Ladies Least Likely

What happens in the secret pleasure club is never meant for the light of day.Effie Stanier has one summer of freedom before she must submit to her family's demand that she marry. One summer to explore her fantasies at Hedone, the secret pleasure club her friend runs in Brighton. When she meets a mysterious tradesman who stirs her as no man has, Effie gambles everything on the chance that he can awaken desires she's never dared to feel-though exposure will destroy her family and her future.Jay Burnham, heir to the Brickmaker Baron, has spent his life straddling two worlds and belonging to neither. The charming nymph he meets on the seashore awakens a longing he thought he'd buried. The masked siren he meets at Hedone lights a craving he can't deny. He doesn't realize they're the same woman-and he's falling for her twice.But Jay believes he's betraying one to have the other. And Effie has no idea the man behind the mask is the same one who's already stolen her heart.When their secrets surface, the cost won't just be scandal. It will be each other.A steamy Victorian romance of masked identities, forbidden pleasure, and two people falling in love twice-without knowing it. Set against the glittering backdrop of Brighton's Hedone club, this tale of forbidden pleasure and class-defying passion proves that sometimes the greatest mystery isn't who's behind the mask-it's recognizing the person you've already fallen for twice.

She's fighting for the stage. He's fighting for his name. Neither expected to fight for each other.Cerys Evans ran away from her family to make her way on the stage, determined to earn a name that was all her own. But when the theater burns down, her options are stark: slink home a failure, or help her troupe build new premises and finally prove her place among them.The only obstacle? She'll have to work with Dante Manelli, Cheltenham's rising architect-arrogant, infuriating, and most decidedly not a gentleman.Dante has fought for every inch of his success, and he's not about to let the taunts of a saucy actress distract him. But she's offering a project that could cement his career. And when Cerys creates a ruse to free him from an old nemesis, she soon has all of Cheltenham believing they're not just co-conspirators-but lovers.The more time they spend together, the more tempted Dante is to make their play real. But Cerys is meddling with a dangerous rival, one who will do anything to end her hopes. And when her past comes back to find her, Dante must prove himself the gentleman worthy of her hand-and deserving of her heart.For two souls struggling to establish their place in the world, there may be only one place they each belong: together.