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A seductive wager…
After an onslaught of mediocre entertainments and the need for a respectable bride looming ever closer, Nathaniel Ware, 7th Duke of Milton, resigns himself to what is perhaps the dreariest London season of his life. When his scapegrace friends come up with a little game to stave the ennui, Nathan cannot resist a challenge, particularly when the prize includes a champion thoroughbred he’s been eyeing for months. Securing a dance with Miss Arabella Hughs seems a simple task, though he quickly discovers there is nothing at all simple about the overlooked debutante. As he manages to spend more time with the pretty and intelligent woman during an extended house party, he soon finds himself desiring far more than a mere waltz. Perhaps his hunt for a duchess won’t be so dull after all?
A season of heartbreak…
Perpetually trapped in the shadow of her glamourous sister and nursing a recently broken heart, Miss Arabella Hughs is content to linger on the sidelines for the remainder of the season. That the Ton seems convinced of her supposedly bitter and jealous personality only helps her efforts towards a peaceful existence at the edge of every ballroom, a peace soon disrupted when she overhears the Duke of Milton accepting a wager to waltz with her in exchange for a bloody horse. Perturbed and more than a bit insulted, she rejects him outright and cannot help but laugh at his declaration to convince her otherwise by the end of the season. But when a lavish house party allows her more time alone with the handsome duke, her resolve begins to crack. With each encounter more heated than the last, what began as a simple game becomes something far more serious, and Arabella soon fears that she may have put her heart in danger of breaking once more.
