Book picks similar to
Dark Wager by Mary Spencer


historical
historical-romance
grovel
cheating

Just Imagine


Susan Elizabeth Phillips - 1984
    Disguised as a boy, she's come to New York City to kill Baron Cain, the man who stands between her and Risen Glory, the South Carolina home she loves. But unknown to Kit, the Yankee war hero is more than her bitterest enemy—he's also her guardian. And he'll be a lot harder to kill than she's figured on . . .Believing that Kit's a boy, Cain offers the grubby rapscallion a job in his stable. But he has no idea what he's in for, and it's not long before the hero of Missionary Ridge discovers the truth. His scamp of a stable boy is a strong-willed, violet-eyed beauty who's hell-bent on driving him crazy.Two hard-headed, passionate people . . . Two stubborn opponents with tender souls . . . Sometimes wars of the heart can only be won through the sweetest of surrenders.This book is an updated version of the original title, Risen Glory.

Dark Side of the Sun


Addison Cain - 2017
    For years the young widow has been hunted across England, running from her past, thrust onward into desolate wastes until there is nowhere else to hide. With the little time she has left, her desperation has driven her into the arms of an extremely sinister man who desires more than just her company. Gregory Harrow, bastard born gentleman, takes what he wants, and is willing to use anyone and anything to achieve his aims. Greedy, cunning, cruel, he claims to love her, offers to kill for her, but lies come easily to his tongue. She knows she cannot trust him, but making a deal with the devil might just be her only chance for survival. DARK SIDE OF THE SUN is a full-length regency era dark romance from internationally bestselling author Addison Cain about depravity, desire, and acute retribution.

A Night of Living Dangerously


Jennie Lucas - 2012
    When the clock strikes twelve...Alessandro Caetani does not do happy-ever-afters.i In fact his charm extends only as far as getting his Little Mouse secretary into bed.i Lilley has never taken such a risk before, but this is her night of living dangerously...Who is going to call time on the fairytale ending?

The Beast of Beswick


Amalie Howard - 2019
    With a ruined face like his, it's hard to like much about the world. Especially smart-mouthed harpies—with lips better suited to kissing than speaking—who brave his castle with indecent proposals.But Lady Astrid Everleigh will stop at nothing to see her younger sister safe from a notorious scoundrel, even if it means offering herself up on a silver platter to the forbidding Beast of Beswick himself. And by offer, she means what no highborn lady of sound and sensible mind would ever dream of—a tender of marriage with her as his bride.

Bought with His Name


Penny Jordan - 1982
    She knew from experience the hurt a man could carelessly inflict on an innocent heart, and she realized how vulnerable she was to his brand of magnetism.Luke's proposal of marriage was a shock, as was his method of asking. It sounded very much like blackmail, and in the circumstances she had no alternative but to accept.

Flowers from the Storm


Laura Kinsale - 1992
    Considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, he was transparently referred to as the "D of J" in scandal sheets. But sometimes the most womanizing rakehell can be irresistible, and even his most causal attentions fascinated the sheltered Maddy Timms. Then one fateful day she receives the shocking news - the duke is lost to the world. And Maddy knows it is her destiny to help him and her only chance to find the true man behind the wicked facade. But she never dreamed her gentle, healing touch would alter his life and her own so completely - and bind them together in need, desire...and love.

An Absent Wife


Camille Oster - 2013
    The death of the wife he'd ignored for close to a decade was a downright nuisance, making him further fodder for the gossips, and now a target for every designing matron in London. In line with her consistent talent for being disagreeable, Lady Adele Warburton had run off with a lowly lieutenant, leaving safety and respectability behind, then died in a cholera epidemic in a far flung country. In a last show of husbandly duty, Lysander decides to recover her effects, and grudgingly those of her lover, retracing the steps of the wife he'd barely known across half the world. But arriving in the mayhem of India, he finds that all is not as it should be.

Bride of the Lion


Elizabeth Stuart - 1995
    But nothing could defend her from the brooding magnificence of the invader who quickened her wild Welsh blood and stole her tender soul.Robert de LangleyFaull of arrogance and outlaw vigor, the fabled Lion of Normandy would hold his old enemy's daughter hostage for his plundered lands - until he decreed that he must keep them both.Tossed between vengeance and lingering desire, war made them enemies, and passion possessed them.

Highland Solution


Ceci Giltenan - 2013
    Lady Katherine Ruthven, a lowland heiress, is rumored to be “unmarriageable” and her uncle hopes to be granted her title and lands when the king sends her to a convent. King David II anxious to strengthen his alliances sees a solution that will give Ruthven the title he wants, and MacIan the money he needs. Laird MacIan will receive Lady Katherine’s hand along with her substantial dowry and her uncle will receive her lands and title.Lady Katherine must forfeit everything in exchange for a husband who does not want to be married and believes all women to be self-centered and deceitful. Can the lovely and gentle Katherine mend his heart and build a life with him or will he allow the treachery of others to destroy them?

At the Bride Hunt Ball


Olivia Parker - 2008
    . .To Gabriel Devine, Duke of Wolverest, the bonds of marriage are nothing more than shackles. But if he's to remain a lifelong bachelor, that leaves only his younger brother to carry on the family name. Inviting the ton's most eligible ladies to an elegant ball, Gabriel is certain any one of them would be all too eager to become the next duchess and provide an heir—leaving Gabriel to continue his ecstatic pursuit of pleasure.To Catch a Rogue . . .Her social-climbing stepmother would give anything to have Madelyn Haywood betrothed to a future duke. But Madelyn believes the brothers Devine to be nothing more than heartless rogues—especially Gabriel, whose rakish reputation precedes him. He is nothing more than a slave to passion, and she will not be conquered by his caresses—and yet his wicked ways tempt her so . . .

The Way of the Heart


Cheryl Holt - 1999
    And yet, to claim this dream, she must first marry. Five suitable candidates are vying for her large dowry, but only one challenges her wits and stirs her blood: Phillip Wessington, a devilishly handsome widower and renowned scoundrel who agrees to a marriage in name only. But soon, awakening desires turn this union of convenience into a passionate battle between hearts too proud to admit their ardor. HE VOWED TO WIN HER LOVEPhillip, the eighth earl of Rosewood, had one pressing need: a wife's fortune without the bother of a wife. But Jane was a bother--for she was getting under his skin with her fiery spirit and the sensual fire that glowed in her eyes. Confounded by a tenderness he cannot yet admit, he soon realizes that his own selfishness and intractable will have created a rift between them that may be too deep to heal. Can Phillip reclaim the heart of the woman he has come to cherish...so they both may surrender to a love neither can deny?

The Substitute Wife


Dallas Schulze - 2003
    Leggy, flame haired and wise beyond her years, she decided that he should marry her instead.But even though Luke needed a wife by his thirty-sixth birthday or he would lose his inheritance, he had to say "No!" Well, that was what he tried to say, but somehow Cat left with a ring on her finger and a wedding date on her calendar. And Luke could only curse his grandfather's positively medieval blackmailing scheme...and count the seconds till the wedding night.Cat, of course, knows her own mind -- and her own heart -- and she wants Luke. Meanwhile, Luke is wondering how long this will play out, and hoping that it might be a little longer with each passing day. The problem is, he's quite capable of doing something very stupid -- like falling for Cat.Because sometimes love just doesn't take no for an answer.

What Price Paradise


Katherine Allred - 2005
    Until the night he gets drunk and sleeps with a woman he barely knows.Now, six weeks later, she's pregnant, alone, and broke. Once again, Tate must take responsibility for his actions, and makes plans to marry his child's mother. There's only one problem...he has to tell his fiancée.Abby Grayson hasn't had an easy life. As the daughter of the town whore, people either avoid her or think she's like her mother. For Abby, it's a struggle just to fill her belly and keep a roof over her head.Loneliness and a secret yearning for this man she thought she'd never have led her to spend the night with Tate. But the last thing she needs is a baby when she can barely take care of herself. Desperate, but too proud to ask for help, she finally agrees to accept a job from Tate - the job of being his wife. Now she has almost everything she's ever dreamed of.Unfortunately, only one thing will gain her Tate's love - his realization that the night he spent with her was no drunken accident. It was a last-ditch attempt to win the woman he really wanted.

To the Ends of the Earth


Elizabeth Lowell - 1983
    . .Photographer Cat Cochran has been to exotic places most people only dream about. Yet all she wants is to get her life in order. One last assignment and she can put her past behind her, forgetting about her heart's disastrous misadventures. But first she must photograph the mysterious ship designer T.H. Danvers.Travis Danvers is dangerous—a millionaire with an athlete's body, an enigmatic charmer capable of breaking down Cat's well-constructed defenses with a buccaneer's arrogance and flourish. She knows she must resist him, for experience has taught her that pain is the eventual price of the pleasure to be found in the arms of such a man. But on the high seas, it's easy for Cat to throw caution to the wind and heed the whispers of sensual sirens telling her to abandon all caution— and surrender to a passion only Travis can offer.

The King's Man


Elizabeth Kingston - 2015
    Ranulf's actions have gained him lands, title, and a lasting reputation as a hired butcher. But after years of doing his king's bidding, he begins to fear for his mortal soul and follows his conscience away from Edward, all the way to the wilds of Wales. Gwenllian of Ruardean, Welsh daughter of a powerful Marcher lord, has every reason to leave Ranulf for dead when one of her men nearly kills him. As a girl she was married by proxy to a man Ranulf murdered, only to become a widow before she ever met her groom. In the years since, she has shunned the life of a lady, instead studying warfare and combat at her mother’s behest. But she has also studied healing and this, with her sense of duty to knightly virtues, leads her to tend to Ranulf’s wounds. Saving her enemy’s life comes with consequences, and Gwenllian and Ranulf are soon caught up in dangerous intrigue. Forced together by political machinations, they discover a kinship of spirit and a surprising, intense desire. But even hard-won love cannot thrive when loyalties are divided and the winds of rebellion sweep the land.