The Bride's Seduction

Louise Allen

A Marriage of Convenience?Miss Marina Winslow assumed she would never marry. Then the Earl of Mortenhoe proposed a practical, passionless match. Marina knew it was madness to accept when she was in love with him. But perhaps she could risk her heart…

‘My dear, that is quite the most provocative nightgown I believe I have ever seen.’

His voice was a growl dipped in honey, and his weight on the bed next to her angled the mattress so that her hip touched his flank. His skin was hot.

‘You forgot the candles.’ The room seemed bright as day.

‘Oh, no, I haven’t.’ Justin’s fingers were tangling with the ribbons at her neckline, not with any apparent urgency, but with the leisurely pleasure of someone trailing wool for a kitten. ‘I love looking at you, Mari. I love it when you blush. I love it when you drop your lashes like that to try to hide the expression in your eyes.’

She gasped again as his fingers brushed the line of her collarbone. Focus on how it feels. Do not think... How hard that was to do. Her mind ran off along its own unhappy path. He loves all those things about me, but he does not love me. He does not trust me. He will not share his life or his worries or his secrets with me. His secrets.

LOUISE ALLEN has been immersing herself in history, real and fictional, for as long as she can remember, and finds landscapes and places evoke powerful images of the past. Louise lives in Bedfordshire and works as a property manager, but spends as much time as possible with her husband at the cottage they are renovating on the north Norfolk coast, or travelling abroad. Venice, Burgundy and the Greek islands are favourite atmospheric destinations.

Recent novels by the same author:

ONE NIGHT WITH A RAKE

THE EARL’S INTENDED WIFE

THE SOCIETY CATCH

A MODEL DEBUTANTE

THE MARRIAGE DEBT MOONLIGHT AND MISTLETOE (in Christmas Brides)

THE VISCOUNT’S BETROTHAL

The Bride’s Seduction

Louise Allen

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Contents

Cover (#u16919b16-3de8-5468-a6fa-0dba40aef1fc)

Title Page (#u53cd4b33-916d-52c8-9b68-3911c3386400)

About the Author (#uc6982251-7a22-5331-9dd4-bf38beea14ac)

Prologue (#u6b7192c3-cc9c-5980-b91b-c48f1cfd4170)

Chapter One (#u20593d2e-c382-5800-aa1b-949d8da6b680)

Chapter Two (#u285354ca-9b07-55dc-8019-44c5d70e0038)

Chapter Three (#u5ef163b8-b8d2-5989-a36d-736f45b466fa)

Chapter Four (#u5d306697-86ca-52d2-923f-6803afc6749f)

Chapter Five (#udd2fbc13-79fe-50e8-a411-6f4af4a0c2b9)

Chapter Six (#u54113e2f-e704-5319-a1f2-a645c4829063)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#ub7ce7f01-2d02-5e90-ade4-0c7dc70e01f1)

June 6 1817

‘With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship...’

Marina was thankful for the protection of her veil as the blood surged hot in her cheeks. What am I doing? How did I let it come to this? If only I had more resolution. She resisted the temptation to look up at the tall figure standing next to her and made herself concentrate as the ceremony took its course. Finally,

‘I now pronounce you man and wife.’

A soft murmur went round St George’s. Relief? Marina wondered, or surprise that the old maid of the Winslow family had found herself such an eligible husband? Or perhaps it was simply a sentimental sigh. Her distraction w