How to Woo a Widow — Manda Collins

Warning: This is a sexy, witty novella.

Anthony Ogilvy, Earl of Leighton fell in love with his best friend's elder sister years ago -- but she'd only had eyes for the dashing cavalry officer she'd later eloped with. Now, years later, and facing his mother's insistence that it's past time he married, Tony is wandering the notorious dark walk at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens when he stumbles upon none other than the now widowed Mrs. Portia Daventry, looking more delectable than ever and with a speculative gleam in her eyes. Can he convince the reluctant widow that he's no longer the callow youth she remembers but a hardened former soldier with a need for her gentle touch? And if he can manage to woo her, will she promise him forever now that she's just regained her precious freedom?

Portia Bascombe Daventry had always known Tony Ogilvy had a crush on her. But it had been impossible to see him as anything more than a boy like her darling brother. And she'd been young and foolish herself, giving her heart and hand instead to a man who'd broken faith with her at every turn. Now, however, the Earl of Leighton is all grown up with a man's wants and desires. And what he wants is her. Portia is tempted -- how could she not be when the handsome young earl claims to want nothing but her -- but she's been married to a soldier once already, and look how that had turned out. It will take a lot of wooing on Tony's part to convince her to love again, but when danger appears on the horizon, will it be too late for her to give him her heart?