A Valiant Life - Chapter 1237 - The final competition

BOOK TWO OF THE HAMILTON SERIESWARNING: A Regency Era novel. Adult content with detailed smut…Read at you own risk⚠️⛔️Genre: Historical Romance / Smut / Enemies-to-Lovers / Mystery / Comedy[Book Two of the Hamilton Series. Can be read as a standalone, but better enjoyed after Lady Ines’ Scandalous Hobby.]To the world, Duke Rowan Hamilton is the perfect gentleman. But in the bedroom, he is a man possessed.Rowan Hamilton has it all: a Ducal title, the face of a fallen angel, and a smile that makes debutantes faint. He is the “Golden Duke”—charming, responsible, and utterly adored by society.But it’s all a lie.Beneath the coats and polite manners, Rowan is a man haunted by a ghost. For three years, he has remained faithful to the memory of a masked woman who stole a kiss, bested him at a game of chance, and vanished into the night. He doesn't want any one as his wife; he wants her.When his domineering aunt tires of his bachelorhood, she hires London’s most notorious underground matchmaker to force the issue.Enter Miss Delaney Kingsley.She is sharp-tongued, infuriatingly competent, and entirely unimpressed by his title. Her mission? To drag Rowan to the altar with the season’s “Diamond,” Lady Celine, within three months to collect the juicy payment Rowan’s aunt had to offer.Rowan intends to fire the meddlesome woman. But when Delaney looks at him with those hazel, intelligent eyes and orders him around like a young lad, he feels the first spark of life he’s felt in years.He decides to play her game. He will let her “coach” him on how to woo a lady. He will let her teach him how to dance, how to flirt, and how to seduce.But he has no intention of using those lessons on Lady Celine.“You were hired to find me a Duchess, Miss Kingsley. But the only person I want in my duchy and in my bed... is you.”As the lessons turn into forbidden nights and the bickering turns into scorching passion, Rowan begins to suspect that his matchmaker is hiding a secret of her own.She moves like a shadow, handles a rifle like a soldier, and tastes exactly like the ghost he’s been hunting for three years.What to Expect:* The Golden Retriever Duke: Who turns into a possessive Alpha behind closed doors.* The Matchmaker Trope: She’s trying to marry him off; he’s trying to take her clothes off.* High Heat: Slow burn that explodes into intense smut.* Competence Kink: He falls harder every time she bosses him around.* Cameos: Featuring the chaotic domestic life of Duchess Ines and Duke Carcel (and their baby Harry!).Excerpt:“Your Grace, please focus,” Delaney snapped, adjusting his cravat with efficient, gloved hands. “Lady Celine is waiting in the ballroom. You must look at her as if she is the only woman in the world.”Rowan caught her wrist, stopping her movements. He stepped into her space, backing her against the heavy oak door of the study, his “Golden Boy” mask slipping to reveal the hunger beneath.“And how, exactly, does one do that, Miss Kingsley?” he whispered, his voice rough. “Show me.”“I—I cannot show you, I am merely the coach—”“Then teach me,” he growled, lowering his head until his lips brushed the sensitive skin of her neck. “Teach me how to pretend I am not burning alive every time you walk into a room.”

Alicia Rosalyn Von Heist is the youngest daughter of King Edward of Alvannia. She is an illegitimate child born from a maid in the castle her father has fancied. After her mother died when she was young her father took her home and ‘adopted’ her.

Ling Mohan is an extremely aggressive and domineering Colonel of the No.1 Military Industry Group.

One day, a woman who comes out of nowhere hits him in the head! It turns out that the two are acquainted and had a fling three years ago, after which Ling disappeared, leaving a note asking her to wait for him.

She, however, married another guy, who “died” as mysteriously as Ling Mohan disappeared.

Now fate has arranged a meeting for them on a narrow path. He is determined to avenge her with the craziest passion, and she is determined to torture him with the most seductive flirtation. When beast and beauty meet a second time, who will excel and triumph?

- Description from Novelupdates

The Sword Emperor’s challenges result in three of the Ten Venerables to be criticially injured. Three of the Seven Absolutes also die.“It wasn’t enough for you to come knocking at my door all alone; now you dare challenge me to a battle to the death? I did not think you to be so dull as to miscalculate others’ strength.””Neither the Ten Venerables nor the Yellow Lotus Temple’s Seven Absolutes of the orthodox sects had the ability to give me an answer. You are the only one left to ask.”Some may call the Sword Emperor old-fashioned, but he only seeks to be stronger as a martial artist.His endeavor eventually leads him to challenge the Heavenly Demon, the generation’s strongest man in murim. The challenge turns out to be the grand finale of his life.However, the Sword Emperor later wakes up as a member of the Cardenas family, the continent’s best swordsman family!