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Also by Diane Perkins:

The Marriage Bargain, October 2005
Paperback
The Improper Wife, November 2004
Paperback

THE IMPROPER WIFE
By: Diane Perkins

Warner
November 2004
384 pages
ISBN: 0446614378
Paperback
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Romance Historical | Historical

RAY STOOD BEHIND MAGGIE, HIS GAZE CATCHING HERS IN THE MIRROR.

The candles on the dressing table cast her reflection in a luminescent glow that made her eyes sparkle like sapphires. Her neck was now bare but for the cascade of mahogany curls tumbling across her creamy shoulders. In the mirror, Maggie's eyes darkened and her lips parted. He barely stifled a groan. His hand was almost trembling with the desire coursing through him as he lifted the hairbrush and gently drew it through her hair. Inside he felt like tinder awaiting a spark to burst into flames. Dropping the brush, Gray buried both hands in her thick tresses.

She rose and swayed against him. His eyes flew open and he grabbed her arm to steady her. His vision filled with her, so close, so soft in his arms. She ran her hand down the front of his shirt and up again to settle against the bare skin exposed by the gap at his collar.

"Oh, Gray." She gave a long sigh. "Does this mean you will share this bed with me?"

She said:
How could I, Maggie Delaney, have been duped? Swept off my feet and married to a man who lied about his name, I now find myself at the mercy of extreme circumstances, with no money and an infant son. But I have found the owner of my husband's false name: Captain John Grayson, a soldier, a hero, and a man of means. He doesn't believe my story, but there is hope. Captain Grayson's cousins, of big hearts and little suspicion, are eager to accept his new "wife" and make me a lady. How can I, a woman on the brink of ruin, refuse?

He said:
Does she take me, Captain John Grayson, for a fool...easily taken in by her beauty and willing to go along with her charade? When she first came to me with her preposterous cIaims, I did my gentlemanly duty. I paid her debts and took no advantage of her. Now I find her and her son at my ancestral home, beloved by all. I could easily throw her out, but her fierce pride and smoldering eyes tempt me to keep her...and make her my wife both in my heart and my bed.