Stealing the Bride

They Met At London's Notorious Cyprian's Ball . . .

Georgiana Escott has one night to find the perfect man to ruin her and leave her with a tattered reputation so she can avoid an arranged marriage to an aging, despicable roue. With a misstep, she tumbles into the arms of the disgraced and dashing Lord Danvers. But Georgie doesn't know that the lover she has enticed to follow her into the night and the stranger she holds responsible for her misfortunes are in the same . . .

When Lord Danvers find himself entangled with a tempting Cyprian, his secret mission to expose a dangerous spy goes awry. Yet once he starts to unmasked this bewitching lady, he realizes the seductress who claims his heart may be the traitor he seeks. Mistrust makes them adversaries in a perilous game—but how can he dismiss his obsession with her when one night of passion entwined their lives forever?

Scandal, outrage, ruin, rapture ... Who knows where one kiss can lead?

He's at her service . . .

Though she can't afford the coal to heat her drafty Mayfair mansion, Felicity Langley still clings to her dream of marrying a duke—one she's had since her very first curtsy. After all, she's been promised to the very lofty Duke of Hollindrake for the last four years. Now all she has to do is meet him. But what Felicity doesn't realize is that she has met her duke—he's the altogether too handsome man who Felicity has just mistaken . . . for her new footman!

By rights, Thatcher should immediately set this presumptuous chit straight and tell her he has no intention of honoring the arranged betrothal. But he's quickly smitten by Felicity's delightful determination, her irrepressible charm . . . and her breathtaking sensuality. Yes, she'd wed him in an instant were his true identity revealed—but Thatcher's vowed to marry only for love. So begins his deception and his conquest of this uncommon woman who doesn't believe in romance, but is about to find her heart and passion set aflame by the unlikely man she's sworn to resist.

Alexander Denford, Baron Sedgwick, is a gentleman to be envied. He lives a rakish life of well-celebrated ease and contentment and has one person to thank for his perfectly ordered existence—his dearest wife, Emmaline. She never complains about his mistresses or his penchant for late nights out. His friends are envious, but they don't know the truth—Emmaline doesn't exist. But when he starts receiving bills from London for clothes, shoes, hats and a staggering amount of other female accoutrements, he realises something is decidedly amiss.

Posing as Emmaline isn't a stretch for the newly arrived Lady Sedgwick, she's been conning gentry for years. But as the popular baron's wife, she now has the one thing that has eluded her—entree into London's inner circles. Against Alexander's better judgment, Emmaline is impossibly fixed in his life. And suddenly Emmaline is challenging him to be the husband she deserves.

Rebecca will have to take a page from her own book to keep the dashing Rafe Danvers from spoiling her success.

But how does one play hard-to-get with a man one cannot resist?

Rebecca Tate never intended to cause a revolution with her notoriously popular Miss Darby novels, merely to earn enough to support herself and her ailing uncle. But now it seems every eligible debutante in London is emulating her spunky heroine and refusing to marry...ever! Still, Rebecca's enjoying her newfound success as Miss Darby's anonymous creator, and she's not about to let anyone interfere—not even the rakishly appealing Raphael Danvers.

Having survived the perils of war and espionage, Rafe is less than thrilled by a disgruntled society matron's wish that he unmask the unknown author and halt the scandalous scribblings. The assignment becomes more attractive, however, when the trail leads to the enticing Miss Tate. Suddenly the dashing adventurer can't get enough of the charming troublemaker—and her resorting to some rather Darbyesque trickery to distract him serves only to intensify his desire. But will a rogue's determined pursuit result in a happy romantic ending . . . or lead them both into a dangerous intrigue?

Innocence Lost

A notorious rake, the Marquis of Bradstone stole young Olivia Sutton's heart...and then ruined her life. For seven years she has been forced to hide her past behind a false identity. And now the dashing scoundrel has returned a different man: more handsome, more serious, more desirable...and far more dangerous thanthe cad who brought scandal and shame into Olivia's world.

Rapture Found

Major Robert Danvers is living a lie—but for a noble cause. Masquerading as his cousin, the late marquis, Robert's secret mission for the crown has led him straight to the beautiful, scheming seductress he believes was responsible for his brother's death. But there is a gentle innocence about this Olivia that belies her murderous reputation—and a passionate sensuality that makes him yearn to hold her forever in his arms. His loyalty to his mission tells him that surrender would be the worst sort of betrayal—yet once tempted, how can a man resist, when his heart tells him here is his one true love?

Lady Philippa Knolles has loved Captain Thomas "Dash" Dashwell since he first stole a kiss from her on a smuggler's beach near Hastings. Now after what seems like a lifetime of waiting, Pippin is offered a chance to renew her scandalous affair with Dash. But the man from that first heady kiss and the man she rediscovers all these years later are hardly the same. Tucked away in the back of her closet is a red dress, the one she wore long ago to win his heart . . . . Could it have enough memories left inside it to rekindle a passion she's never forgotten?

She spied him in the shadows . . .

And in an instant, Thalia Langley knew the man before her was no saint. He might claim to be the Duke of Hollindrake's unassuming country cousin, but no man that handsome, that arresting, could be anything but . . . well, he simply must be an unrepentant rogue. His cat-like grace and power leave Tally shivering in her slippers at the notion of all the wicked, forbidden things he might be capable of doing . . . to her.

Indeed, Lord Larken is no bumbling vicar, but a master spy there in his majesty's service to find—and murder—a notorious pirate freed in a daring prison escape. Devoted to the Crown, Larken's not about to let an interfering (and not entirely innocent) Mayfair miss disrupt his ruthless plans. Yet how can he be anything but tempted by this lady in a little black gown . . . a dress tantalizing enough to lead even Larken astray.

madness \mad-nes\ n (14c): the quality or state of being mad:a: rage b: insanity c: extreme folly d: ecstasy, enthusiasm.

And, added in the margins of the dictionary owned by James Tremont, the 9th Duke of Parkerton, one additional definition:

e: the state of finding oneself mistaken for a solicitor by a duke-hunting beauty who needs to be enthusiastically taught the true meaning of love.

Rage, insanity, extreme folly, and ecstasy will most likely be involved.

Lord Langley and Minerva, Lady Standon, began their faux engagement with three simple rules set down by the baron's all-too-proper (and utterly unlikely) bride-to-be.

1. No more kissing. The intoxicating kiss Langley stole from her lips still has Minerva aflutter.

2. She will not share his bed. (For if his kiss is that tempting, Minerva doesn't dare imagine what a night in Langley's embrace will do to her already addled senses.)

3. No scandals during their engagement. With the infamous Langley back in Town, there is no lack of trouble he can bring to Minerva's unblemished reputation.

Oh, the wily Lord Langley will keep his word—but that doesn't mean he won't use every rakish trick he knows to get Minerva to break her own proper rules, especially once he realizes that this convenient arrangement has led him to the only woman he's ever loved . . .