Free A Duke's Temptation by Jillian Hunter

contest. The smoky glow enhanced the anticipation mounting in the salon. Lily wondered whether the winners had been chosen in advance. It didn’t matter, she realized guiltily. She’d been given a private tour of Wickbury . And . . . was the duke escorting another lady through the garden while she stood here, her feathers wilting? It was highly likely.
    “I asked you where he was,” Chloe said in distress.
    Lily shook off her wayward thoughts. “You saw him the last time—Oh, you mean Jonathan. He’s playing cards.”
    “My goodness, Lily, no wonder you let the duke lure you astray. I had no idea you were marrying a gambler.”
    “He’s no more a gambler than I am impure,” Lily said defensively. “He made a few friends I do not care for—”
    “And you did the same.” Chloe slipped her arm around Lily’s waist. “Everyone deserves at least one wicked evening in London. As long as it ends here, no one will ever be the wiser.”

Chapter 10
    B y eleven thirty that evening both the Duke of Gravenhurst and his bestselling counterpart, that corrupter of morality, had entered into a pact to join forces for one purpose: to plot out and enact the perfect courtship, marriage, and seduction of the woman who had captured their hearts.
    Their merged identities had recognized the ideal match when they found her.
    Of course, choosing a wife wasn’t exactly like writing one of the dark books that Lily Boscastle and other astute readers like her devoured. A duke and his true-life bride could be wildly in love one day and despise each other the next. They might come to a civilized arrangement to lead separate lives, meeting amicably on holidays if there were children involved. But Samuel would never be able to resort to any literary devices that Lord Anonymous employed to end their union.
    The duke would never take a vow he could not keep. Lord Anonymous’s characters broke their word as it suited their plot. But neither of them had found a happy ending when it came to any lasting romance. The duke was said to favor wellborn ladies who understood their proper place. According to what little was reported of him, the author of The Wickbury Tales was partial to earthy women of all classes who understood that impropriety should take place whenever both parties felt the urge.
    The truth as Samuel perceived it fell somewhere in the center of these speculations. This was, in fact, the first time that nobleman and novelist had agreed on a desirable bride. A lady of wit, sensuality, and the perfect touch of wicked imperfection. The duke and Lord Anonymous wanted Lily Boscastle very much.
    And while the Boscastle family was notorious for scandal, its ancient bloodlines were superior and undisputed. A duke could make a worse choice for a wife.
    Was there any harm in initiating a courtship? Would Lily’s parents refuse a peer as a serious suitor? Unfortunately, there was the matter of Samuel’s alarming reputation. How the hell was he to undo the damage he had carefully inflicted on his own name? And do so before another gentleman took Lily Boscastle off the market?
    She had proved she wasn’t as innocent as she looked. But she wasn’t as sophisticated as she thought she was, either. A flirtation in the garden did not make her a fallen woman. But with the right man, or the wrong one, which understandably her family would consider Samuel to be, her potential to play the temptress was intriguing to contemplate.
    He had been enraged the first time he had come upon one of the pamphlets bearing his name that littered the streets. Really, the bedroom acts attributed to him were impossible. He was sure he had never sired a son and daughter in two counties on the same night, and all this nonsense might have been merely amusing had a particularly salubrious piece not been printed on the day he was to address the House of Lords concerning the rising cost of bread. To his astonishment that measure received more support than any of his prior