Description:
When his cousin's death puts Leo Westrop in line to inherit a marquessate, he suddenly becomes the target of every match-making mama in London, including his own. To save himself, Leo offers his hand to the angel who delivers him from a compromising situation-Lillian Gower, the daughter of well-known antiquarians, who could finally help Leo secure a dig of his own.
Lillian, in town chaperoning her younger cousin, doesn't have a romantic bone in her body. She knows Westrop is desperate, and she's shrewd enough to bargain: she'll go along with the pretense if he helps her publish her study of the lady's slipper orchid.
It's not part of the bargain for him to escort her to balls and gardens. She doesn't need his help organizing her uncle's library. He certainly oughtn't be winning over her cousin. And it's a mistake to bring him to meet her parents-but an even bigger mistake to agree to help him with his own excavation. Because the attentions of the delicious Leo Westrop could made even the most sensible botanical illustrator lose her head.
An undeniable passion draws them together even when they both know their betrothal of convenience must end. But when Lillian learns what he's been after all along, what can Leo do to persuade her the feelings between them are real?
Brief description: Misty Urban wrote her first story at age 5 for the benefit of her younger sister. It was, sources say, a rather conventional piece involving cats, mats, and possibly bats (the work is no longer extant). Her next venture, a journalism/reportage effort entitled "The Urban Star," peaked at a circulation of 3. She wrote her first novel at age 16. It remains unpublished.Her subsequent career paths have included stints as a bookseller in Madison, WI; an MA student at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL; a combined MFA/Ph.D. student at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY; and four years as an assistant professor at Lewis Clark State College in Lewiston, ID. She has most recently come to rest in eastern Iowa, where she reads and writes in the company of one handsome park ranger, two young aspiring writers, and a rather heavy collection of books.