Wicked Under the Covers
by Barbara Pierce
Published: June 2006
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312348215
Page Count: 352
Reviewer: Sandra Marlow





Fayre Carlisle should be heartbroken, but she is more spitting mad than anything else. Having thought she had found the love of her life, having given her virginity to him after his enthusiastic pursuit of her, her new world comes crashing down around her when she finds her new lover, Lord Thatcher Standish, in the arms of another woman the very night he finally seduces Fayre into his bed. She is ruined all because her father's former mistress wants revenge for having her role in the duke's life usurped by a younger playmate. Lord Standish and his new paramour had better watch their backs. Lady Fayre has just learned the hard way what it truly means to be a Carlisle.

One glimpse of the bewitching beauty has Maccus Brawley discovering a surprising bit of information about Fayre Carlisle, followed by his decision that she will be the one to teach him what he needs to know to be accepted into polite society. Something he has wanted for a while now, something that will finally separate him from his former life of crime. He has the money and the property that the ton always recognizes, but what he needs is the proper entrée to find a wife that will seal his new-found position once attained. Beautiful, alluring, and currently ruined Lady Fayre is just the one to help him. Mac is about to offer the lady a bargain she would be a fool to refuse.

Fayre wants nothing to do with men after her debacle with Lord Standish, but even she is not immune to Mac's charm when he sets his mind on wanting something, and he wants Fayre. And she realizes she needs his help to exact her revenge on the maiden-ruining duo who are still trying to bring her down. She refuses to leave London and let the gossips have their way with what is left of her reputation. Spending afternoons with Mac to soften his rough edges is not as bad as she had initially contemplated, especially once she has learned little tidbits of his life, but there is something more about this man that calls to her now-awakened sensuality. Throwing caution to the wind, despite her wariness, Fayre gives herself to Mac and learns that she knew nothing about love at all during her first disastrous coupling, that everything else pales in comparison to the love she feels for Mac.

Maccus' plans have changed. He doesn't want any other woman of the ton as a wife, he wants only Fayre. He thought to never know love, but that is certainly what he has found with her. However, knowing how skittish she is because of Standish's betrayal and ineptitude as a lover, Mac knows he must deal tenderly with Fayre, hoping she can love him despite his past. And there is still the revenge he's meting out on his love's behalf; he must do things that would hurt her if she ever found out what he is up to. Fayre has experienced betrayal once again at the hands of the man she thought she could always trust. How can he now be in league with her enemies, the two people who used her so grievously? How could she be such a fool to trust a man again, especially when that man is Maccus Brawley, who apparently cares for no one but himself? How will she ever get over this loss when she knows that her love for Mac was truly the real thing this time?

Barbara Pierce's Wicked Under the Covers is such a wonderful book on so many levels. Although Lady Fayre is basically ruined after her assignation with Lord Standish, she decides to stay in London and face both society and her enemy with head held high. Maccus is a man out for himself, but he chooses both the wrong and the right woman all rolled into one to lift himself away from a profitable but dangerous life of smuggling and he finds himself in love and willing to do anything to give that love whatever she wants, something he has never done before. With this book being the first in Ms. Pierce's Carlisle family series, we meet the provocative and sinful members of this family with dual lives, but the Carlisles are a brood not to be messed with; they love each other fiercely and they take care of their own, everything and everyone else be damned. I so enjoyed the introduction of this wonderfully family and sexy series. Maccus and Fayre are the perfect place for Ms. Pierce to start giving readers some of the best fun they'll have in a very long time!

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