Beyond a Wicked Kiss by Jo Goodman

Evan Marchmann is the son of the Duke of Westphal, but only a bastard son. One day, he spies on his father, and saves Maria Ashby from falling into the lake. However, his actions lead everyone to believe he pushed her in, and his father beats him quite savagely

Twenty years later, West has, quite surprisingly, inherited his father's estate, which causes a rift between the son of his father's marriage, Tenley, who merely inherits his mother's title and estate. But while Tenley is an Earl, his mother has significantly less money to inherit. This doesn't precisely make him poor, but compared to Evan, he might as well be.

Evan also maintains his friendships with the other members of what is known as the Compass Club, as each of his four childhood friends have names which incorporates one of the directions of the compass: Northam, Southerton, Eastlyn and Westphal (even though none of them knew that Evan would inherit his father's title and estate), and after enjoying a night at the club with them one November, Ria lies in wait outside it and accosts him.

Evan thinks that she is either a cutpurse or a doxy meaning to rob him, and is somewhat confused when Ria bears no weapon, and beneath her cloak in the pouring rain, is dressed in respectable garb. He takes her home and agrees to hear her out, and once she is sufficiently warmed that her teeth aren't chattering together like pearly white castanets, she tells him that she is the headmistress of Lady Weaver's School for girls, where disadvantaged girls are educated.

Most of them usually do quite well, but now one of the girls, Jane Petty, has run off, and no one can find her. Because his father, Lord Westphal, had helped Ria in the past, she asks Evan, his heir, to help her by finding Jane and returning her to the school. Evan is surprised to hear that his father helped Ria, because he thinks that his father was a horrible beast and tyrant- after all, look at how he treated Evan- but Ria's plea touches his heart, and he agrees to look into Jane's disappearance for her.

Since the school is near his father's manor, he and Jane return there, where she reveals that Tenby has concieved a tendre for her, even though he is married, and because of this, Tenby's wife hates her, and Tenby makes her visits to the estate uncomfortable. But Evan, who is attracted to Ria himself, sets things aright, and ends up becoming Ria's lover. Ria tells Tenby's wife that she loves Evan as she never loved Tenby and wins the woman's support.

Back at the school, Evan discovers that at least one of the School's supporters is a member of an organization called the Bishops, who were endemic at the school he and the others of the compass club attended. Since they were blighters even then, Evan is rather suspicious of their involvement in Miss Weaver's school, but he does his best to track down the man that Jane Petty ran away with.

But as he investigates, he can't help but return to Ria over and over again. And she told him she lied about her feelings to Tenby's wife, but they weren't a lie. She only hopes that the memory of her and Evan's relationship keeps her warm throughout the rest of her life, for she has sworn not to marry. But when Evan finally confesses that he loves her, she gladly agrees to marry him.

However, when the Bishops kidnap Ria from the ball she is attending and bring her to their hidden whorehouse, where they use and abuse the girls they have trained at the school, it will be up to Evan to rescue her, rescue the other girls, and bring the Bishops to account for their crimes. But when he is thrown into her prison with her, and told to ravish her so the other Bishops can watch, can Evan keep her from hating him forever for what he must do to her?

I started reading Jo Goodman back in the early days of Zebra books, and she was one of my favorite romance writers back then, for books like "The Captain's Lady", "Crystal Passion" and "Velvet Night". Reading this book brought me back to those days, by being just as good as I remembered, but this time, the writing is even better.

I must note that this is the last book in the Compass book series, and all four stories are happening at overlapping moments in time, so that when Evan goes to speak to one of his friends, since an earlier book held that conversation, it doesn't get reported again. In one way, that's good, because it prevents each book from holding lots of retreads of scenes. In another way, it's not, because if you haven't read the earlier book, you miss the scene- which is usually summarized, but not always, and it can sometimes leave you floundering when Evan leaves, and what he's done isn't said.

But usually the summary works to advance the story- enough so that you can enjoy the book without having read the others in the series. This story does take a little time to get started, and the love story is a bit understated, but I found myself really enjoying the story between Ria and Evan. They start out with some nicely played moments of wit, which matures to a wonderful love story. I recommend this book, but I also think the story would seem richer and deeper if you read this one as the last in the series. Recommended.