Love, Lies, and the Lyon — E.L. Johnson

Seven years ago, Anastasia Banks ruined herself.

On the day of her mother's death, Anastasia had an afternoon of passion with the man she thought she loved. It was a mistake.

Between rumpled sheets and a soldier's sneering smile, she realized the man she loved didn't really exist. After throwing away her virtue, she discovered that her mother had died of a fever in her absence. Since then, Anastasia has vowed to protect her younger sister at all costs and to never let such a disreputable man re-enter her life, nor let her sister follow in her footsteps.

Years later, Anastasia is a spinster more concerned with her sister's love life than her own. When she discovers that her sister's paramour is the younger brother of the rake who deflowered her, she wants to separate the happy couple immediately. But a polite misunderstanding leads Anastasia to cross paths with Mr. Theodore Hardwicke, one of the most handsome men she's ever seen.

Theodore isn't looking for love. But Miss Banks distracts him, when he should be trying to rebuild his family's finances. Openly, he finds her fiercely independent, willful, opinionated, and taciturn. Privately, he finds her willfulness attractive and the flash of her eyes like fire. He just has two problems: his sister's friend, a widow, has taken a liking to him that is beyond the bounds of friendship, and the lovely Miss Banks seems determined to be a spinster.

Can Anastasia protect her sister from repeating her past mistake, or will she overlook a good man? Can Theodore convince Miss Banks to end her plans to be a spinster and give love a chance? All is fair game in the Lyon's Den, especially when Mrs. Dove-Lyon is brought in to help.