Hidden behind a mask, Jonathan Kirkland, Lord Redcliffe, has disguised himself as a highwayman to win a wager: to collect kisses from the first five women who pass. With only one kiss left, victory seems easy...until he encounters Miss Sarah Tatton, who has fled on horseback to escape her vile fiancé.Distraught and desperate, the last thing Sarah needs is to run straight into the arms of a highwayman. But his heart-stopping kiss gives Sarah an idea—to lose her virginity in order to break her engagement. And the surprisingly gentlemanlike thief is just the man to teach her the art of love...at least enough to pretend that she has lost her virtue.

But as Jonathan and Sarah's passion grows, all pretense must come to an end...

Louise Allen has been immersing herself in history, real and fictional, for as long as she can remember, and her first attempt at historical fiction at the age of eight was three pages of improbable medieval drama set in the local castle. Some considerable time later she joined forces with a friend and became one half of the writing partnership Francesca Shaw—what began as a decidedly tipsy storytelling session in a Burgundian vineyard led on to a series of Historical Romances, all but one set in the Regency period.

Career changes meant that the partnership had to end and Louise now writes about her favorite historical period alone—which means she can keep all her gorgeous heroes to herself.

She lives in England in a village in Bedfordshire with her long-suffering husband who is not only a wonderful cook, but also the perfect inspiration for every romantic hero imaginable. All their spare time is spent at their Norfolk cottage on the coast where, although they have no pets, they are permitted to share the garden with a very bossy pheasant called Percy.

With a degree in geography and archaeology, Louise finds landscapes and places are a powerful influence on her writing, and ideas for plots and characters often arise directly out of locations. Venice, Burgundy, the Hertfordshire and Norfolk countryside, the Greek islands—all have proved inspirational.

Louise writes in her head until the story can't be contained any longer and has to get out and onto paper, an unpredictable process as the hero and heroine are quite likely to take over and ruin all her pathetic attempts to keep to any sort of plan. She consoles herself with the thought that it is, after all, their story.