Free My Angel by Christine Young

She moved closer to him. "I hear you're a man of many pleasures."
     
    He put her aside, and, refastening his pants, he stepped from the alcove. "You heard wrong."
     
    Suddenly disgusted with Velvet and with his own base desires, Devil strode down the stairs and into the parlor. At least twenty ladies plied their wares, laughing, drinking and smoking. He moved down the hallway and out the front door until he encountered fresh, clean air.
     
    Leaning against a pillar, he let his mind wander back to Angela. He saw a lifetime of hot pursuit and exciting surrender with her.
     
    He wanted Angela's long, coltish legs wrapped around him every night. With her by his side, her smile captivating all the seconds of his day, he could almost feel he'd achieved nirvana. Her bold honesty enticed him. Her innocent passion beckoned him. Instinctively, he knew she was the woman for him, his mate for the rest of his life.
     
    The thought of taking a wife for the sole purpose of begetting an heir filled him with loathing, but he could see no solution to his dilemma. His grandmother would never accept Angela as his wife--as the mother of the heir.
     
    He could not marry a whore.
     
    Who would know?
     
    Allah, the most desirable woman he'd ever known was a prostitute. That was fitting revenge, he supposed, for all the women he'd made love to in his lifetime. The one woman who made him feel things deep inside as no other, he couldn't marry because she wasn't a virgin.
     
    The fact changed little. He still wanted her in his bed and his life. With an arrogance he freely admitted, he planned to have her beneath him in his bed as soon as he could provide the proper environment. When he made love to her, it would be on a soft bed, and the room would be filled with candlelight. He wouldn't let the depraved Lawrence Stevens or the greedy Madame leBon stand in his way. As soon as he'd done his part in rescuing Emma, he would find Angela, kidnap her if necessary, and hightail it out of the country.
     
    Of course, the realization that she would give herself to him without protest or the time-consuming seduction needed with a virgin lightened his mood. Hot passion and seductive nights with a spirited hellion in his arms was a lot to look forward to.
     
    He struck a match on the pillar and lit a smoke. Embers floated lazily down from the cigarette. He watched and waited, coiled tightly and primed for anything. A cool breeze came down from the mountains, hinting at a possible late snow.
     
    A head start on the weather would be nice, he mused. His gear was packed and ready; he needed only to add a few extra essentials for Angela. Midnight. He breathed deeply with thought. When the clock struck twelve or possibly sooner, he and Angela would be on their way east. In a few days they'd catch the train in Cheyenne then on to New York , where his ship waited for him.
     
    She'd had such a strange reaction to his comments about women and their bodies. She'd bristled like a little tigress defending her cubs. And he'd told her the truth. He did prefer a woman who was not afraid to use her body for pleasure. Remembering the cold, aristocratic women his grandmother had introduced him to when he lived in Russia with her sent rivers of ice down his spine. To bed one of those ladies would be like bedding a statue. He would not--could not--endure that without the thought of his Angel to return to.
     
    During his life with his father, he'd seen and made love to many exotic women. His father, the grand vizier, had a harem full of beautiful women. None, he thought, were as mysterious as Angela. His father had abducted his mother, brought her to his palace as a slave, but he'd quickly learned of her nobility. And just as quickly he'd fallen in love with her, naming her his first wife.
     
    His father had no trouble forgetting his mother's earlier marriage to a Russian aristocrat, claiming the marriage no longer existed. Yet when her former husband and firstborn son had