Indecent Proposal - 1890 style...
When headstrong and impoverished gentlewoman Beatrice Weatherly accidentally poses naked for the camera of the man she thought was her fiancé, her conventional Victorian world is turned upside down. Abandoned, reputation in tatters, and with her own debts and her brother's to contend with, she accepts a radical solution offered by a notoriously attractive and fiendishly wealthy man.
Successful man of business and noted womanizer Edmund Ellsworth Ritchie is stunned and beguiled by the lush sensuality of a model he espies in a series of erotic cabinet cards. Used to having any woman he wants, he sets out to possess the beautiful Siren of South Mulberry Street and make her his own for the duration of a hot affair. The fact that Beatrice Weatherly needs money, and he has plenty to offer, only makes ensuring her compliance all the easier.
Embarking on a mutually advantageous and pleasurable liaison that's only supposed to last a month, both parties quickly realize that the best laid plans of sirens and seducers can quickly and easily go awry. Beatrice's resolution to be sensible and practical and just enjoy the experience is rocked by her fast growing feelings for the sexy, enigmatic Ritchie, and Ritchie too experiences a new level of tenderness and emotion that he thought he'd put behind him with his dark and painful past.
So, with both their hearts in jeopardy despite their best intentions, can two strong-willed lovers with issues and secrets a-plenty navigate their way to a future together beyond the boundaries of their month long 'indecent proposal'? Or at its end will they kiss and go their separate ways?
In the Flesh will be published in early 2012 by Harlequin Spice
