When a Rogue Falls
Page 1
When a Rogue Falls
Caroline Linden
Erica Monroe
Katherine Bone
Aileen Fish
Christina McKnight
Dawn Brower
Aubrey Wynne
Amanda Mariel
Lauren Smith
Contents
USA Today Bestselling Author Caroline Linden
The Secret Of My Seduction
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
Also By Caroline Linden
USA Today Bestselling Author Erica Monroe
Stealing the Rogue's Heart
Preface
Glossary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Thank You for Reading
The Rookery Rogues
Excerpt
Also by Erica Monroe
About the Author
Bestselling Author Katherine Bone
The Pirate’s Debt
Also Available
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Fish
That Miscreant Marquess
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Other Books by Aileen Fish
USA Today Bestselling Author
Adeline
Praise for Christina McKnight’s Novels
Books By Christina McKnight
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Author’s Notes
Lady Archer’s Creed Series
Theodora
An Excerpt From
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Dawn Brower
A Lady Hoyden’s Secret
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
About the Author
Books by Dawn Brower
Bestselling Author Aubrey Wynne
Rhapsody and Rebellion
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Author’s Note
About the Author
Also By Aubrey Wynne
USA Today Bestselling Author Amanda Mariel
Love Only me
Titles by Amanda Mariel
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Excerpt
Prologue
About the Author
Afterword
Lauren Smith
His Wicked Embrace
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
The Secret Of My Seduction
USA Today Bestselling Author Caroline Linden
Preface
Rule #1: Be discreet
No one suspects Bathsheba Crawford of being the anonymous author of a wickedly scandalous series of naughty novels. But she is.
Rule #2: Do not fall in love
When she approaches her publisher, rakish Liam MacGregor, with an indecent proposal, he's shocked. But he accepts.
Rules were made to be broken …
The requirements for their affair are simple: complete secrecy and no romantic attachment. But the more they see each other … the more pleasure they find in each other's arms… the harder it becomes to remember the rules …
* * *
A finalist for the 2018 RITA Award for Best Romance Novella!
Chapter 1
1823
London
Despite her looks, Bathsheba Crawford had never been shy.
Most people thought she would be. She was no beauty, with a round face and plain features, her hair an ordinary shade of brown. She could not sing, had never learned to play an instrument, and didn’t speak a word of French. There was nothing distinguishing about her, really.
But her mind worked quite well, thank you very much. With no expectation of getting by on her looks or charm, Bathsheba had learned to use the talents she did have: an unmatched memory, a sharp, practical intelligence, and the ability to listen more than she spoke. She also learned to pursue what she wanted, because nothing was freely given to young women of unremarkable looks whom everyone believed quiet and withdrawn.
That had seen her through hardship and adversity when her
parents died of consumption and their family printing business failed. When her brother Daniel came home from war missing part of his arm, unable to work. When they came within a hair’s breadth of losing everything. It also drove her to seize opportunities when they arose: taking a chance on printing a scandalous story called Fifty Ways to Sin on the old printing press sitting idle in their scullery, which succeeded beyond all their dreams, and then daring to write her own wicked novels, even if anonymously.
She might still be a plain little mouse of a woman, but she was a successful one. Her Tales of Lady X, about the romantic follies of a daring adventuress, sold very well. Whenever she caught the faintly pitying glances people sent her way (“The poor dear, so plain and quiet, no wonder she’s a spinster…”) or the openly surprised glances when she said something sensible (“Oh, good heavens; Miss Crawford, we didn’t notice you…”), a fierce satisfaction burned like a small sun in her breast. She was someone, even if none of them knew it.
She reminded herself of all this as she approached the London Intelligencer, a gossip newspaper. She was here on business, after all, and Liam MacGregor had long recognized her head for business. He was the owner and publisher of the Intelligencer, a strong-minded, ambitious Scot with a taste for risk. He’d become their partner in the final frantic days of printing Fifty Ways to Sin. If Bathsheba knew anything about Liam, it was that he never said no to a profitable proposal.
She went through the Intelligencer’s ramshackle offices and knocked on Liam’s door. A muffled shout was all the welcome she received; he didn’t even look up from his task when she came in and closed the door.
Bathsheba was undaunted. “I have a proposal,” she announced. “A business matter.”
Liam’s eyebrow arched, although he didn’t raise his head from the newspaper copy he was reading. “What is it?”
So direct. She admired that about him. Bathsheba was neither delicate nor missish, but now that she’d come to the point, she’d rather only have to say it once. “Tales of Lady X are selling well—”
Liam flashed a fierce grin at her before dropping his gaze back to the copy. Nothing pleased him more than success, and her novels were one of his biggest. Bathsheba appreciated that about him; he hadn’t quailed or scoffed when she brought him her manuscript. Instead he spotted its potential at once, to the benefit of both their purses.
Buoyed, she took a seat and went on. “Quite well. But I believe the tales could be even better. Lady Constance and Fifty Ways to Sin proved there is a real hunger for stories of genuine passion, and of course I want to find every way to improve. And after much thought, I think there is one thing which would notably better my stories.”
Finally his head came up. “Oh?”
She gripped her hands a little tighter together, keeping her eyes locked on his. Given what she was about to suggest, she ought to be able to do that, at the very least. It wasn’t a hardship to look at him. Liam was handsome in a sharp, bold way, with broad, high cheekbones and a straight nose over a rather sensual mouth. If anything, his eyes were the most unsettling part of him; they were gray, and when he was annoyed or angry, they could pale to an almost unearthly color. Now they were fixed on her, unflinching and bright beneath the too-long waves of his dark hair.
“I lack—” She stopped, the words suddenly thick and wooly in her mouth. “I need—”
“Run out of ideas?” he asked.
She shook her head. Not ideas. Bathsheba had plenty of ideas for her books. It was something more practical that she lacked, and it was beginning to affect her work.
“What?” His forehead creased. “Don’t tell me you’ve written too indiscreetly about a past lover and he’s going to make trouble.”
“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped. “Of course not.” It was insulting that he would think her that careless.
His expression cleared of irritation, but the interest remained. “Then what is it? Do you need funds advanced?”
He should know she didn’t. Her share of the profits had accumulated to a tidy sum. She pressed her hands flat on her knees. “No. I lack deeper knowledge of my subject.”
It took him a moment, but Liam realized her meaning. “No,” he said in sly disbelief. “Don’t tell me you’re a—”
“No, but near enough,” she said impatiently. She wasn’t a virgin, but her carnal experience was limited, and—to put it mildly—uninspiring.
“Then how have you written—?”
“From Fifty Ways to Sin.” She glared at him, too smug and handsome with his cravat loosened and the sun gleaming on his hair. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t have a large number of past lovers. If anything, the Fifty Ways to Sin stories had made her very sorry for that fact, as they had opened her eyes to the existence of a world of sensual pleasure she’d barely imagined. Who wouldn’t want to experience the bliss described in them?
But the fact remained that she had not; her quiet, mousy appearance was to blame, no doubt.
“And from gossip,” she went on. “It’s not hard to overhear the most scandalous and depraved things, as you well know. A woman can learn quite a bit.” All the gossip Bathsheba had heard indicated those pleasures were no fiction, although neither were they commonplace.
He laughed. “I do know! I just never thought—” He stopped short and cleared his throat. “Well, do what you must.”
Bathsheba kept her composure by the narrowest of margins. Liam could be cold and calculating, and he didn’t waste time on platitudes or trivial conversation. Generally she admired that. “I plan to. Since it’s as much to your benefit as it is to mine that the . . . er . . . experience be as thorough and as inspirational as possible, I propose that you assist.”
For the first time she could ever recall, Liam’s face went blank, then flushed a girlish shade of pink. He didn’t even sputter or protest, just stared at her in disbelief.
Bathsheba raised her brows, pleased to have silenced him for once. “It’s for the benefit of our mutual business endeavor.”
“You want me—?” Liam’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of idiot do you think I am?”
She frowned. “Not an idiot. I’m not asking you to fall in love with me or even engage in a prolonged affair. Three or four times ought to be sufficient. Think of it as a research inquiry.”
“I am not a scientific experiment!”
“Neither am I,” she said coolly. “But I know you’ve got quite a reputation with the ladies—or so says the gossip—and I’d rather learn from the best.”
His face was still flushed. “How dare you gossip about me.”
“You don’t mind if I listen to every sort of tawdry tale about everyone else in society, but your name is beyond the pale?” She gave him a reproving look in spite of herself. “You encouraged me to listen. It’s hard to stop when a familiar name comes up.”
“You could if you tried,” he snarled, shoving back from his desk and bounding to his feet. “What the blazes would your brother say if he knew what you just asked me to do?”
“Good heavens, why would you tell him?” she exclaimed. Daniel didn’t even know Liam published her books. That had been her bargain with Liam: he must keep her identity secret at all costs, from Daniel and from the rest of the world. “It’s none of his concern. I’m twenty-nine years old, not a little girl Danny must protect.”
“‘Tis a bloody stupid idea,” he snapped, sounding more Scottish than ever. “Put it from your head.”
Bathsheba sighed. She’d braced herself for this reply, but it was still disappointing. “I take it that means no. Very well.” She got to her feet, then hesitated. “I trust you’ll be kind enough not to tell anyone about this.”