, Elizabeth is forced to choose between obligation and a bold, forbidden passion.

Frances Hart spent her life as a devoted wife and mother. Now, newly widowed, she is determined to discover all Victorian London has to offer and to experience real passion for the first time. Acclaimed barrister James Whitcox knows no equal among his peers, but he also knows there's more to life than professional expertise and duty. He is determined to be equally versed in the pleasures of the flesh. To that end, he joins the very secret Men and Women's Club, an exclusive society founded to examine and explore the many aspects of human sexuality. And when their paths cross, Frances's honesty and need inspire James to action: Together they will tutor each other in physical desire, in passion and in love.