As reluctant business partners, Florence Fairbourne's defiance and Darius Stainthorpe's demands make it difficult to manage one of London's most eminent auction houses. But their passionate personalities come to terms in an affair that leave them both senseless--until the devastating truth ebhind their partnership comes to ligh, threatening the love they have just begun to share...

The breathtaking finale of Madeline Hunter's magnificent quartet...

Outrageously wealthy, the Duke of Castleford has little incentive to curb his profligate ways-gaming and whoring with equal abandon and enjoying his hedonistic lifestyle to the fullest. When a behest adds a small property to his vast holdings, one that houses a modest flower business known as The Rarest Blooms, Castleford sees little to interest him...until he lays eyes on its owner. Daphne Joyes is coolly mysterious, exquisitely beautiful, and utterly scathing toward a man of Castleford's stamp-in short, an object worthy of his most calculated seduction.

Daphne has no reason to entertain Castleford's outrageous advances, and every reason to keep him as far away as possible from her eclectic household. Not only has she been sheltering young ladies who have been victims of misfortune, but she has her own closely guarded secrets. Then Daphne makes a discovery that changes everything. She and Castleford have one thing in common: a profound hatred for the Duke of Becksbridge, who just happens to be Castleford's relative.

Never before were two people less likely to form an alliance-or to fall in love...

When famed London courtesan Alessandra Northrope passes away, her daughter Celia Pennifold inherits little more than a hopelessly contaminated reputation, a house in a middle class neighborhood, and an education that prepared her to take her mother’s place the way Alessandra intended. Celia hopes to make her own life on her own terms, however, and moves into the house only to discover one more legacy—an enigmatic, handsome tenant who knows her mother’s plans for her future rather too well. It does not help that Jonathan Albrighton’s mere presence creates delicious excitements that remind her of the thrilling pleasure that Alessandra taught her to arouse in others and enjoy herself. When new claims on her mother’s estate threaten her hold on the property, she is forced to fulfill her deathbed promise to Alessandra—to give fair consideration to the future for which she was trained. Unfortunately, she discovers that the only man with whom she really wants to share the secrets of her erotic education is unsuitable for a role in any future she might claim.

Jonathan thinks he is on a simple mission to discover whether Celia’s mother left accounts of her lovers that might embarrass important men. Instead he finds himself embroiled in a mystery full of dangerous betrayals and secrets, old and new, that touch on his life as well as Celia’s. The chamber that he leases in Celia’s home becomes convenient for protecting her, but their proximity only fuels his desire to seduce the radiant, beautiful woman she has become. With his first touch and stolen kiss, he decides that she will have no lover except him, whether she considers him suitable or not.

When Verity’s past abruptly finds her, her recent behavior promises to unleash the scandal of the decade. Of more concern to her, she now has to outwit fate or be forced back into a marriage to a lord whom she never freely accepted. She never expects for the stranger who is her husband to create so much sensual excitement, however, or for her quest for the life she was supposed to live instead to reveal a conspiracy that endangers them both.

Audrianna Kelmsleigh is unattached, independent-and armed. Her adversary is Lord Sebastian Sommerhays. What they have in common is Audrianna's father, who died in a scandalous conspiracy-a deserved death in Sebastian's eyes. Audrianna vows to clear her father's name, never expecting to fall in love with the man devoted to destroying it...

A kiss long ago. . .

A desire that never dies. . .

A passion that will not be denied.

Seven years ago, Leona Montgomery's sensuality was awoken by a mysterious young adventurer full of dark chaos and sinful inclinations.

When she meets him again, their attraction reignites immediately, but he is much changed. Arrogant, masterful, and determined to seduce her, he now appears to have leashed the chaos and tamed the darkness.

Or has he?

First he’ll learn her most intimate secrets. Then he’ll arouse her deepest passions. He’s the lover she’s been waiting for: the man who can rescue her from her wicked past–for a price–in Madeline Hunter’s tale of sin, seduction, and irresistible, impossible love.

He catches her eye across the dining room–a handsome stranger who stands out among the lewd noblemen and bawdy painted women. But their worlds are about to collide in a way Roselyn Longworth could never have imagined. For before the night is out, she will be auctioned off to the highest bidder…and Kyle Bradwell will lead her from one kind of hell to another. Yet from the moment he wins her, Kyle treats Rose with a gentleness she hasn’t known since a family scandal destroyed her reputation. And when she finally learns what is really driving Kyle, it’s too late. For Rose has fallen for the man who knows her most intimate secrets. Now he has stunned her with a proposal of marriage–the first step in a seduction that will demand nothing less than her complete surrender.…

Biography

Madeline Hunter is a nationally bestselling author of historical romances who lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. In a parallel existence to the one she enjoys as a novelist, she has a Ph.D. in art history and teaches at an East Coast university.

Handsome, suave, and carnal as the devil, Lord Elliot Rothwell awaits readers in Lessons of Desire, bestselling author Madeline Hunter’s latest book in the Rothwell series and her most provocative novel to date. A man used to getting what he wants, Elliot is every woman’s most secret fantasy in the living flesh. He first appears beneath her prison window as her savior—a sinfully attractive man whose charm and connections have ensured her release from an unjust arrest. But author and publisher Phaedra Blair quickly learns that the price of her “freedom” is to be virtually bound to her irresistible rescuer. For Elliot Rothman didn’t come solely on a mission of goodwill. He came to extract a promise that Phaedra won’t publish a slanderous manuscript that could destroy his family’s name, and he’s not above bribery, threats, or bedding her to get his way. And with each erotic encounter raising the stakes between them, Elliot discovers he’s ever more reluctant to lose this sensual game…or the one woman who’s every bit his match.