Books like Mistress of Scandal by Sara Bennett

Francesca, a proper and reserved young woman cared for by the devoted Lady Greentree, has long seen herself as an orphan away from the scandalous life of her birth mother, the infamous courtesan Madame Aphrodite. A dark, dangerous stranger she rescues on the moors awakens a most improper desire within her, forcing her to question whether she is more her mother's daughter than she ever wished to be. When Sebastian Thorne vows to protect Aphrodite’s estranged daughter from a dire threat emerging from her past, the fallen lord finds himself unexpectedly seduced by Francesca’s beauty. A vigilante living on the shadowy edge of society has little hope of owning such a prize, and unless he reclaims his abandoned title and lost honor, Sebastian will never get close enough to the bewitching lady to save her life—or win her passion.

First publish date: 2007