Matronly Duties — Melissa Kendall

After an Asteroid slams into Earth sending it into a new ice age, what remains of the human race survives in underground sanctuaries. Two Hundred years in the future, Bethanie Greene's life has been planned out for her since the age of thirteen. Beautiful and intelligent, she's spent the last twelve years training to become the next leader of the underground nation of Oceania. And in just six weeks, all of her hard work and dedication will come to fruition. Howard James' life has been the polar opposite of Bethanie's struggling to survive in a world where those in power wished he didn't exist. He never asked to be the leader of those, outcast from society, but he will do the job to the best of his ability. He never expects to find himself attracted to the pretty blonde woman who is next in line for Matron of Oceania or to have to rescue her from his own men. When Bethanie is kidnapped by rogue extremists just six weeks shy of taking office, her world is turned upside down, and not just by the handsome stranger who rescues her. Together with his unconventional family, Howard shows her a life she never knew was possible, while at the same time opening her eyes the injustices perpetrated upon the citizens of Oceania by the government she is meant to lead. But can she trust him? And can a few days change everything she believes? Against all odds, Bethanie must decide if love and duty can coexist.