Irish lass Breena O’ Doherty has lost everything. Now her only wish for Christmas is to brighten the holidays at her new Highland home, Duncreag Castle, where the laird is determined not to celebrate. Hoping to bring joy to the clan she’s come to love, she’s stunned to see her efforts thwarted by the rugged Highlander who secretly holds her heart.

From award-winning author Elizabeth Essex comes the adventurous final novel of the highly acclaimed Highland Brides, a quintet of bold, brilliant lasses determined to make their own happily ever afters.

A thing of beauty can be a joy forever.

But beauty lies…

Lord Archie Carrington knows a beauty when he sees one. Barmaids and countess alike fall beneath the charm of the youngest-ever editor of Edinburgh’s sharpest political and literary quarterly. So when he sets out to write an exposé on the new Lord Advocate, the clever Scotsman devises a plan to charm his opponent’s shy portraitist daughter out of her smock—and her family secrets.

You’ve been his for years, and I respected it. Maintained my distance.

Kept my silence. My secret.

Until that night you came to me, disillusioned, angry and hurt. God helps us both, but I crossed my carefully drawn line before you left, disappeared.

Now, you’re back, and my need for you is a beast that hasn’t been fed and has grown hungrier in the years since I’ve seen you. I remind myself we can’t be more than friends, that you’re off-limits to me. But it doesn’t stop me from secretly craving what can never be mine.