Alyssa is a good girl - until her father dies and their home is sold to pay his gambling debts. Lord Worthington may have hired her to tutor his grandchildren, but first she has to reach his fine manor safely after being abandoned in a horrible storm! The four virile men who run the country inn where she takes sanctuary are happy to offer her food and lodging...in exchange for her innocence!

Nate kept telling her more stories that were so funny, she barely even cared when they began bordering on raunchy. Her blushes, she assured herself, could be written off to laughter and the stove’s heat as easily as virginal embarrassment.

Alyssa envisioned an entirely different scenario and nodded her confused agreement.

“Her ladyship insisted on stayin’ an extra three days ’til she was sure Khenan was in top form. He bore it like a trooper, to be sure, and decided the country life was so much to his likin’, he stayed on to tend our horses.”

So he wasn’t a slave after all, she realized, and tried to wrap her mind around the concept of a black man being a valued employee.

“She had to be carried out to their coach, poor woman, she was that tuckered out,” Nate was saying when she finally recalled herself. “But his lordship had enjoyed the stay, and Betsy got a nice purse from it, so everyone was happy. And she makes certain they pass through here every fortnight or so - to check on Khenan’s, ah, good health.”

“She sounds like a remarkable lady,” Alyssa murmured, baffled but warmed by the woman’s obvious devotion to the massive black stable hand.

“Aye, that she is.” Nate chuckled and turned away to unobtrusively adjust the fit of his breeches. Just the lurid memory had made him hard as rock, and Alyssa’s obvious innocence was an extra thrill.