Sold and Seduced

Rome, 69 B.C. Lydia Veratia has always led a respectable life. Lydia's father is known for his status and political connections and yet, he has taught her the family business. With an emotional closeness to her father and her dedication to work, Lydia is intelligent and practical and nothing like the frivolous Roman ladies who occupy themselves with frivolous matters. Lydia Veratia is a determined woman, a woman determined to keep her dignity despite the one mistake she made --- a mistake for which she takes responsibility, even if it means agreeing to marry Sea Wolf, a man known for his temper. Sea Wolf is a man known for his prowess at sea, a man who could wrestle the very wrath of the mighty oceans. Now he has a greater ambition --- to become a senator and he will do exactly what he needs to be elected --- even if means marrying the daughter of a family whom he does not trust. Once married, Lydia makes every attempt to return home to her father. Exasperated by her attempts to flee, Aro offers her a deal. If she does not plea for his kisses three times within seven days, he will release her from the obligation of the marriage contract and give her the independence she craves. Lydia thinks she can win easily but Aro has other plans for her. Can he seduce her and win her heart? SOLD AND SEDUCED is a beautiful story of a woman learning to let go of her family and look inside herself and a man coming to terms with the real desires of his heart. Once the apple of her father's eye, Lydia worships her father. Although she stands up and takes responsibility for her mistakes, a small part of her still cannot help look back at her family with a hope of return. Can Aro prove himself worthy in her eyes? As Aro wrestles to gain her trust and loyalty, an outside threat endangers his plans. Only by trusting one another with their darkest secrets can the two have any hope against the looming danger that threatens to ruin their chances for happiness. Michelle Styles once again delights with her ability to set a scene that brings readers into the period and her characters. Michelle Styles packs her historical romance with just the right amount of historical details to bring this ancient history to life. In SOLD AND SEDUCED, one easily visualizes the rooms and the layout of the romance's landscape from the atrium to the businesses along the coast. Although most readers are familiar with images of the Roman ruins and and diagrams of the atrium, when reading SOLD AND SEDUCED, the ruins come alive in the mind's eye, not as ruins but fresh, new and populated with real people of the period, not current day tourists. In SOLD AND SEDUCED, Michelle Styles moves from the intriguing innocent yet brave heroine in A NOBLE CAPTIVE to a different kind of heroine, bringing variety to her Roman romances. Like Helena in her previous romance, Lydia is strong and determined but in SOLD AND SEDUCED, Michelle Styles now moves from the temple sibyl right into th

Rome, 68 B.C. In a bid to save her father's reputation when he falls ill, Lydia Veratia makes the mistake of selling Falerian wine which had been promised to Fabius Aro. It's a mistake she may come to regret because Fabius isn't about to leave empty-handed and is threatening to expose the senator as a debtor which would ruin him. The only thing they have that would interest him is Lydia herself. Known as the Sea Wolf, Fabius Aro is determined to honor the vow he made to his father on his deathbed - to restore the Fabii family as one of the first families of Rome. The money he would have received from the shipment of wine would have enabled him to carry out the final stages of his plans. Imagine his disappointment when he learns that the senator's daughter, Lydia, has sold the wine without her father's knowledge or approval. Fabius is furious over the loss of the wine cargo which he'd been promised. Lydia knows that she's erred and rather than allow her father to take the blame or risk Fabius exposing her father as a debtor and ruining him, she ventures to tell Fabius that if anyone should be punished it should be her, which gives him an idea for a way to restore his family's name without buying his way in - marriage to Lydia, a patrician woman. At first Lydia's father refuses to consider marrying her to Fabius. He has plans to marry her to someone of noble class - not a merchant. However if Lydia's mistake is made public then her father would be stripped of his senatorial duties and their whole family would be ruined. The only hope to save them all is for her to do as Fabius requests and marry him. Of course, she assumes it will be a sine manu marriage in which her father would have retained control of her fortune. She's more than a little horrified to learn that her marriage is cum manu and her husband now controls every aspect of her life. The only thing she still has control over is her own desire. Fabius is determined to control her passions as well and offers her a wager - within the next seven days she will beg for his kisses three times, if she doesn't then she will win her independence. Will she be able to resist the tempting man who's so dead set on seducing her? Michele Styles is a much beloved historical author and SOLD AND SEDUCED is a prime example of the reason why her fans are so devoted. With characters so vivid you can see them in your mind's eye and a plot that will keep you glued to the pages awaiting each battle of wills between Fabius and Lydia. There's an undertone of some wrong doing from someone associated with Lydia's father but we're kept in suspense until near the end of the book. I loved the historical aspect to the storyline and was fascinated by the different types of marriage and Lydia's horrified reaction to what she perceived as being forced into an archaic marriage. I have to confess I love how Fabius challenges Lydia with the kissing wager. There's no doubt that it gets her thinking abou