The Earl’s Tempting Proposal

He hides his body. She hides her past. Neither expects the other to look closer.The new Earl of Hartfield needs an heir and wants no entanglements. The dowager's companion needs safety and wants no husband. So Colin Knightsbridge offers Lady Abigail Wilson terms too tempting to refuse: his name and fortune, a house of her own, and the possibility of freedom once she provides an heir.A marriage of convenience. Nothing more.Except Colin has spent his life hiding a body he's certain no woman could want, learning to button his coat over a spine that curves where it shouldn't. Abigail has spent five years hiding what her first marriage taught her about wanting anything at all. Two people who've made an art of not being seen, now sharing one roof, one name, and a growing list of nights neither of them sleeps.He keeps the lamps low and won't let her touch his back. She has never told a living soul what her first husband did to her.Someone, meanwhile, would prefer the Earl of Hartfield dead.He swore he'd never ask her for more than she could give. She swore she'd never let a man close again. They're both about to break their word.Steamy, slow-burn marriage of convenience with a wounded hero, a guarded heroine, and the dangerous business of being seen. Book One of the Forged Alliances series.Core tropesMarriage of convenienceBeauty-and-the-beast dynamic Wounded hero / hero with a hidden physical conditionHealing arcForced proximityHe falls firstHigh heat / spicyAlso featuresWorking partners to lovers (she runs the estate beside him)Mutual pining (each certain the other can't want them)Touch-her-and-die protective heroWidow heroineClass-adjacent / employer's householdRomantic suspense (someone wants the earl dead)Aristocrat hero / Victorian EnglandFound-family series with interconnected couples