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The Earl's Irresistible Challenge
Lara Temple
Could this infamous rake……finally have found his Countess?Part of The Sinful Sinclairs. When Lucas, Lord Sinclair, receives a mysterious summons from a Miss Olivia Silverdale he’s sceptical about helping her. But Olivia, although eccentric, is in earnest about her quest to restore her late godfather’s reputation. Lucas’s curiosity is piqued—and not just by Olivia’s intelligent eyes and lithe form. A new challenge quickly presents itself: keeping Miss Silverdale at arm’s length!
Could this infamous rake...
...finally have found his countess?
Part of The Sinful Sinclairs. When Lucas, Lord Sinclair, receives a mysterious summons from a Miss Olivia Silverdale he’s skeptical about whether he can help her. But Olivia, although eccentric, is in earnest about her quest to restore her late godfather’s reputation. Lucas’s curiosity is piqued, and not just by Olivia’s intelligent eyes and lithe form. A new challenge quickly presents itself: keeping Miss Silverdale at arm’s length!
The Sinful Sinclairs miniseries
Book 1—The Earl’s Irresistible Challenge
And look out for the next two Sinful Sinclairs—coming soon!
“It is a poignant, sentimental and expertly written love story.”
—Goodreads on Lord Stanton’s Last Mistress by Lara Temple
“Sensitive, touching and perceptive, this emotional book took me on the most wonderful journey where the hero and heroine deal with the obstacles in their way.”
—Goodreads on Lord Stanton’s Last Mistress by Lara Temple
LARA TEMPLE was three years old when she begged her mother to take the dictation of her first adventure story. Since then she has led a double life—by day she is a high-tech investment professional, who has lived and worked on three continents, but when darkness falls she loses herself in history and romance…at least on the page. Luckily her husband and two beautiful and very energetic children help her weave it all together.
Also by Lara Temple
Lord Crayle’s Secret World
The Reluctant Viscount
The Duke’s Unexpected Bride
Wild Lords and Innocent Ladies miniseries
Lord Hunter’s Cinderella Heiress
Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal
Lord Stanton’s Last Mistress
The Sinful Sinclairs miniseries
The Earl’s Irresistible Challenge
And look out for the next book coming soon.
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
The Earl’s Irresistible Challenge
Lara Temple
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08861-9
THE EARL’S IRRESISTIBLE CHALLENGE
© 2018 Ilana Treston
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To the marvellous, generous, creative
and all-round wonderful ladies of the
Unlaced Historical Romance Group—you are my
surrogate family in Romancelandia, and my little world
is so much the richer for my having found you…
Contents
Cover (#ufa41b16f-f7b0-5583-87ea-4a715adba381)
Back Cover Text (#u6c490b1e-4e5d-5b34-86f4-1ebecf0dbac6)
About the Author (#u5d3d1f30-06fb-521c-8e84-2a13f1063847)
Booklist (#u5bf96b7d-6491-5a82-8c4b-f7fc3c38daa6)
Title Page (#u343c5a33-2fa3-53c7-a5ff-d70e9649f356)
Copyright (#u908e4b0d-896b-549f-81ac-0466a59aa18a)
Dedication (#u46f4131f-9a2e-5dbf-b35a-1c189b661b62)
Chapter One (#u6cecbd4e-f3d1-5ff6-ac4d-f55fa5bf75c1)
Chapter Two (#ue4e9749e-836d-5570-bc10-1c95282b6253)
Chapter Three (#ue5ed8eb1-890d-57ce-89f6-90678aada874)
Chapter Four (#u2f4c8fd3-3752-5066-9947-145afa310848)
Chapter Five (#u1bbd2d06-67e9-57f3-b7d6-21b46ee71a3c)
Chapter Six (#ud0e94745-94bb-53fc-9fa7-b25256b996a8)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ubceaf13f-ee3b-5c03-8afd-35ac7a714692)
Blood was thudding in Olivia’s ears, loud in the echoing hollowness of St Margaret’s. She had purposely chosen an hour when there were likely to be few people in the church, but she hadn’t expected it to be empty. Or dark.
She should have realised they wouldn’t waste many candles on a near-empty church on a rainy winter afternoon. The few tallow candles smoked sulkily in their sconces and occasionally shivered in the draught that seemed to come from all directions at once.
Surely if she cried out someone would hear, wouldn’t they? Hans Town might not be a fashionable part of London, but it was respectable. Or perhaps it was best to just tuck tail and run...
Too late.
The strike of boots on the flagstones matched the rhythm in her ears and a man emerged from the darkness at the far end of the nave, his greatcoat rising about him like sweeping wings. She was not surprised they called him Sinful Sinclair. She presumed it was merely a play on his family name and less than pristine reputation, but, as he moved towards her in a swift, gliding motion and she noted his pitch-black hair and uncompromising features, she understood the name better.
‘Lord Sinclair, thank you for coming,’ she said as he stopped before her, pulling a piece of paper from his coat pocket.
‘Don’t thank me, this isn’t a social call. You sent this quaint little note?’
‘I did. Lord Sinclair—’
‘What do you want and why the devil did you have to choose such an inconvenient location?’
‘It is convenient for me. Lord Sinclair, I—’
‘I didn’t see another carriage in the lane outside. How did you arrive?’
She blinked. She had not even begun and already she was losing control of the situation.
‘What on earth does it matter? Lord Sinclair, I—’
‘It matters because I prefer to know what I am up against when I come to meet a silly little miss in an empty church in the middle of nowhere. If this is some kind of plan to entrap me I should warn you, you have very much mistaken your prey...’
Olivia’s confusion disappeared and she couldn’t hold back a laugh.
‘You believe I brought you here to entrap you? Goodness, you are vain.’
His eyes narrowed and she felt a new flicker of alarm. Perhaps laughing at him was not advisable under the circumstances.
‘Lord Sinclair...’ she began again and hesitated. The clear list of points she wished to make faded under the oppressive force of his black eyes. She took another deep breath. ‘Lord Sinclair—’
‘I know my name,’ he said impatiently. ‘Only too well. Stop wearing it thin and get to the blasted point.’
‘I have some information about your father.’
The draught swirled his coat out in a wide arc about him and cut through the thin fabric of her own cloak and she shivered. He didn’t reply immediately, but the impatience was gone, replaced by a rather sardonic smile.
