Christmas Belle — Mary Balogh

Once they were lovers. Isabella was a fledgling actress, struggling to survive. Jack Frazer was a youth as innocent as he was handsome, consumed by love for this girl whom he could never make his wife.

Their year together was bliss; their parting bitter with jealousy and anger. But that had been long ago. Now Isabella was the premier star of the London stage. And Jack was the city's supreme rake, a jaded libertine currently courting an exquisite if inexperienced young lady on orders from his titled grandmother. Both Isabella and Jack were utterly changed-so what danger could there be if they met again? But as they soon discovered, there are painful wounds that never heal-and burning passions that refuse to die....