The Hero Least Likely Read online

  THE HERO LEAST LIKELY

  Seven full-length novels by

  Darcy Burke

  Christi Caldwell

  Rose Gordon

  Sue London

  Ruth Ann Nordin

  Erica Ridley

  and Lauren & Devon Royal

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Cover Image

  Books in This Boxed Set

  SCOUNDREL EVER AFTER by Darcy BurkeDedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Thank You!

  Acknowledgements

  More in This Series

  About Darcy Burke

  FOREVER BETROTHED, NEVER THE BRIDE by Christi CaldwellDedications

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  More in This Series

  About Christi Caldwell

  DESIRES OF A BARON by Rose GordonPrologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  More in this Series

  About Rose Gordon

  ATHENA'S ORDEAL by Sue LondonDedication

  Acknowledgements

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Author’s Note

  More in This Series

  About Sue London

  THE EARL'S SCANDALOUS WIFE by Ruth Ann NordinDedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  More in This Series

  About Ruth Ann Nordin

  THE MAJOR’S FAUX FIANCÉE by Erica RidleyEpigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Thank You For Reading

  Acknowledgments

  More in This Series

  About Erica Ridley

  CORINNA by Lauren & Devon RoyalChase Family Tree

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28
/>   Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Thank You!

  Author's Note

  More in This Series

  About Lauren & Devon Royal

  Thank You for Reading

  Copyright Page

  BOOKS IN THIS BOXED SET

  7 New York Times, USA Today and Internationally Bestselling Authors

  7 Romantic Heroes You Don’t Expect and Won’t Forget…

  SCOUNDREL EVER AFTER by Darcy Burke

  When wallflower Audrey Cheswick runs away with England’s most wanted criminal, she learns adventure comes with a price—not just her reputation or her virtue, but her heart. If Ethan Jagger can escape the hangman’s noose and start anew, will she consent to love a scoundrel ever after?

  FOREVER BETROTHED, NEVER THE BRIDE by Christi Caldwell

  War-torn veteran, Lord Drake devotes himself to forgetting his days on the Peninsula through an endless round of meaningless associations. He no longer wants to feel anything, but Lady Emmaline is making it hard to maintain a state of numbness. With her zest for life, she awakens his passion and desire for love.

  DESIRES OF A BARON by Rose Gordon

  Giles Goddard, Lord Norcourt is odd. Odder still, he has suddenly taken a fancy to his brother’s love interest, the fallen Lucy Whitaker. Lucy was once thrown over by a lord and she has little desire to let it happen again, but she’s about to learn that his desires just might be enough for the both of them.

  ATHENA’S ORDEAL by Sue London

  Quincy Telford, Duke of Beloin, has hated Viscount Bittlesworth as long as he can remember. Now the man’s daughter is constantly in his path. Can he escape her temptation and avoid peril in the increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse he is playing with his blackmailer?

  THE EARL’S SCANDALOUS WIFE by Ruth Ann Nordin

  Season after Season of not being able to secure a wife, Lord Clement's life changes for the better when a beautiful stranger kisses him. Now he has a wife who has it all: beauty, passion, and excitement. But it's not over. Thanks to her tainted past, her newfound love with Perry is threatened when her brother comes back into her life. Can she protect Perry from finding out the truth or will her brother get the upper hand?

  THE MAJOR’S FAUX FIANCÉE by Erica Ridley

  When Major Bartholomew Blackpool learns the girl-next-door from his childhood will be forced into an unwanted marriage, he returns home to play her pretend beau. He figures now that he's missing a leg, a faux fiancée is the best an ex-soldier can get. He admires her pluck, but the lady deserves a whole man--and he'll ensure she gets one.

  CORINNA by Lauren & Devon Royal

  What’s a colorblind Irishman to do when he’s blackmailed into impersonating a renowned landscape artist, lying to all of London society, and risking the ton’s collective wrath if he’s found out? Why, fall for the lovely and unattainable marquess’s daughter next door, of course. But his fetching neighbor is no simpleton and an artist in her own right. When she realizes his ruse, will she expose his misdeeds…or find herself drawn into the hoax?

  SCOUNDREL EVER AFTER

  Darcy Burke

  For Janice

  The baskets in chapter eight are for you.

  And they’re filled with gratitude and love

  (instead of apples and chicken, though you can have those too).

  ONE

  London, September, 1818

  Ethan Jagger ran like hell. Every swing of his arm pumped blood from the knife wound in his bicep and brought a fresh burn of agony. Still, he couldn’t stop. Stopping meant capture. Capture meant the hangman’s noose.

  He didn’t chance a look back. Though he couldn’t yet hear them, he knew the Bow Street Runners were closing in. Wounded as he was, Ethan wasn’t sure he could outpace them. St. Giles was still too bloody far away.

  He almost stopped cold. He couldn’t go to St. Giles. Despite his allies, and he had more than a few, everyone in the rookery would know Gin Jimmy was after him. And if they had to choose their loyalty, and they did, they’d award it to the man who could cause them the most harm: Gin Jimmy. Pursued by the law and the outlaw: Ethan was well and truly buggered.

  There was no help for it. He had to get out of London and figure out what to do next. To do that, he’d need to get to one of the hiding spots where he kept his emergency funds. The closest one—and more importantly in the opposite direction of St. Giles—was in Berkley Square, which meant he had to double back.

  But first he had to elude the Runners. He veered left onto a narrow street. And ran straight into a whore.

  She grasped his arms to steady herself. Her hand closed around his wound. He sucked in air and white lights speckled his sight.

  “Ho there!” She drew her hand away. “Wot’s wrong with ye?”

  Lamplight from the wider street up ahead filtered back into the alley, but it was too dark for him to discern much of her features. He could, however, tell she was studying her hand. She had to have felt the blood seeping from the gash Gin Jimmy had given him scarcely a quarter hour before.

  Aware that this pause was allowing his pursuers to gain on him, Ethan pushed her aside so he could slip past her down the alleyway.

  “’Ey now, there’s no need to be rude!” she shrieked.

  Ethan didn’t spare her a glance as he hastily set off once more. But then a very large man stepped in his way. “Ye shouldn’t be rude to me trollop.”

  Bloody fucking hell. Ethan did not have time for a prostitute or her pimp. However, before he could take off running once more, the pimp stepped so close to Ethan that he could smell the man’s filth as well as the gin he’d swilled earlier.

  “’Is arm’s ’urt,” the woman said.

  Ethan braced himself, expecting the pimp to hit or grab him in the arm, but the hulking bloke only leaned in closer, sticking his face a mere inch from Ethan’s. “Jagger?” he asked.

  It didn’t surprise Ethan that the pimp knew him, though the recognition was not reciprocated. One didn’t rise as far as Ethan had within the criminal ranks without developing a reputation and a . . . following.

  “Yes, Jagger. Now, back off.” He kept his tone even, yet commanding.

  The pimp stepped back, and Ethan inhaled fresher air. His pulse was slowing, which meant he’d been motionless too long. The Runners were going to be on him.

  “Ye don’t spend as much time at the flash houses as ye used to.” The pimp’s tone carried an edge of skepticism that Ethan didn’t like. “I hear ye’ve taken up with a diff’rent class o’ folk, and that ye might not even go by Jagger no more.”

  Ethan didn’t have time or patience for the man’s inquiry. His arm was killing him and if he didn’t start running again, Bow Street would be upon him. “I need to be on my way. Move aside.”

  Ethan made to dash past, but as he stepped to the side, the pimp’s arm shot out and he grabbed Ethan’s bicep. With a howl, Ethan spun and sent his fist into the pimp’s jaw. He would’ve followed up with another jab to his middle, but Ethan couldn’t make his right arm work.

  A shout of “There he is!” came from behind. Damn everything to hell. The Runners had found him.

  The pimp had been momentar
ily surprised by Ethan’s blow, but he recovered quickly and threw a fist toward Ethan’s gut.

  Ethan danced away, barely missing the hit. “Those are Bow Street Runners, you imbecile. We need to move!” Whatever the pimp’s motive, he wouldn’t want to be detained by Bow Street. None of their class ever did.

  The pimp straightened, his body angled toward where Ethan had come from.

  “Hold there, Jagger!” one of the Runners called. Teague. He’d been hounding Ethan for years, but particularly during the last fortnight. Ethan didn’t mean for him to catch him now.

  Jabbing his elbow out toward the pimp, Ethan took off running.

  “Catch him!” Teague shouted. “Or find yourself in trouble!”

  The pimp’s hand closed around Ethan’s bicep and dragged him to a stop. Agony spiraled up and down Ethan’s arm. “Sorry, mate.”

  No. Ethan refused to go down like this. With a surge of energy, he threw off the pimp’s grip and punched him in the jaw again. The pimp was slightly more prepared this time and angled his head away, though Ethan still caught a piece of him.

  Then the Runners were on them.

  Ethan moved quickly, pulling his knife from his boot and squaring off before all three men could get to him. Suddenly a high-pitched squeal filled the air as the prostitute jumped on Teague’s back and began to beat him about the head. Ethan would’ve thanked her for her support if he hadn’t needed to dispatch the other two blokes.

  He glanced around the narrow alley, gauging his options. A half dozen or so wooden crates were stacked to his right. But they were the only relief from the bricked walls rising up on either side of the close.

  The pimp rushed at him, but Ethan flashed his knife, which slowed the other man’s attack. Ethan didn’t want to cause him damage—the bloke was only trying to save his own hide—so he snatched up one of the crates to use it as a weapon instead of his knife, which he kept tucked into his left palm. He lifted the crate as the pimp came at him again. Ethan brought the box down over the man’s skull. The pimp stumbled backward as the crate splintered.

  The second Runner rushed at him like a flash, his truncheon raised. Ethan pulled his arm back, but the truncheon hit his wrist hard enough that he dropped his knife. Swearing, Ethan skittered backward. He rubbed his wrist in an effort to banish the pain as he cursed the loss of his weapon.

  The Runner eyed him warily. He kept a firm grip on his club, keeping it elevated. “Just come along with us now, Jagger. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

  Though he’d lost his knife, Ethan thought he could disarm the Runner. Even so, Ethan doubted his ability to take down all three men—the prostitute surely couldn’t overpower Teague, though she was managing to keep him occupied. Still, Ethan had to do what he could to escape. He held his hands up and speared the Runner with a direct stare. “I’ll go with you.”