Hidden Lover by C.A. Mortimer

Lucius Cranfield, the Duke of Sheffield, is aged eight and thirty. He has never married nor does he have any intention of ever doing so. But neither can he refuse when Daniel Bishop, the man who has been Lucius’s closest friend for years and is now terminally ill, tells Lucius he has named him as guardian to his twenty-year-old son, Toby, once Daniel is dead. A son, moreover, whom Daniel confides, is attracted to other men.

Lucius has kept his own sexual preference a secret from Society for twenty years or more. But Toby Bishop, whom Lucius believed to be far too pretty and slight of build for Lucius to ever be attracted to him, quickly proves him wrong, and Lucius finds himself burning with a fierce desire for the younger man. Contrary to what Lucius thought, Toby is far from being just a head of pretty blond curls and a lithe body. The younger man is also intelligent, fiercely independent, and with a lively wit. A combination which Lucius is forced to acknowledge, is as intriguing as it is arousing.

Toby has no idea what his father was thinking when he named the aristocratic and haughty Lucius Cranfield, the Duke of Sheffield, as his guardian. A gentlemen all in Society look up to and admire.
He is also a man who, at several inches over six feet tall, and with wide shoulders and a muscular build, would no doubt beat Toby to a pulp if he were ever to learn how much Toby has always desired him.
It is a doubly foolish attraction on Toby’s part, when the duke is known as a legendary lover amongst the ladies of a Society which does not permit men to be attracted to or fall in love with other men.
Isn’t it…?