Book excerpt: Wedded and bedded, Lucy is devastated when she's abandoned by her new husband the very next day. Though it was a marriage of convenience, their heated wedding night gave her hope that it would turn into something more. But she refuses to be the demure bride left behind on a country estate while the stranger she married goes gallivanting about London—even if she has to create a scandal of her own. Simon, the Earl of Devingham, would prefer his exquisite young bride remain at home where he left her. Instead, she follows him to London . . . seducing him with her fiery kisses, enchanting him with her scorching touches, and awakening in him an insatiable hunger. His duty to the Crown demands that he remain in town, but Lucy has entered a most perilous game—and she will not forfeit without Simon's total surrender.