Hired by marriage-minded women to investigate the backgrounds of their prospective husbands, Charlotte Arkendale finds herself in deep trouble when one of her clients turns up dead and she is forced to depend on Baxter St. Ives, her mysterious new man-of-affairs, for protection.


At twenty-five Prudence Merryweather knew very well the risks a woman took by visiting a gentleman in the dead of the night.But bearding the notorious Earl of Anglestone in his den was the only way to stop him engaging her hot-headed brother in a duel,and that was why she found herself ushered into Sebastians forbidding presence at three in the morning-and thoroughly kissed before dawn.


Olympia Wingfield, an old maid at 25, was saddled with raising her motherless nephews, although she preferred spending every spare minute pursuing her true passion - the study of ancient legends. But then Jared Chillhurst arrives to tutor her charges, with looks straight out of a legend.


The owner of the Isle of Desire after her father's death, Lady Clare knows she must marry to protect her inheritance but nonetheless feels betrayed when her guardian chooses a fearsome knight, and not the poet she requested, to be her spouse.


Imogen Waterstone had always prided herself on being a thoroughly independent young woman. But now she needed a man, and not just any man: one with an implacable will and nerves of iron. That's why she invited Matthias Marshall, the infamous Earl of Colchester, to her home in Upper Stickleford. For who better than the legendary explorer to help her lay the perfect trap. Her scheme was simple, really: She planned to let it be known that when she inherited her uncle's collection of antiquities, she also inherited a map to a fabulous ancient treasure. She was certain that her enemy would risk financial ruin in pursuit of the mythical artifact. And to make doubly sure the scoundrel took the bait, the strong-minded beauty expected Colchester to set himself up as the ruthless lord's rival and pretend that he was out to seduce Imogen so that he, too, could get his hands on her map. Yet in all of her plotting, Imogen never anticipated Colchester's violent reaction to her request ... or her own electrifying reaction to him. With his powerful build and the swath of silver in his midnight dark hair, Matthias was more than magnificent. And as he entered in to her charade, acting out the part of spellbound suitor for all the world to see, Imogen found herself in the thrall of true passion at last. But to Colchester it was no act. Indeed, to the formidable earl's surprise, he found himself succumbing to the charms of the most amazingly forceful, opinionated, stubborn woman it had ever been his misfortune to meet. Yet just as he decides the time is ripe to reveal his own motives for going along with Imogen's scheme, there emerges from the labyrinth of London society an undreamed-of threat - sinister enough to endanger the one woman a man like Colchester could ever love.


Amanda Quick, one of the premier writers of historical romance with 10 New York Times bestsellers, returns with a passionate tale in which a young woman masquerading as the Earl of Masters' mistress is surprised by the sudden appearance of her alleged lover--an arrogant and attractive man determined to claim the beautiful deceiver for his own.


Lady Alice approached the fearsome Warrior who had swept into Lingwood Manor like a storm. Dark and forbidding, with hair as black as midnight and eyes of molten amber, Hugh the Relentless seemed aptly named. Yet to Alice, adept at driving off suitors and handling her insufferable relatives, Sir Hugh was not someone to dread, but the answer to her dreams.
He had come for the mysterious green crystal, and would be greatly displeased to learn that it was no longer in her possession. But Alice was certain Sir Hugh could be coaxed into a deal that would benefit them both. In return for a dowry large enough to free Alice and her brother from the grasp of their conniving uncle, she would lend her powers of detection to Sir Hugh's knightly skills and together they would recover his treasured stone.
With a tongue as sharp as a dagger, the flame-haired Alice filled Hugh with fury...and a growing fascination. He accepted her terms, with one alteration: Alice must agree to a temporary betrothal and spend the winter in Hugh's great stone fortress, Scarcliffe Keep.
The bargain is struck and the adventure begins. But Sir Hugh's lifelong enemy is plotting against them, stirring up a whirlwind of treachery that threatens their fragile alliance.


Certain that Gabriel Banner, a man she admired when she was a child, can carry out an important quest for her, Phoebe Layton lures him to a midnight rendezvous and finds he is nothing like the hero of her dreams.


Augusta Ballinger was quite sure that it was all a dreadful mistake. The chillingly pompous and dangerously disturbing Earl of Graystone could not possibly marry her.Why,it was rumoured that his chosen bride must be a veritablemodel of virtue,and everyone knew that Augusta,as the last of the wild,reckless Northumberland Ballingers,was a woman who could not be bothered by societys rules.


Townsfolk called him Devil for dark and enigmatic Julian, Earl of Ravenswood, was a man with a legendary temper and a first wife whose mysterious death would not be forgotten. Some said the Lady had drowned herself in the black, murky waters of Ravenswood pond. others whispered of foul play and the devil's wrath.And now, country-bred Sophy Dorring is about to become Ravenwood's new bride...