Showing results for "Pleasure" in Historical Fiction

One of Daphne Wade's guilty pleasures is to watch the Duke of Tremore as he works, shirtless, on the excavation site of his ducal estate. Anthony Courtland is by far the most exciting and handsome man she has ever known, and she dreams of one day being able to speak with him without getting tongue tied. Anthony, meanwhile, only sees her as a hard worker on his excavation team. He considers her a plain young lady and says so to a friend, unaware that Daphne is outside the library door, her heart shattering to pieces. So Daphne decides she will not be so silly any longer.

Lysandra Keates is running out of options. Her father is dead, her mother is ill, and her efforts to find respectable employment have ended in failure. With her small savings bleeding away, she swallows her pride - and her terror - and turns to Vivien Manning, an infamous courtesan, to match her with a wealthy protector. For years, Viscount Andrew Callis has lived a monastic existence at his country estate, hardening his body against the snobbish, lazy young man he once was...

Dr. Ainsley Graham is cultivating a reputation as an eccentric. Two years ago, he catastrophically ended his academic career by publicly claiming to talk to ghosts. When Joachim Cockburn, a WWI veteran studying the power of delusional thinking, arrives at his door, Ainsley quickly catalogs him as yet another tiresome Englishman determined to mock his life's work. But Joachim is tenacious and openhearted, and Ainsley's intrigued despite himself.

Drawn to a life of excitement and risk, Lady Millie Aldon made a pact to forsake marriage. But her plans are thrown into chaos when Chase Wentworth returns to town. The lanky lad she remembers from childhood is now the Marquess of Chaselton, possessing an air of mystery Millie can't resist. As Chase moves through London's elite circles, his stealth manner has Millie convinced he harbors a secret-one she is determined to reveal. As Millie makes a game of observing Chase's every move, she finds her attraction to him unsettling.

Rebecca, Lady Cornish, is lonely. She comes to Maida Pleasure Gardens, masked and alone, just to feel part of a world that still dances and laughs. But she repels all company – until the mysterious Ludovic Dunne refuses to be dismissed. Intrigued and unwillingly attracted, Rebecca begins to wonder if he might become a friend.

Escaping to Maida Pleasure Gardens for an evening of anonymous moonlight waltzing is bliss for Viola Dove, compared to the strained formality of her first London Season. But the excitement reaches fever pitch when an escaped convict is pursued through the gardens – wounded and in desperate need of help. So, of course, Viola hides him in her family’s cellar. Lord Dominic Gorse, the rakehell son of a marquis, is ill-suited to confinement, whether in Newgate or a surprisingly comfortable cellar, cared for by the beautiful, intriguing Viola, a parcel of lively children, and a very large puppy.

Two years ago, the charismatic young Earl of Wenning abandoned his bride on their wedding night, leaving her to face the humiliation and inevitable suspicion of guilt alone, while he pursued his diplomatic ambitions abroad. But the resilient Grace refused to crumble. Setting aside her bewildered grief, she has become a fashionable socialite living on the edge of scandal, surrounded by male admirers. Now, she awaits her husband’s return with a little revenge in mind.

A renowned rake, Cameron Mackenzie doesn't care if Ainsley Douglas has a virtuous excuse for sneaking around his bedchamber. He only cares that she's at his mercy. One kiss at a time, he plans to seduce her. But what starts out as a lusty diversion may break Cam's own rules.

Jane Popyncourt was brought to the court as a child to be ward of the king and a companion to his daughters - the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for a powerful marriage, or perhaps even marriage at all. But as she grows into a lovely young woman, she still receives flattering attention from the young men flocking to serve the handsome new king, Henry VIII, who has recently married Catherine of Aragon. Then a dashing French prisoner of war, cousin to the king of France, is brought to London, and Jane finds she can't help giving her heart to a man she can never marry.

Beautiful Lady Anne Stafford, lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, is torn between her love for her husband, George, Lord Hastings...and the king’s boon companion, the attentive Sir William Compton. But when King Henry VIII, amorous as always, joins the men clustering around her, Anne realizes she has become perilously enmeshed in the intrigues of the court. Will she be forced to decide between the two men she desires - and the one she doesn’t?

IN THE ARMS OF DANGER Bold. Brave. Brutally handsome. Hugh Fitzroy, the Duke of Kyle, is the king's secret weapon. Sent to defeat the notorious Lords of Chaos, he is ambushed in a London alley-and rescued by an unlikely ally: a masked stranger with the unmistakable curves of a woman. IN THE HEAT...

At the Duke’s Pleasure is Tracy Anne Warren’s sexiest, most winning romantic Byron misadventure to date - an arranged-marriage-gone-awry winner combining the deft humor and stunning sensuality of Victoria Alexander with delightfully human and unforgettable upper-crust characters reminiscent of Julia Quinn.

Nondescript "good girl" Miss Camellia Grenville only ever opens her mouth when forced to sing at her family's musicales. That is, until the night she infiltrates the ton's most scandalous masquerade ball on behalf of her sister, and finds herself in the arms of the one man she'd sworn to hate. Irresistibly arrogant and unapologetically sensuous, infamous rake Lord Wainwright always gets his way. When he accepts a wager to turn his rakish image respectable in just 40 days, he never anticipates falling for an anonymous masked lover.

Lady Eleanor Ramsay is the only one who knows the truth about Hart Mackenzie. Once his fiancée, she is the sole woman to whom he could ever pour out his heart. Hart has it all - a dukedom, wealth, power, influence, whatever he desires. Every woman wants him - his seductive skills are legendary. But Hart has sacrificed much to keep his brothers safe, first from their brutal father, and then from the world. He's also suffered loss: his wife, his infant son, and the woman he loved with all his heart, though he realized it too late.

The book opens in Paris with Eliza in bed with Francisco Solano Lopez - heir to the untold wealth of Paraguay. The fruit of their congress will be extraordinary, and will send her across the Atlantic on the regal voyage to claim her glorious future in Asunción. With the lavish imaginative richness of Márquez and the crazed panoramic sweep of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch is a bold and brilliantly achieved novel about sex, beauty and corruption at the end of the old world.

It was whispered all through London Society that Ian Mackenzie was mad, that he’d spent his youth in an asylum, and was not to be trusted - especially with a lady. For the reputation of any woman caught in his presence was instantly ruined. Yet Beth found herself inexorably drawn to the Scottish lord, whose hint of a brogue wrapped around her like silk and whose touch could draw her into a world of ecstasy.

Lady Isabella Scranton scandalized London by leaving her husband, notorious artist Lord Mac Mackenzie, after only three turbulent years of marriage. But Mac has a few tricks to get the Lady back in his life, and more importantly, back into his bed.

After years of marriage to a selfish man who preferred gambling to his young bride, Jane, the widowed countess of Stanwell, now seeks what she was long denied—a satisfying lover. Naturally, a lady needs a list of eligible candidates, which doesn't include the dangerously handsome (if far too arrogant) Gareth Ramsey . . . until he steals a sinful kiss from Jane's all-too-willing lips.

The Mackenzies gather for a clan Christmas and Hogmanay in Scotland. In the chaos of preparations for the celebration - the first of Hart and Eleanor's married life - one of Ian's Ming bowls gets broken, and the family scrambles to save the day. Daniel busily runs a betting ring for everything from the hour Eleanor's baby will arrive, to whether Mac's former-pugilist valet can win a boxing match. Ian begins a new obsession, and Beth fears that the loss of one of his precious bowls has made him withdraw once more into his private world.

USA Today best-selling author and RITA Award winner Jennifer Ashley pens heart-pounding tales that keep listeners spellbound with torrid romance and finely crafted intrigue. Juliana St. John faces the ultimate mortification when she's stood up on her wedding day. But then fate places her face-to-face with her first love, Elliot McBride, and she finds herself falling for her half-mad former paramour.