She demands that Gabriel find a way to romance her as a person. It doesn’t matter that she is highly valued on the marriage mart when her value has nothing to do with who she truly is inside. And a strictly proper courtship, complete with stifling social calls, stiff dances and a constant evaluation of the assets that she brings into the match, is definitely on the “no” list. Jessica realizes, suddenly and deeply, exactly what she does and doesn’t want. Then they meet in the proper society setting, Gabriel makes his intentions clear-and everything goes off the rails. She has a plan to pick a groom that is every bit as practical as Gabriel’s plan to pick a bride. While she’s always been praised as a “diamond of the first water,” encircled by a constant throng of smitten admirers (think of that barbeque scene from Gone with the Wind when all the men beg to be allowed to fetch Scarlett O’Hara’s dessert), she’s done with drifting through life.

And Jessica, commencing her sixth (or possibly seventh-she’s lost count) season in London, is more than ready to settle down. The right sort of wife-imperious, irreproachable, from the right family with the right upbringing, manners and connections. Gabriel will need a wife by his side to manage the family drama he came to England to resolve. Love is definitely not in the air, but matrimony. Freshly returned to England to make a long overdue claim on his title and estate, he’s staying incognito, getting the lay of the land, when Jessica sweeps into the nondescript inn and asserts a superior claim to the private sitting room he’s reserved. Moments after laying eyes on Lady Jessica Archer, Gabriel Thorne decides that she is the woman he will marry.

Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh