When they finally confess their love, their future together seems assured, sealed with their searing embrace.But when a debauched Lindsay is seduced by a scheming socialite, a devastated Anais seeks refuge in another man's bed while Lindsay retreats to the exotic East. There, he is seduced again—this time by the alluring red smoke and sinister beauty of opium.Back home, Lindsay's addiction is fed by the vogue for all things Oriental—especially its sensual pleasures—in fashionable London society. In his lucid moments, Lindsay still lusts after Anais, who can neither allow him near nor forget his smoldering touch. Tortured by two obsessions—opium and Anais—Lindsay must ultimately decide which is the one he truly cannot live without.

    . . .A Disastrous Season A simple statue began the scandal.A Lady Concealed An innocent English miss conceived of it, her hands gliding across the clay, delineating each smoothly defined muscle and sinew, creating a sculpture of the man she worshipped. When the likeness was exposed, along with Miss Jane Higgenbothem's secret tendre for Lord Blackburn, the ton's gleeful contempt sent the lady back to the country in disgrace.A Gentleman Revealed Now, a decade later, she's back in London, as a chaperone to her beautiful niece. But to Blackburn, Jane's unwitting model, the cool, reticent spinster is still a challenge. She once made the arrogant rake a laughingstock; so why is he tempted to revive an affair that almost began so long ago, on that scandalous evening . . . ?

    Anthony hired Daphne to restore the priceless treasures he has been digging up, but it's hard for a woman to keep her mind on her work when her devastatingly handsome employer keeps taking his shirt off. He doesn't know she's alive, but who could blame her for falling hopelessly in love with him anyway?Anthony thinks that his capable employee knows all there is to know about antiquities, but when his sister decides to turn the plain young woman in gold-rimmed glasses into an enticing beauty, he declares the task to be impossible. Daphne is devasted when she overhears...and determined to prove him wrong. Now a vibrant and delectable Daphne has emerged from her shell, and the tables are turned. Will Anthony see that the woman of his dreams has been there all along?

    So when he accidentally snatches her instead of her lovely, scheming cousin for an elopement to Gretna Green, Julia leaps at the chance to make her passionate dreams come true.Alec's in no position to quibble: if he doesn't marry by midnight and live scandal-free for a year, he loses his inheritance. At least marriage with do-gooder Julia will guarantee his fortune. But as his plain brown wren transforms herself into an elegant swan, Alec suddenly can't stay away from his last-minute wife--and when he kisses her, the inheritance is the last thing on his mind. Unfortunately, scandal can occur from the best of intentions...and Julia is never short of good intentions!

    Now, with beyond scandal, she takes us one step further... beyond duty.Adoring and innocent, Anne Stewart was seduced by Dominick Saint Georges, Viscount Lyons, then brazenly abandoned on their wedding night. Now four years have passed, and England's most mysterious lord has returned to Waverly Hall.Beyond passion. Anne can never forgive Dominick for the shame he caused her. She is determined to resist his advances and ignore the gossip and speculation surrounding them. But shocking revelations and deadly intrigues are drawing her ever closer to her enigmatic husband, to whom she dares not surrender again, this secretive stranger who holds the key to her survival... and her heart.

    Now, with her family's future in peril, she reluctantly agrees to return to England and assume her late twin's identity. The price? Marry a man she doesn't love and spend the rest of her days living a lie. Jonathan Dane, Earl of Stratford, has become an incorrigible rake, drinking, gambling-and trying to forget Serena Donovan. Yet the moment he's introduced to the prim and proper "Meg", he recognizes the sensual young woman who captured his heart. Haunted by his past mistakes, he refuses to lose Serena again. But convincing her to trust him is no easy task. Claiming his lost love means exposing the truth and destroying the life Serena has sacrificed everything to rebuild. With the future of all the Donovans at stake, and their undying passion capable of triggering yet another scandal, how much will Jonathan and Serena risk for a chance at true love?

    But what happens when you tear that family apart? Kate and Michael are about to find out as they cope with the crushing fallout of his affair, whilst trying to protect their two young children. This powerful and poignant novel captures the explosiveness of everyday life and what it is to be human; to make mistakes.Set in the historic town of Alnwick, Northumberland, with its stunning backdrop of castles, moorland hills and coastline, this relationship story of love and family takes you in a rollercoaster ride of emotions along with Kate and Michael.Michael’s mother’s battle with breast cancer shatters them all, yet shows them how precious life, love and family is. Can they find a way back and fight for their battered yet enduring love?So, what would you do if it happened to you? Could you betray? Could you forgive?

    In this, her first new book in five years, she delivers a poignant, funny, sexy, Regency romance sure to delight her many fans and attract a whole new readership.Trevelyan and Callie are childhood sweethearts with a taste for adventure, until the fateful day her father discovers them embracing in the carriage house and, in a furious frenzy, drives Trevelyan away in disgrace. Nine long, lonely years later, Trevelyan returns. Callie discovers that he can still make her blood race and fill her life with excitement, but he can't give her the one thing she wants more than anything--himself.For Trevelyan, Callie is a spark of light in a world of darkness and deceit. Before he can bear to say his last goodbyes, he's determined to sweep her into one last, fateful adventure, just for the two of them.

    But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes . . .

    But the former abbey they received came with a price—a curse that no family member would ever know happiness.Devin Aincourt, Earl of Ravenscar, makes no apologies for who he is—a drinker, a womanizer, a gambler. Having been cast aside by his disapproving father years before, Dev is content to live out his cursed life in this hedonistic manner. Until his mother asks him to make a bold move to restore the family name and fortune: marry a rich American heiress.Believing it will be a marriage in name only, Dev agrees to marry Miranda. But he never imagined that this feisty, unconventional foreigner would have plans of her own: to restore Blackwater, the old abbey, to its former glory, to extricate Dev from the clutches of a devious mistress and to win his heart for her own. All while risking her own life to an unknown enemy.

    a life about to be tested by the return of the only woman who can break them up—Alli's sister, Tessa.A baby brought them together—and even though Alli has always loved her strong, sexy husband Sam and the life they've built together, she has decided to set him free to follow his youthful dreams. It is no longer enough for her to be wife and lover when she knows she holds so little of his heart.Sam has always dreamed of a life away from the close-knit world of Tucker's Landing, but marriage and fatherhood ended all that. Now Sam is torn between what was and what was meant to be. He must decide if it's time to rekindle the dreams of the past ... or accept Alli, and her love, just the way she is.JUST THE WAY YOU ARE is an emotionallly compelling, heartwarming, beautiful love story about choices, second chances, the crush of a youthful love, the intensity of a love born from marriage and life. "An exceptional novel from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy!"

    The girl who'd torn him in two, who let him plan on elopement and then left him standing by the side of the road, was suddenly within arm's reach, and even though his fury still knew no bounds, she was impossible to resist... Seven years ago he left her all but ruined... Victoria's father had told her an earl would never marry a vicar's daughter, and he was right. Robert had promised her marriage, then danced off to London while she suffered the shame of a foiled elopement. But even though Victoria doesn't particularly enjoy her new life as a governess, when Robert offers her a job of a different sort—his mistress—she refuses, unable to sacrifice her honor, even for him.But Robert won't take no for an answer, and he vows to make her his, through any means possible. Can these star-crossed lovers learn to trust again? And is love really sweeter the second time around?

    Of course, it felt wonderful...warm hands on her flesh, rough stubbled skin on her cheek. It all seemed some wonderful dream. But that hardly mattered to the ton. To them, she was ruined, for Lord Eppingham Julian Rowley had been discovered in her bed, and she'd claimed him as her own. Why had she done it? Why had she brought ruination to her name and dishonor to her family—dishonor that could only be erased by marriage? She had not wanted to trap the handsome rake in wedlock. Though she might fall forever into his golden-brown eyes, marriage to any man was not something she sought. Nor had she acted from any true fear of the ton's disdain. It had been something in Julian's touch, his kiss. Something had called out for her to guard him, to place herself in the way of his ruin. If to save this man meant to be fallen, so be it. And in saving him, she just might save herself.Librarian's note: See 2009 reprint edition here.

    Now this acclaimed author takes erotic romance to spellbinding new heights with...As the most notorious rakehell in Regency London, Lord Damien Sinclair sought only his own pleasure, until his beloved younger sister, Olivia, was injured and her reputation ruined during a forbidden tryst. Now Damien will do anything to destroy the young nobleman guilty of hurting Olivia...And Vanessa Wyndham will protect her foolish brother at all costs, even if it means entering into an illicit bargain with the dangerously handsome "Lord Sin." When Vanessa offers to act as a companion to Lord Sin's invalid sister, Damien agrees with one scandalous condition--he'll forgive her brother's debt if she agrees to become his mistress.And so the seduction begins. But once the affair has ended, will they escape with their hearts intact?

    After he suddenly returns, determined to prove to her he's a changed man, she's not about to forgive him, trust him, or succumb to his scorching kisses.A future duke trapped by obligationWill has devoted his life to enraging his loathsome father by creating one scandal after the next. Duty forces him back to the wife he resents, but he isn't prepared for the raw desire she makes him feel. Seducing her will hardly be a tedious task. Guarding his heart, however, is another matter entirely.A marriage of convenience no moreWhat begins in deception and necessity turns into an attraction neither can deny. Can their newfound passion keep them together forever, or will the truth tear them apart? Wicked Husbands Book OneIf you enjoy steamy Regency and Victorian romance and second chance love stories,don't miss the Wicked Husbands series. Fiercely independent, dazzlingly beautiful, and married to handsome scoundrels, these American heiresses are ready to turn the tables on the insufferable English lords they've wed. What happens when their wicked husbands start falling for the wives they never thought they wanted?Corsets come off, bed chambers ignite, the passion sizzles,and more than one stubborn English rake gets reformed by love.