To Trust a Duke by Alexa Aston

Forced to marry a stranger after one chaste kiss, Lady Ashlyn Dunwood spends a single night with her new husband before his regiment ships off to war. She gives birth to a son and loses the boy four years later in a tragic accident, only to learn she’s also a war widow. Ashlyn invests her settlement and what’s left of her shattered heart in Dunwood Academy, a school for troubled boys. When a devastatingly handsome duke begs her to take on his wayward half-brothers as pupils, Ashlyn is up for the challenge—but finds herself fighting her attraction to the arrogant nobleman.

Colonel Reid Baker arrives home from the Peninsular War and finds himself the Duke of Gilford, assuming his new responsibilities and placing his rebellious half-brothers at a local academy. Knowing he’ll need an heir, he sets his sights on the headstrong, confident Lady Dunwood, who claims she’ll never wed again. Convincing the dowager countess to marry him becomes Reid’s mission, as he jumps every hurdle Ashlyn places in his way—and along that way, the cool-headed former army officer loses his heart to the intelligent beauty.

Will Reid break through the walls Ashlyn has erected around her and teach her to live—and love?