Courting The Countess

Professor of Archeology Henrietta “Harry” Knight becomes Countess of Axedale upon her father’s death and takes a sabbatical from Cambridge University to begin refurbishing the long-neglected and run-down Axedale Hall. The child of a loveless marriage, witness to her father’s infidelities and her mother’s pain, Harry has no intention of ever falling in love. Annie Brannigan is a survivor, remaining positive through hardships. As an agency housekeeper, she moves from post to post with her daughter Riley, taking care of people who have everything she will never have. Annie’s greatest wish is to find her happy ever after. Can love restore the countess’s heart and the crumbling Axedale Hall, or will the first foundations of love turn to dust?

When charming rake Tristan Barrett sweeps Lady Elizabeth off her feet, stealing both her heart and a kiss in a secluded garden, her brother challenges Tristan to a duel. The only way to save her brother and Tristan from harm—not to mention preserve her reputation—is to get married. But her father, the Duke of Pemberton, refuses to allow his daughter to marry anyone but a titled lord. The duke demands that Elizabeth marry Tristan’s older brother, Richard, the Earl of Averston. Now Elizabeth must give up Tristan to marry a man who despises her, a man who loves another, a man she’ll never love. Richard fears Elizabeth is as untrustworthy as his mother, who ran off with another man. However, to protect his brother from a duel and their family name from further scandal, he agrees to the wedding, certain his new bride will betray him. Yet when Elizabeth turns his house upside down and worms her way into his reluctant heart, Richard suspects he can’t live without his new countess. Will she stay with him or is it too little, too late?

This book is also available with 3 other stories in THE 4 SCOUNDRELS BOX SET: A PIRATE, A SPY, A MERCENARY AND A ROGUE. Each book in the boxed set is available separately, but by buying them in a bundle, you're getting a better deal! Contains SURRENDER, REDEMPTION, THE MERCENARY'S PRICE, COURTING HIS COUNTESS. Get the set here: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/C_J_Archer_The_4_Scoundrels_Box_Set?id=wJLiCgAAQBAJ&hl=en DESCRIPTION The last woman Thomas, Lord Avondale, expected to fall in love with was the wife he betrayed and abandoned six years ago. When Rose doesn't accept his apology, however, he loses all hope of a happy future together. Yet he's thankful she has agreed to come to his bed to beget an heir. Known as the Ice Maiden at Queen Elizabeth I's court, Rose has been trying to forget the man she once loved—a love she thought destroyed after he spent their wedding night with his mistress. Withstanding Thomas's charms, however, is proving more difficult than she expected. Can she forgive the ultimate betrayal? Can he ever atone for what he did? Note: Courting His Countess is a novella of approximately 20,000 words, about one-quarter the size of a full-length novel. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR COURTING HIS COUNTESS may be shorter than most of my other books, but it was one of the most difficult stories I've ever written. What Thomas did to his wife is despicable and when I began to write, I didn't think I could make you, the reader, believe he was hero material. Yet the characters and their tale wouldn't leave my head, nor would the opening lines, so I wrote the story anyway. As I progressed, and especially when I switched to Thomas's viewpoint, I realized how very male he was being, and part of me started to feel sorry for him. Being a nobleman of his time, he just didn't get it. Not until he finally saw how his actions had affected a wonderful, strong woman. COURTING HIS COUNTESS breaks one of the "rules" of the romance genre, and I know some of you will find Thomas's actions unforgiveable. I certainly don't blame you for that! But I've never been very good at sticking to the rules, and I hope you don't blame ME for listening to the voices in my head. If you like books about redemption, second chances, Christmas, hope, and history, featuring strong female characters, and men who've matured and want to make up for past mistakes, then you might like this book. Happy reading! ~CJ

Pierce follows up her titillating "Tempting the Heiress" with this return to the sensual, scandalous world of the Bedegraynes in this new novel of temptation, seduction, and the healing power of love. Original.

The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club. Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him. Welcome to the Bromance Book Club. Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

For a shameless libertine and a wily smuggler in the London Underground, marriage is more than convenience—it’s strategy . . . Christopher “Kit” Ellingsworth, war veteran and newly minted Earl of Blakemere, buries his demons under every sort of pleasure and vice. His scandalous ways have all but emptied his coffers . . . until a wealthy mentor leaves him a sizeable fortune. The only stipulation? He must marry within one month to inherit the money. Kit needs a bride and the bold, mysterious Miss Tamsyn Pearce seems perfect. Husband hunting isn’t Tamsyn’s top priority—she’s in London to sell her new shipment of illicit goods—but she’s desperate for funds to keep her smuggling operation afloat. When a handsome earl offers to wed her and send her back to Cornwall with a hefty allowance, Tamsyn agrees. After all, her secrets could land her in prison and an attentive, love-struck spouse could destroy everything. But when an unexpected proviso in the will grants Tamsyn control of the inheritance, their arrangement becomes anything but convenient. Now, Kit’s counting on his countess to make his wildest dreams a reality and he plans to convince her, one pleasurable seduction at a time.

An artist stumbles upon a naked duke and an unlikely love story begins in this captivating Victorian historical romance. When Royal Academy painting student Lucy Coover trips over a naked man passed out in an East End alley, she does the decent thing. She covers him up and fetches help. Trouble is, she can't banish his muscular form from her dreams as easily. Compelled to capture every detail, she creates a stunning portrait but is forced to sell it when the rent comes due. What could be worse than surrendering the very picture of your desire? Meeting the man himself. Anthony Philby, Duke of Weston, is nobody's muse. Upon discovering the scandalous likeness, he springs into action. His infamous family has been torn apart by shame and secrets, and he can't afford more gossip. Even a whisper may jeopardize his inheritance and his chance at independence. His plan is simple: burn the painting, confront the artist. Or rather, it's simple until he meets Lucy and decides to offer the bewitching young artist a devil's bargain. He'll help save her foreclosed home, if she'll help repair his family’s brutal legacy. An irresistible passion ignites between them, but when danger strikes, Lucy and Anthony must risk everything... for a love that might destroy them both.

Captain Grayson Hunter knows the battle to complete the first worldwide telegraphic network will be fierce, and he intends to win it by any means necessary. When he hears about a reclusive genius who has figured out how to slash the cost of telegraphic transmissions, he vows to do whatever it takes to get the man in his employ. Except the reclusive genius is not a man, and she’s not looking for employment. Amelia Smith was taken in by English missionaries as a child. She’s not interested in Captain Hunter’s promises or his ambitions. But the harder he tries to convince her, the more she realizes that there is something she wants from him. She wants everything. And she’ll have to crack the frozen shell he’s made of his heart to get it.