To Wed the Wicked

✧ 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 ✧

She was supposed to be safe.
He was supposed to be sensible.
Neither planned on falling.

***

Everyone agrees that the plain, wealthy Lady Noelle Hathaway is perfect for marriage. Sensible. Dutiful. Modest. The kind of woman men marry after their daring escapades in youth tire them. She's a stickler for rules and propriety. She'd rather tend to her roses than ruffle society's feathers.

Which was precisely why Viscount Radley, now the new Lord Windmere, needed to marry her. A charming rogue, he lives for the chase. No woman has kept his attentions for long, and that's how he's always preferred it. No attachments. No tears.

But then his father's will forces him into marriage, where he must be wed for six months or risk the estate being sold. So he comes up with a scheme for a temporary wife. And who better than Lady Hathaway? She's safe territory. Boring, even. With his rakish past and scandal-laden reputation, marrying her is the obvious, sensible choice. She would never stir his heart.

Until she starts interfering with her old-fashioned opinions.
Until those sad eyes unsettle him more than a thousand strings of reckless adventures ever did.
Until he realises that she is temptation wrapped in propriety.

Now he is discovering that the quiet ones burn with fire the brightest, and the hardest hearts fall the fastest.