Fallen Ladies

"You should not have kissed me," she replied breathlessly. "I do a lot of things I shouldn't. It does not mean I won't do them again." Gently bred Emma Chadwick always assumed she'd live and die the daughter of a gentleman. But when her father's death reveals a world of staggering debt and dangerous moneylenders, she must risk her good name and put her talent for mathematics to use, taking a position as bookkeeper at London's most notorious gambling hell. Surrounded by vice and corruption on all sides, it is imperative no one discovers Emma's shameful secret or her reputation-and her life-will be ruined. But Roderick Bentley, the hell's sinfully wealthy owner, awakens a hunger Emma cannot deny. Drawn deep into an underworld of high stakes gambling and reckless overindulgence, she soon discovers that in order to win the love of a ruthless scoundrel, she will have to play the game...and give in to the pleasure of falling from grace.

He's a reclusive Earl with a painful secret that's kept him from knowing a lover's touch. She's a sheltered debutante tired of living by society's rules. But when she's forced from the ballroom to the brothel, Lily discovers the dark thrill of falling from grace...and into the arms of a man who could destroy her as easily as he saved her. Lily Chadwick has spent her life playing the respectable debutante. But when an unscrupulous moneylender snatches her off the street and puts her up for auction at a pleasure house, she finds herself in the possession of a man who fills her with breathless terror and impossible yearning. Though the Earl of Harte claimed Lily with the highest bid, he hides a painful secret-one that has kept him from knowing the pleasure of a lover's touch. Even the barest brush of skin brings him physical pain, and he's spent his life keeping the world at arm's length. But there's something about Lily that maddens him, bewitches him, compels him...and drives him toward the one woman brave and kind enough to heal his troubled heart. "Are you afraid?" "Yes," she replied in a soft voice. "But I love the way you frighten me."

"You do strange things to me, Dell Turner. Tell me I am not alone in what I feel." His voice was low and rough. His eyes burned. "You are not alone," he said. Portia Chadwick knows she'll never have a life of adventure. But when a dangerous moneylender kidnaps her sister, Portia seeks help from a man known only as Nightshade. Soon she finds herself charging headfirst into his world of intrigue and danger-and unexpected passion. Dell Turner grew up in London's back alleys and gin lanes. Vowing to escape his low beginnings, he hires himself out to society's elite. When he accepts a job from a beautiful young lady, he doesn't anticipate her relentless determination to join his mad occupation...or her unnerving ability to inspire emotions he thought long buried. She's as dangerous to him as his world is to her, and yet Dell can't bring himself to turn Portia away...even if it means risking her life.