Melting Ice by Stephanie Laurens

Originally published in the anthologies ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES and SCANDALOUS BRIDES (both no longer in print)

1822. After years of adventuring in exotic India, wealthy rakehell Lord Dyan St. Laurent Dare has been forced to return to England and assume the title of the 4th Duke of Darke, along with the attendant responsibilities, chief of which is to marry and produce an heir.

Seeking to escape familial pressure, Dyan drops in on old friends whose house parties are a scandalous secret among society’s elite, but, along with his hosts, Dyan is astonished when his childhood sweetheart, Lady Fiona Winton-Ryder, nicknamed Lady Arctic, unexpectedly arrives. Fiona had scornfully dismissed him fifteen years before, and Dyan had left not just her but England, yet their long-ago, simmering attraction has only intensified…now it sizzles.

Fiona has come to save a friend from a compromising situation, but the shock of encountering masterful, arrogant, senses-stealing Dyan after so many years takes her breath away and leaves her emotionally teetering. Nevertheless, coolly assured and every bit the earl’s daughter, she remains determined to rescue her friend, but will she be able to ignore her lifetime fascination and evade Dyan?

Dyan knows this party is no place for a lady like Fiona, but, by using the heat of the moment, could he – just possibly – melt Lady Arctic’s ice, and, at last, capture her heart?

A classic Regency-era historical romance novella, includes explicit love scenes.