When the Duke Defies Reason: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance of Forbidden Passion, Hidden Secrets, and Second Chances

By: Hartwell, Celeste

She wrote London's most scandalous column. He read every word.

Lady Arabella Sinclair has a secret she'd sooner burn than confess: for two and a half years, she has been the anonymous voice behind The Mayfair Whisper - London's most beloved and feared gossip sheet. She writes with wit, she writes with purpose, and she writes under the protection of complete anonymity.

Until the night she writes about the wrong duke.

Alexander Vane, the Duke of Ravensworth, is renowned for two things: his unimpeachable honor and his methodical precision. When a careless abbreviation destroys the first, he employs the second - identifying Arabella as the author in less than a week. His proposal is not romantic. It is ruthlessly logical: a six-week false engagement to repair both their reputations, bound by negotiated terms, and concluded without sentiment.

Arabella agrees. She has no other choice. What she does not agree to is falling in love with him.

But proximity has a logic of its own. Between candlelit library evenings, a country house that forces dangerous closeness, and a man who quotes her own writing back at her, Arabella finds that the most inconvenient man in England is also the most extraordinary one. And Alexander - who has been careful about everything for fifteen years - is discovering that some things cannot be approached carefully at all.

When the secret behind the Whisper is threatened by betrayal and a rival publication, they must decide how much they are willing to risk - and whether what began as a contract has become something neither of them can afford to lose.

Perfect for readers who love:

Witty heroines with sharp minds and sharper pensReserved heroes who fall completely and irreversiblyFake engagement romance with genuine emotional tensionRegency-set stories where the heroine has real agencySlow-burn attraction that becomes undeniable

Book 1 of the Secrets of Ravensworth series. Standalone HEA. Adult content.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN13: 9798249899905
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"