When the ghosts of one's past haunt the present, that means it's time for a change...
James Shaw, the current Duke of Blackhawke, has washed his hands of society as well as people. After the war, all he wanted was to be left alone, but damn if his title and estates deserved his attention now that he had the time. Except, he didn't want to do any of that, for ghosts of the men he'd killed in the past-in the war or not-haunted him. Most days, it was a struggle merely to remain in the world, despite how detached he was.
Miss Eloise March has wanted one thing for the past three years-to find the man who killed her fiancé, Jean-Claude. Half French on her mother's side, she'd been visiting her family in a tiny village in France when the war came to their very doorstep. And that was when her life as she'd known it had ended, by violence, by terror, by intimidation, by the end of dreams. Revenge was all she had now, that and a pocket watch from the man who took her fiancé's life.
Eloise lures the duke out to Regent Park, but that's when things take a turn for the worse. As a bit of intense kissing is witnessed by a society gossip, scandal is in the offing. He has no choice but to offer for Eloise, and she has no option but to accept an engagement even though they're very much enemies. Acting like the beast he's been called, the duke kidnaps her. Forced proximity and heated coupling follows as do raw and painful emotions the pair will need to work through. If they wish to make a go at an impossible and unlikely romance, something will have to give.
...unless the wounds cut too deep for love or forgiveness to take root.
Autorentext
Sandra Sookoo is a USA Today bestselling author who firmly believes every person deserves acceptance and a happy ending. Most days you can find her creating scandal and mischief in the Regency-era, serendipity and happenstance in Victorian America or snarky, sweet humor in the contemporary world. Most recently she's moved into infusing her books with mystery and intrigue. Reading is a lot like eating fine chocolates?you can't just have one. Good thing books don't have calories!
When she's not wearing out computer keyboards, Sandra spends time with her real life Prince Charming in central Indiana where she's been known to goof off and make moments count because the key to life is laughter. A Disney fan since the age of ten, when her soul gets bogged down and her imagination flags, a trip to Walt Disney World is in order. Nothing fuels her dreams more than the land of eternal happy endings, hope and love stories.