She fears the dark.He rules it.Her dresses are too tight, her heels too tall. She laughs too loudly, eats without decorum, and mixes up most sayings in the book. Little do most know it's just a sparkly disguise, there to hide one panic attack at a time.Nobody can crack Gianna's facade . . . no one anyway, until he comes along.Most see a paragon of morality; a special agent upholding the law. In the New York underworld, others know him as a hustler, a killer, his nature as cold as the heart of ice in his chest. Christian Allister has always followed the life plan he'd envisioned in his youth, beneath the harsh lights of a frigid, damp cell. With a proclivity for order and the number three, he's never been tempted to veer off course. But perhaps one should never say never . . .One winter night and their lives intertwine. She hates him--his stone-cold demeanor, his arrogance and too-perceptive eye--but over the years, even as their games consist of insulting each other's looks and intelligence, she begins to live to play with him.Nowhere in Christian's plans had he ever prepared for Gianna. She's chaos embodied, not his type, and married, but none of that can stop his eyes from following her wherever she goes.All along, she doesn't even know that she's his--his frustration, his fascination.His maddest obsession.*Can be read as a standalone

NOTE: This is a special edition cover. The content is the same as the original work. She fears the dark. He rules it. Her dresses are too tight, her heels too tall. She laughs too loudly, eats without decorum, and mixes up most sayings in the book. Little do most know it's just a sparkly disguise, there to hide one panic attack at a time. Nobody can crack Gianna's facade . . . no one anyway, until he comes along. Most see a paragon of morality; a special agent upholding the law. In the New York underworld, others know him as a hustler, a killer, his nature as cold as the heart of ice in his chest. Christian Allister has always followed the life plan he'd envisioned in his youth, beneath the harsh lights of a frigid, damp cell. With a proclivity for order and the number three, he's never been tempted to veer off course. But perhaps one should never say never . . . One winter night and their lives intertwine. She hates him-his stone-cold demeanor, his arrogance and too-perceptive eye-but over the years, even as their games consist of insulting each other's looks and intelligence, she begins to live to play with him. Nowhere in Christian's plans had he ever prepared for Gianna. She's chaos embodied, not his type, and married, but none of that can stop his eyes from following her wherever she goes. All along, she doesn't even know that she's his-his frustration, his fascination. His maddest obsession.

The Accidental American is a look at the underside of 17th century America, the adventure tale of a British lad who is rescued at sea by Captain Kidd, jumps ship in Charleston and makes his precarious way to New York, where he is reclaimed by Captain Kidd; falls in love with Kidd's young wife, Sarah, who instructs him in the myriad ways of love, short of sinful fornication. When Kidd goes back to privateering he, knowing of his young wife's feeling for Christopher, insists that he come along. As history tells us, the expedition ends badly for Kidd, but not for Christopher, who is freed from prison by his father and introduced to the son he did not know he had. Returning to New York with his son, he marries Sarah and they retire to a peaceful life in New Jersey.

This anthology brings together twenty-eight lively and readable short stories by nineteenth-century women writers, including gothic tales to romances, detective fiction and ghost stories. Containing short fiction by well-known authors such as: * Maria Edgeworth * Mary Shelley * Elizabeth Gaskell * Margaret Oliphant Nineteenth-Century Short Stories by Women also includes: * a scholarly introduction * biographies for each of the authors * full explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading * a critical commentary, publication details and historical context * a full and wide-ranging bibliography The bibliography of resources and further reading will enable those interested in pursuing research on any author or topic to do so with ease, and a thematic index will enable teachers to select material best suited to their courses.