Black Dragon

Isabelle de Harvington wants only peace and happiness, and believes a musician in her father's employ can provide it. But 13th century politics intrude, and Isabelle finds herself wed to the one man in Christendom she least desires: Gruffydd ap Hywel, the handsome but unfeeling Welshman who witnessed the most humiliating moment of her life six years earlier. Being forced to marry him is bad enough; being forced to live in Wales is worse, and her husband's obvious desire for her to go away is worst of all. Isabelle would gladly leave—if she hadn't promised her beloved father that she would not unless she's told to, and that she would try to make the marriage work. But trying to make marriage to a cold-hearted barbarian like Gruffydd work is more difficult than anything she's ever done, even as she begins to see the man behind the forbidding exterior…and starts to realize he might be the one man she can truly love.

Gruffydd made a blood oath the day he left his childhood behind, an oath to devote his life to others—and to vengeance. Loneliness is the price he willingly pays to uphold that oath. As the mysterious Black Dragon, his identity a secret from all but his loyal seneschal, he spends his nights fighting, protecting his people from criminals and enemy invaders, welcoming the pain he believes he deserves and punishing himself when he feels he has failed. When his Prince forces him to marry and, even worse, makes him promise that he will not send his new wife away, Gruffydd plans to just ignore her until she leaves on her own…but beautiful, desirable Isabelle stubbornly refuses to do so. Little by little, she starts to break through his iron defenses, forcing him to confront his past, to consider his future, and to begin to accept that maybe his life can be more than endless punishment…that maybe he can let himself have happiness, as well.

Now Gruffydd must choose between the two promises he made, the two halves of himself: the vengeful warrior whose life is only pain, or the reluctant husband who is falling desperately in love with his wife. As the Dragon's enemies close in, the wrong choice could mean death for them both, and Isabelle must fight to prove that love can tame even the fiercest dragon…before it's too late.