Courting the Duchess by Kelsey Swanson

He vanished without a word. Only now that he has returned, her heart isn’t ready to forgive—or forget.

Eight years ago, Sterling St. John, Duke of Morton, vanished mere hours after marrying his innocent young bride. Alaina was left humiliated, heartbroken…and untouched. London buzzed with gossip, but she endured it all and emerged transformed.
Now a sharp-tongued beauty and the fearless founder of a scandalously progressive ladies’ reading Society, Alaina has no intention of welcoming her wayward husband home. She’s determined to show him he’s neither needed nor wanted.
But Sterling isn’t the same man either. Hardened by years of secrets and haunted by decisions he cannot reveal, he knows protecting the wife he never wished to leave means keeping her in the dark.

Yet the fiery woman she’s become tries his sanity and ignites his passion; he never expected the woman she became to tempt him past all reason.