Louisa Darling

The cold, inflexible Duke of Ashbourn has a he spends his nights taking on all comers at the Nemesis, a no-holds-barred underground boxing ring. The brutal fights are his one outlet, allowing him to maintain ruthless control of his life…until he meets Elizabeth Pickford.   Bess would do anything to aid her friends, including chaperoning Ashbourn's half-sister. Steady and practical, Bess longs for passion and is instantly drawn to the mysterious duke, though she believes he could never desire a woman so far below his station.   Consumed with his need for Bess, Ashbourn vows not to allow his darkness to touch her…but Bess's search for a scoundrel brings her to the Nemesis. Masked and nameless, they surrender to a forbidden intimacy too seductive to be denied. And when their secrets are bared, they must risk it all to claim one another in the light of day.

A LADY FORTUNE HUNTER Lady Gemma Lively's life as the darling of London's fast set was carefree and fun, filled with exciting friends, daring fashions, and scandalous parties. But when the death of her father leaves her family with nothing but a dilapidated coaching inn at the end of the Earth, it's up to Gemma to change their fate. She needs a rich husband immediately—but the only bachelor in sight is a devilishly distracting barkeep who doesn't know the peerage from a pint glass. A DUKE IN DISGUISE When Hal Deveril meets the new owners of Five Mile House, he sees right away that they're Trouble. The eldest Lively sister is an unabashed fortune hunter, so Hal hides his true identity in the first place he can find—behind the bar of his local pub. He doesn't have time for Gemma's wild scheme to entice eligible gentlemen to the inn and seduce one into marriage—he's too busy trying to rebuild his crumbling estate. AN IMPOSSIBLE MATCH Except Hal can't seem to resist seducing Gemma himself. Every sizzling argument, every tempting touch, every secret kiss draws them closer together, but while he might not be the barkeep she thinks he is, he's also not the wealthy Duke she's hoping for….even if he wants to give her everything he has, including his heart.

The first novella in Louisa Darling's steamy, rompy Regency-set Drake Family trilogy!   She's the beauty and the brains…   Miss Caroline Quick is desperate to escape London for the freedom of the wilds and her career as a naturalist—but she must get her widowed mother married before she can go. It's a simple enough idea; track down Mama's first love and engineer a meeting…with the help of the gentleman's alarmingly charming son.   He's just Fitz.   The bored, scapegrace younger son of a disapproving Earl, Fitzwilliam Drake is no stranger to madcap schemes, but the proposition put to him by the delectable Caroline is the wildest he's ever heard. Of course, trapping his father into marriage is better than tumbling into the pit himself, but Fitz will need to exercise caution around Caroline, who is too tempting by half. Unfortunately, Fitz has never been the cautious type…   They might make the ideal match…   From "surprise" encounters in the park to scandalous country house parties, Caroline's plans quickly spin out of control. But Fitz is there to help…and to drive her to distraction with his irresistible kisses and strong embraces. Because Fitz may not be a genius, but he's smart enough to see that with a woman like Caroline, matrimony is no trap—it's the start of the grandest adventure of them all.