Osmond, Baron Lennox, known to his friends and lovers as Oz, has luck on his side. He spends his time translating rare manuscripts and drinking great amounts of alcohol. Not only is he skilled at cards but very good at pleasuring many married women disillusioned with their own marriages. Oz is a bachelor and loves it. As he makes his way to the Blackwood Hotel in London's Soho Square for a rendezvous with one of his paramours whose husband is away in another country, he ends up in the wrong hotel room, almost seducing a stranger. The woman Oz meets in the darkened room is Isolde Perceval, Countess of Wraxell who thinks Oz is an actor she paid to act as if they were in the middle of having sex. She wants to be caught by her barrister and some of the employees of the hotel, which she has planned, so she is ruined. This will stop her selfish and dastardly cousin Frederick from marrying her so he can gain access to her funds.

Oz finds humor in the situation and decides that there is something special about Isolde. Since they in bed already and have been caught, why not spend the night together enjoying the pleasure they can give one another? Isolde finds Oz to be a bit odd, but then the whole situation is. Why not enjoy herself before she goes back to her simple life in the country? Both have a wonderful night together in each other's arms. Oz isn't ready to let Isolde go and offers a solution to her family problems. He recommends they have a marriage of convenience and pretend to have fallen madly in love with one another. After some time, they will get a divorce. Isolde agrees because she finds Oz so fascinating and amazing skillful in the bedroom.

This marriage of convenience is a very unexpected one for both Oz and Isolde. Oz begins to care for Isolde in ways he has never cared for another woman. Isolde can't help but feel jealous over Oz's past lovers and wants his attention exclusively on her and perhaps make their marriage a reality. These two desire both to the point of madness but there is still a question of trust and Oz's own growing jealous over a past love of Isolde's who thinks she is open to an affair with him now that she has married a well known libertine.

SEXY AS HELL is a trademark Susan Johnson historical with many lusty sex scenes and a rakish and disillusioned hero who is afraid to love the one woman who can complete him in every way. Isolde runs hot and cold and is not afraid of voicing her opinion about Oz's past, his issues with alcohol and his reasoning for things. Oz lives in the moment and for pleasure. And if he doesn't get what he wants right away, he uses coercion, which Isolde can't help but succumb to. These two try and work on things but because of the past and outside influences, their growing love is almost destroyed.

Susan Johnson has a very particular audience and if you are fine with an alcoholic Oz cheating on Isolde with a one-dimensionally written ex-lover, as well as insulting Isolde because she denies him sex, then SEXY AS HELL may be book for you. This is one book with many cliché villainous type characters and a hero who uses sex as an excuse to overpower the heroine. But again, if you have enjoyed Susan Johnson's historicals in the past, then you will find the same with SEXY AS HELL.

Book Summary

If his mistress is missing, then who's the woman in the baron's bed?

When Baron Lennox's assignation with his mistress goes awry, he finds himself in bed with the wrong lady. The potential scandal leaves him with one option: marry the innocent mystery woman. But Isolde Perceval has no intention of marrying Lennox. In fact, she orchestrated the compromising situation herself - for reasons that are unpredictable, riotously romantic, and sexy as hell.