To woo a wicked widow

Lady Charlotte Cavendish once tried to elope for love. Her father stopped her and married her off instead, and the match was cold and passionless. Now she is a widow, free to return to the ton and chase her own pleasure, though despite her widowhood she remains innocent of physical intimacy. She means to keep her independence.

Nash, the twelfth Earl of Wrotham, is taken with Charlotte the moment he sees her, and she feels the same pull. When an invitation to her house party arrives, he accepts, hoping to deepen their acquaintance. He wants a wife. She wants no husband.

Charlotte's refusal of marriage does not soften, and she makes Nash a tempting offer that he resists only with great effort. Something stands behind his restraint: old misadventures from both their pasts are returning to touch them again. If he beds her, he may lose everything he has. He may also win the one thing he has always wanted.

This is a historical romance set among the Regency-style society of the ton. The pairing is a marriage-minded earl and a widow who refuses to marry, and the tension builds from desire and restraint, with a past that threatens them both.