Teaser Tuesdays: To Desire A Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt

"He knew from looking in the mirror---once and only once---that his back was a mass of scars. Thin white ones carved through the tan of his skin. Thicker, reddened scars, the ones she'd felt before, roped from midback to his right hip."

~Page 257, To Desire A Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt

Title: To Desire A Devil
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
ISBN: 9780446406949
Publisher: Vision/2009
Pages: 340

1765, London. England. Reynaud St. Aubyn, son the late Earl, arrives at his own home, unrecognisable, with a raging fever and half-mad. He has been taken for dead for the past seven years. The drab tea party thrown by Beatrice Corning, the niece of present Earl's niece becomes a hot-bed of gossip after his unceremonious arrival. Reynaud has come from the dead to claim his title. He has somehow escaped from the captivity of the Indians, with scars both in his soul and body.

Beatrice recognises him from the portrait and doesn't know whom to support, her Uncle or Reynaud, who wants to regain his title. Reynaud knows that he can't do it without Beatrice's help. The gentle English lady is able to sway his body as well as his mind. Beatrice too is not immune to his charms. She is already half in love with his portrait.

Reynaud, along with his few friends, who had been in the war before his capture, learns that someone deliberately set them up to be caught and killed by the Indians. Who is that person? It has to be someone with influence. When several attempts are made on Reynaud's person, he knows he has to get into the bottom of it. When Beatrice gets almost killed, he knows he has to expose that person, no matter at what cost.

The interaction between the savage hero and the very proper heroine is good. Initially it does seem Reynaud is using Beatrice for regaining the title. But he also knows that after so many years of captivity, she only she is home for him. There are good many love scenes between the two but that doesn't seem out of place. It a very readable historical romance. I am going to check out more books by Hoyt.