In disguise, sweet innocent Charlotte Daicheston makes a monumental mistake, gets carried away by passion, and accidentally loses her virginity at a sleazy masked ball. Devastated, she resolves she will simply never marry or have children because her ‘loss’ will be discovered. She will devote herself to painting instead. Then… years later, along comes the guy who deflowered her, and he doesn’t recognize her! Alex, the Earl of Sheffield and Downes, has been looking for ‘his’ girl in the garden (Charlotte) for years. He even married his first wife because he thought she looked similar, but she turned out to be an avid adulteress, which led Alex to an excruciating bitter divorce. He returns to London after years abroad, his ex-wife now dead, and discovers the gossips now claim he’s impotent! Charlotte falls for him again, to the dismay of her family and amusement of the gossiping ton. But on the wedding night a very potent Alex discovers – again – that he’s not married a virgin, and he absolutely explodes with repressed cuckolded fury. Potent Pleasures toys with the deliciously dark (outdated, thank goodness!) theme of the sexually experienced hero who only wants a virgin wife. Ppfffttt! Good thing Alex grovels so well in the end.