Deceive Not My Heart Author:Dhirlee Busbee To Leonie Saint-Andr'e, the elegance and gaiety of 19th-century New Orleans were nothing more than a bitter memory. Her home, a fine Southern plantation, had fallen to squalor and decay, and her grandfather continued to gamble away what was left of the family fortune. To recover her grandfather's lates loss, Leonie creeps into the gambling house... more » to steal his vouchers, Hearing footsteps approach, she escapes into a dark back room and into the arms of Morgan Slade, a man whoo mistakes her for the bed partner promised him by his host. Her vain protests serve only to arouse his passion-- until there is no hope for escape.
Haunted by the memory of that night, Leonie is shocked to learn that her grandfather has arranged for her marriage to a handsome, charming gentleman--none other than Morgan Slade! Leonie,to please her dying grandfather, agrees to marry under two conditions; that Morgan never lay hands on her, and that her dowry is merely loaned to him for five years. What Leonie doesn't realize is that her future husband is not Morgan Slade, but his nearly-identical cousin, Ashley, who as soon as the carade of their wedding is played out, escapes to Europe with her dowry.
Five years later, with creditors about to take her home, and a son---the child of her ill-fated union with Morgan Slade---to care for, Leonie travels to the Slade family estate to reclam her dowry. She is astonished to find Morgan a man so different from the husband she had learned to hate--and that more than fury burns in her heart. But can she forget the anguish oh his betryal? Why, even now, does she long to feel the ecstasy of his powerful embrace?« less