"The Sinner" by Madeline Hunter

"The Sinner" is the next in Hunter's Seducer series after "The Charmer."  Dante Duclairc is the younger brother of a viscount, handsome as sin, and deeply in debt due to a bad night of gambling.  When the trespasser dressed like a man and brandishing a gun on his family's estate turns out to be Fleur Monley, Dante is mortified.  She was courted by his older brother years ago, disappeared from society after their break-up, and is now recovering in Dante's bed after he grazes her with a bullet thinking she was going to shoot him.  On top of that, she claims that her stepfather has kept her imprisoned because he thinks she has an addled mind.

This is only the beginning of Fleur and Dante's relationship.  After she recovers and gets to know him better, she offers him a "white marriage," a chaste marriage of convenience, if he agrees to her unusual terms.  Fleur happens to be rich and in need of protection from her stepfather, and Dante is deeply in debt and doesn't want to be bailed out yet again by his family.  He agrees and so begins a story of two lonely people who end up needing each other for reasons other than they think.

I enjoyed this book as I have the others in the Seducer series, although it was not quite as believable.  Dante is described as "the most charming wastrel in England" yet seems to be tamed by his growing desire for Fleur rather easily.  Fleur trusts him right away, soon after she recovers from being shot, even though she doesn't seem to have any reasons except her intuition.  I still enjoyed the story, for the most part, and would recommend it to historical romance fans.  372 pages.