by Sabrina Jeffries
Pocket
March 2005
ISBN 0743477715
$6.99 US
Cover and Stepback - Alan Ayers

If the rumors are true, she'd be wise to run away . . . yet she's drawn into the arms of a man whose passion for pleasure might ruin her for good.

Beautiful Lady Regina Tremaine has turned down so manu suitors that she's called La Belle Dame Sans Merci. The truth: she won't marry because she carries a dark secret. She sees no good reason, however, why her brother shouldn't court the lovely Louisa North - even if the girl's brother, the notorious "Dragon Viscount" objects.

Marcus North, Viscount Draker - bastard son of the Prince of Wales - is rumored to be a monster who holds women captive in his dark castle to have his way with them. He has been exiled from polite society for years. But when Lady Regina makes a plea on her brother's behalf, Marcus proposes an outrageous deal: her brother can court Louisa so long as Marcus can court Regina. Can the beauty and the beast survive a proper courtship when the devastatingly improper passion between them threatens to cause the scandal of the century?

Excerpt

For a moment they stood frozen, with only his broad arm beneath her back preventing her from falling down the stairs.

   A heady scent of bay rum and soap wafted through her senses, making her wonder if he were not quite the oaf he seemed. Then his eyes dropped to where her pelisse had fallen open to reveal her low-cut bodice, and his gaze lodged there as if stuck. As her breasts pinkened beneath his gaze, she opened her mouth to rebuke him, then noticed the edge of the scar that crawled above his beard and onto his cheek.
   He lifted his eyes to her face. Catching where her gaze was fixed, he scowled. "Watch your step, madam. You wouldn't want to go tumbling."
   His thinly veiled threat sent a shiver along her spine. And what had he done to gain such an awful scar anyway? She shuddered to think.
   Shifting her in his arms, he lifted her as if she weighed less than nothing and set her firmly on the floor. "Now, Lady Regina, you're going to explain exactly what you mean by my sister and your brother having secret meetings. Because you're not going anywhere until you do."
   His low rumble of a voice sparked a peculiar quivering in her belly. Apparently, she'd awakened the sleeping dragon.
   Now she must figure out what to do with him.

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