From one ill-fated romance to another…
Ruined beyond saving thanks to an impulsive flight to Gretna Green and the subsequent betrayal of her fiancée, Lady Francesca Creswell wants nothing more than to nurse her broken heart in peace. When her cousin, The Marquess of Amberwood, invites her to join him and his marchioness on a journey to their country estate, Francesca seizes an opportunity to escape the London season and its vicious tongues. All seems well until one Mr. Barrow, owner of the most notorious gambling club in England and purveyor of every society vice she’s come to despise, arrives as a last-minute addition to the peaceful retreat, full of secrets and an arresting presence that sets Francesca aflame in a way that no other man has before.
A most unusual inheritance…
Arthur Barrow has a problem; a rather large, estate-sized problem. For one thing, he is not Arthur Barrow at all but rather Arthur Tremore, grandson and heir to the newly deceased Earl of Clifton, or so he discovers after a visit from the old man’s solicitor. Utterly floored at the prospect of his entire life being a lie, Arthur decides to keep his newly acquired title a secret and accepts an invitation to his best friend’s estate, one that conveniently neighbors his own. Determined to investigate the property and its inhabitants before making any decisions, Arthur does his best to ignore the delectably distracting presence of Lady Francesca Creswell, something difficult to achieve when he’s been infatuated with the women from the moment they first met.