Rogue

``His shoulders were broad and powerful, his flowing white shirt half open, giving her a provocative glimpse of a smooth, bronzed, splendidly muscled chest.'' Like his model, Ryder Remington spends much of his time slightly deshabille in this historical set in Charleston, S.C., and Regency England. The rest of the time Ryder, the estranged son of the Duke of Mansfield, spends wenching--most recently pursuing a comely barmaid in a tavern near the docks in Charleston, S.C. When he presses his attentions too far, he quickly finds out that Natalie Desmond isn't a barmaid but a British heiress who came to America to help her cousin and his mother, Natalie's Aunt Love, run a textile factory. When smuggled British cloth threatened the factory's future, Aunt Love began an investigation and promptly disappeared, leaving Natalie to don her disguise and to try to find clues through her seafaring customers. Ryder, intrigued by her plight and determined to seduce her, comes to her aid accompanying Natalie back to England where they trace the smugglers, find Aunt Love, mend ties with their respective families and come to terms with their own passion. In this second romance to bear Fabio's name ( Pirate ), descriptions are good, as is dialogue, although there tends to be too much of it with awkward amounts of the plot conveyed in conversation. Often bawdy, there is something enjoyably self-mocking about the over-the-top take on standard characters--when not wantoning in Ryder's arms, Natalie teaches a Bible study class and reads Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations . (May)