I'm looking for a book that I read maybe 2 years ago that I really enjoyed but have forgotten the title of.
Here's what I remember:
the initial romance takes place between a man and a woman in the past (a few hundred years ago in Britain or Scotland)
the heroine is scared of the hero bc of his reputation so their first sexual encounter starts with him willingly tied to a chair (though she soon releases him)
there is magic involved and the villain turns him into a statue (?) stuck in a tower
the heroine has to reach him (and do something that I can't recall) to break the curse
every time that she is killed trying, she is reborn to try again
I think she has a guardian who is immortal (?) to help her, but he has to refind and reexplain everything to her each time
in the current incarnation she is an expert in martial arts and finally manages to succeed