Provoking the Scarred Duke (Tarnished Ladies #2)

“How close can a man stand before stepping back becomes the lie?”

Giselle Linfield keeps better company with the dead than the living, so a three-month commission cataloguing a reclusive duke’s library suits her perfectly.

Dust, silence, and no one to disappoint.

Then she finds treason misfiled on the shelves, a secret someone killed to bury, and a scarred, dangerous duke who stands far too close and never once makes her want to step back.

The Duke of Calder came home from the war ruined, guarded, and trusting no one. He hired a scholar. What he got is a fearless woman who scolds him in his own house and looks at his scars as though they are simply another page worth reading.

Neither of them can afford the pull between them. And the powerful man who has wanted Giselle’s family destroyed since before she was born has just learned exactly where she is.

To survive, they will have to decide which is more dangerous: the enemy at the gate, or how much they want each other.

A steamy, slow burn Regency of buried secrets, forbidden desire, and two guarded souls who meet their match. Book 2 of Tarnished Ladies. Standalone, with a happily ever after.

No cheating. No cliffhangers. Just a passionate, deeply satisfying happily ever after.