New Reissue with Bonus Short Story!!
She made a deal with The Fox to save a life...
Lady Althea Ransome has been secretly infatuated with Lord Neville Blakely, the dangerously handsome Marquess of Foxworth, for years. But when her hot-headed uncle catches them in a compromising position on a ballroom balcony and challenges Nev to a duel at dawn, she knows exactly how this ends. Nev is a lethal crack shot; her uncle is... decidedly not.
Desperate to prevent bloodshed, Althea strikes a scandalous bargain: she'll spend the night in Nev's company—entirely innocently—if he agrees to forfeit the fight.
He's playing a much grander game...
Nev didn't come to the masquerade looking for a duel—he came looking for a wife, and he's set his sights firmly on Althea. The trouble is, an old feud means her uncle would sooner shoot Nev than grant his blessing. So when Althea accepts his proposal, Nev sees his golden opportunity: keep her under his roof long enough for her uncle to discover them, and the old man will be forced to demand a wedding instead of a duel. No seduction required. Easy, right?
But the best-laid plans of maids and men often go awry, and Nev's clever trap snaps shut on his own heart. When Althea uncovers his deception, her lifelong affection curdles into disdain, and she flatly refuses to be tricked to the altar.
Now, the infamous rake faces his most daunting duel yet: convincing the woman he deceived that his love is real—before he loses her forever.
She sat gingerly on the edge of the chair in Nev's study, wondering how she’d ever make it through this night without doing something to disgrace herself. “What now?” she asked, needing to get her mind off the unsettling feelings he stirred in her.
Picking up his brandy glass, he shrugged. “Why don’t you tell me what you want to do? Consider this your stolen night. No one will ever know what you do during these hours, so why not do something you’ve always wanted? Whatever you choose will be our secret. You’re free to engage in any activity your heart desires . . . within the confines of this house and its grounds, of course.”
She stared at him. He was right. This was a stolen night. There was no Uncle Winston or Theresa to please, no crowd of earls and duchesses to impress. There was only Nev. And nothing she did seemed to shock him.
“Would you like to drink a brandy?” he offered as a suggestion, his eyes twinkling. “Or perhaps some port?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’ve already had my share of champagne tonight, and liquor gives me a headache.”
“Then I suppose cigars are out,” he quipped, eliciting a giggle from her. “What then? What would you like to do that you’ve never been allowed to do before?”
With a frown, she thought of all the restrictions placed on her through the past seven years . . . nay, through her whole life. There were mountains and mountains of them, yet absurd as it seemed, all she could think of was--
“I should like to slide down the bannister in the hall.”
He sputtered, nearly choking on his brandy. “You’d like to do what?”
“Slide down the bannister.” When he continued to regard her as if she were mad, she explained. “When I used to visit here, Isabella and I would watch you and your friends slide down that lovely long bannister. It looked like such fun, and we were green with envy. Yet the only time we attempted it, we were caught before we could go down, and then soundly chastised by your father, who said girls shouldn’t do such things, for it might ruin them.”
He snorted. “That sounds like something Father would have said.”
“At the time I wondered what he meant. How could it possibly ruin us to slide down a bannister?” She tossed her head back. “Anyway, I think he only said it to keep us from doing something he thought was too dangerous for girls but perfectly safe for boys.”
“Sliding down a bannister isn’t perfectly safe for anyone,” he muttered.
“You did it. I should like to try it, too.”
He cast her a look of pure exasperation.
She met his gaze with an angelic smile. “You said I could do anything. Are you going to renege?”
He drained his glass, then set it down on the table with a sigh. “Of course not. If you want to break your bloody neck on the bannister, then by all means, have at it.”
Her smile widening to a grin, she leapt to her feet. Perhaps this night wouldn’t be so bad after all.
