One of my all time favorite bad boys is Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, from Devil in Winter, the third installment in Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series.  The reason I love to read about bad boys is because the tougher they are, they harder they fall.  And the fall is the best thing to watch.  Plus we all know that a reformed rake makes the best husband!

Sebastian made a brief appearance in Secrets of a Summer Night but truly came into his diabolical ways in It Happened One Autumn, where he kidnapped Lillian Bowman and threatened rape in an attempt to marry her for her riches.  After a much deserved brutal beating by Lord Westcliff, Sebastian returns home to contemplate his next move.  Being in dire financial straits, Sebastian needs to find money and quick!  But never in his wildest dreams (and boy does he have some wild dreams!!!) does he expect the shyest of all Wallflowers to come to his home uninvited, late at night, and unaccompanied with the solution to all his problems.  A marriage of convenience.  Evie Jenner offers her money in exchange for the safety of Sebastian’s name.  Evie believes her mother’s family is trying to kill her to get to her dying father’s vast wealth.  Sebastian cannot believe his luck . . . money and a wife who only wants to sleep with him once.  He even tells Evie:

“I rarely like to bed a woman more than once.  A crashing bore, after the novelty is gone.  Besides I would never be so bourgeois as to lust after my own wife.  It implies that one hasn’t the means to keep a mistress.  Of course, there is the issue of provide me with an heir . . . but as long as you’re discreet, I don’t expect I’ll give a damn whose child it is.”

Sebastian is a man full of good looks and a bad reputation.   The kind of man that young girls dream of and older women crave.  A man who knows his way around bedroom and any other room he deems fit for seduction.  Even though Evie is considered the shyest of the Wallflowers, Sebastian’s looks do not escape her.  This is her impression of St. Vincent at the beginning of Devil in Winter:

She was amazed that she managed to communicate so well with St. Vincent, who was more than a little intimidating, with his golden beauty and wintry ice-blue eyes, and a mouth made for kisses and lies.  He looked like a fallen angel, replete with all the dangerous male beauty that Lucifer could devise . . . Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent, was the complete opposite of her dream lover.  There was nothing kind, sensitive, or remotely boyish about him.  He was a predator who undoubtedly liked to toy with his prey before killing it.  Staring at the empty chair where he had sat, Evie thought of how St. Vincent had looked in the firelight.  He was tall and lean, his body a perfect frame for elegantly simple clothes that provide a minimum of distraction from his tawny handsomeness.  His hair, the antique gold of a medieval icon, was thick and slightly curly, with streaks of pale amber caught in the rich locks.  His pale blue eyes glittered like rare diamonds from the necklace of an ancient empress.  Beautiful eyes that showed no emotion when he smiled.  The smile itself was enough to steal the breath from one’s body . . . the sensuous, cynical mouth, the flash of white teeth . . . Oh, St. Vincent was a dazzling man.  And well he knew it.

Lisa Kleypas has been asked hundreds of times how she knew St. Vincent could be reformed from a villain and turned into one fabulous hero.   Here is a quick blurb from Lisa’s website regarding this:

“I had no plans to make him into a hero, because he was sufficiently dastardly that I couldn’t see how any woman, least of all a wallflower, could reform him. However, I eventually couldn’t resist the challenge, and I gave him his own book, Devil in Winter. It was quite a trick to make his transformation from bad guy to hero believable–I had to put him through the wringer!”  — Lisa Kleypas

And boy does Lisa put Sebastian through the ringer. Evie seems to get under his skin fairly quickly in the story.   After riding at break-neck speed for 48 hours, Sebastian and Evie arrive at Gretna Green and are married in a rather humorous ceremony (one that had me giggling).   While walking back to their inn, Sebastian is overcome by emotion and desire and kisses Evie for the first time.   But this is no ordinary first kiss.   Judge for yourself.

And then suddenly his mouth had caught hers, and he pushed her against the side of the building, anchoring her with his own body.   His free hand caught the nape of her neck, beneath the weight of her damp hair.  The lush pressure of his mouth caused a shock of response in every part of her body, all at once.  She didn’t know how to kiss, what to do with her mouth.  Bewildered and shaking, she urged her closed lips back against his, while her heart thumped wildly and her limbs went weak. 

He wanted things that she didn’t know how to give.  Sensing her confusion, he drew back and possessed her mouth with small, persistent kisses, the bristle on his face scraping gently against hers.  His fingers came to the fragile structure of her jaw, tilting her chin, his thumb coaxing her lower lip apart from the upper.  The instant he gained an opening, he sealed his mouth over hers.  She could taste him, a subtle and alluring essence that affected her like some exotic drug.  His tongue pushed inside her, exploring in caressing strokes . . . sliding deeper as she offered no resistance.

After a luxuriously probing kiss, he eased back until their mouths were barely touching, their breath mingling in steamy puffs that were visible in the chilled night air.  He brushed a half-open kiss against her lips and another, his soft exhalations filling her mouth.  The light kisses strayed across her cheek to the intricate hollow of her ear, and she gasped shakily as she felt his tongue trace the fragile rim, just before his teeth caught softly at the tiny lope.  She writhed in response, sensation streaking down to her breasts and farther, gathering low in intimate places.

Another deep kiss, somehow raw and soothing at the same time . . . he ate at her mouth, tasted and licked inside her . . . the pleasure of it threatened to blot out her consciousness.  No wonder . . . she thought dizzily.  No wonder so many women had succumbed to this man, had thrown away their reputations and their honor for him . . . had even, if rumor could be believed, threatened to kill themselves when he left them.  He was sensuality incarnate.

Throughout the book, the reader can see in great detail the fall of this deranged rake.   Lisa Kleypas is a master of giving the reader glimpses of the vulnerable side of her heroes, and she doesn’t disappoint with St. Vincent.  Sebastian becomes very protective of Evie, not just in her safety, but in her general well being.  When he senses tension and stress, Sebastian provides Evie with a wonderful neck and shoulder massage that renders the poor girl limp.  At one point in the story, Sebastian tries to get back into Evie’s bed (having only been there once on their wedding night).   Evie asks him if he has ever sacrificed for a woman, to which Sebastian just laughs.   Evie proposes a deal – if Sebastian can be celibate for three months then she will join him in his bed.   Sebastian is aghast at this proposal, but his overcoming need to have Evie outweighs his desire for sex with any other woman so he agrees with the stipulation that he can kiss her whenever and as often as he likes.  And being the seductive rake he is, St. Vincent takes advantage of this stipulation.

“I don’t give a damn if anyone sees us.  You’re my wife.”  A smile chased across his lips.  “My better half, to be certain.”  Leaning over her, he nuzzled into the fine tendrils that strayed over her forehead.  His breath was hot and soft on her skin.  “My prize . . . my pleasure and pain . . . my endless desire.  I’ve never known anyone like you, Evie.”  His lips touched gently at the bridge of her nose and slid down to the tip.  “You dare to make demands of me that no other woman would think of asking.  And for now I’ll pay your price, love.  But later you’ll pay mine . . . over and over . . .”  He caught her trembling lips with his, his hands cupping the back of her head.   He was a man who loved kissing, nearly as much as he loved the act of intercourse itself.

I do believe that Evie is the luckiest of the Wallflower women.  Sebastian is an ultimate bad boy, who loves his wife with all his heart, mind, body, and soul.  In fact, he tells Evie:

“My God.  I love you so much that I’m drowning in it.  I can’t defend against it.  I don’t know who I am anymore.  All I know is that if I give in to it entirely —“  he tried to control the anarchy of his breath.  “You mean too much to me,” he said raggedly.

Murmuring her name, he brought her hand to his face and nuzzled ardently into her palm, his lips brushing the warm circle of her gold wedding band.  “My love is upon you,” he whispered.

So ladies, tell me, do you agree with me?   Do you think that Evie is one lucky woman?