The Rake's Substitute Bride — Mysty McPartland

Desperate to fill the terms of his grandfather's will, Nathan buys himself a wife. He wasn't particular who it was just as long as she was an agreeable woman. Did her duty by baring his child and left him alone to pursue his own amusement. However, minutes before the ceremony was to begin the silly twit had run away. Furious he confronted her family and demanded they produce a woman he could wed. It was only after the wedding was over that he bothered to look at the woman he'd married. He was shocked to find himself attracted to her. When he learns exactly who she is he was infuriated to learn she was the woman who had barged into a bedchamber at a whore house and caught him naked and fully aroused. When she refused to share his bed he has no alternative but to seduce his bride and it wasn't long before his attitude towards the marriage he originally planned alters considerably. He now wants a true and loving relationship between them and when he asks her to keep her promise to him can only pray that she will. If she doesn't whatever happiness they could have as man and wife would be destroyed. Not at all happy to be placed in a position where she had no choice but to follow her father's dictates, Sheldon was also furious that she would have to marry a man that not only frightened her but she detested as well. However, though she might have to be his substitute bride she definitely refused to be his substituted bed mate and let him know in no uncertain terms she wasn't going to be the mother of his children. She was also determined that no man would dictate her life or obey his commands. As the days passed though whatever defences she built up against him he quickly reduced them to rubble. When he gives his word that he will remain faithful to her she was unable to withstand his seductive charm any longer and she surrenders the potent attraction between them. But only after a few weeks the joy she found in her marriage was shattered and though her heart was breaking the only thing she could do was ask her husband for a divorce. After thinking his wife had broken her promise to him, Nathan only finds out to late he'd made a terrible mistake. Can he win his wife's affection back? Or will she never forgive him for not trusting her?