Seducing the Duke Before Dawn

The story

Cressida Belmont returns to the salt-slicked fens of England a different creature from the girl who fled in scandal a decade ago. Remade by the underworld into one of its most lethal instruments, she has been given a final mission — steal a royal cipher — and a final promise: complete it, and she walks free. It should have been simple. Then the storm hits.

A violent tempest drives her into a remote lodge, and into the one man she cannot outrun. Magnus Roche is a duke now, hardened by ten years of believing the woman he loved betrayed him for sport. He knows exactly what she came for, and his ultimatum is as merciless as the rising floodwater: the cipher on his desk by dawn, or Cressida spends the rest of her life as his captive. Neither of them says what they are both thinking — that captivity, in this house, cuts both ways.

As the waters climb and enemies converge on the lodge, their standoff reignites a desire that never died — it only grew more dangerous in the dark. In a labyrinth of old wounds and new secrets, Cressida must decide whether her hard-won liberty is worth the price of the man she was once forced to break. Maximum tension. Minimum escape. One night to settle a decade.

Tropes in this book

Second chance Forced proximity Storm-trapped Old flames, new knives

The lovers who never got an ending, locked in one house by a flood, with a dawn deadline neither heart intends to honor.

Spice level

Steamy — around 4 out of 5. Ten years of unfinished business in one storm-locked night: the tension is maximal, and the payoff matches it.