title: The Perfect Mistress: A Novel
author:  Betina Krahn 
description: Gabrielle Le Coeur's mother wants to make her into a rich man's mistress, but Gabrielle has other ideas. She wants to be a <i>wife</i>. Pierce St. James, a handsome, amoral viscount, is the perfect man to help her find a husband -- and he needs Gabrielle's aid to bring down a powerful enemy. But passion derails both their plans...
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  v1.0
  
  January 21, 2007
  
  The Perfect Mistress
  
  Betina Krahn
  
  PASSIONATE BARGAIN
  
  Pierce St. James lay back on one elbow on the divan, staring at Gabrielle.
  
  "You propose to purchase my services as a lover, for money?"
  
  "Not as an actual  lover. As a lover in name only," she clarified, adding,
  
  "And only for a few weeks."
  
  The notion captured his jaded fancy, insinuating itself into his highly
  developed sense of the absurd, In name only. The term applied to marriages,
  not affairs. And it was that very fact—the perfect irony of pretending to sin
  
  —that appealed to the social scapegrace in him. What a delicious game that
  could be. And how very interesting of her to propose such a thing.
  
  He slid his gaze over her curvaceous form and lush, intriguing mouth…
  
  which just now was set with concentration.
  
  "Agreed," he told her. "But I think a bargain as unique as this should be
  sealed with something more befitting than a clasp of hands."
  
  Before Gabrielle realized what he inte