Can you believe it, another new release!! Please check it out! I'm one of 7 authors in this mixture of sensual novellas. The ebook is ONLY 99 CENTS! And for you print book lovers you can get your own beautiful copy of this collection! It's stunning!
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling
Author Cheryl Bolen and USA Today Bestselling Author Bronwen Evans are joined
by Barbara Monajem, Collette Cameron, Wendy Vella, Heather Boyd, and Lauren
Smith in this exciting collection of regency romances. Be CAPTIVATED BY HIS
KISS in these seven emotional stories of second chances, scandalous wagers, and
the quest for true love. Lose yourself again and again in beautifully written
romance.
Want to know more? Check out these sensual story lines!
His Lordship's Vow by Cheryl Bolen - The exceedingly plain spinster, Miss Jane Featherstone, helps the earl she loves woo an heiress in order to honor the deathbed vow Lord Slade to his father. To Wager the Marquis of Wolverstone by Bronwen Evans - Marcus Danvers, the Marquis of Wolverstone, is renowned for his cynical demeanor. It's rumored that long ago, a beautiful woman broke his heart. Now he lives life for pleasure. That is, until the beautiful, as she is deceitful, Contessa Orsini re-enters his life with a wager he cannot resist. The Christmas Knot by Barbara Monajem - Widowed and destitute, Edwina White takes a job as a governess in a haunted house, and if that's not trouble enough, her new employer is the one man she'd hoped never to meet again. Bride of Falcon by Collette Cameron - Faced with spinsterhood, Ivonne Wimpleton takes fate into her own hands, determined to win the heart of her wholly unacceptable childhood love . . . scandal be damned. Christmas Wishes by Wendy Vella - Desperation makes strange bedfellows, and when the only person left to turn to is a dissolute Rake, Miss Hero Appleby realizes she is about to forsake more than her reputation. Miss Watson's First Scandal by Heather Boyd - Overworked London banker David Hawke had two goals for his week in the seaside town of Brighton: one, recover a debt from a friend and two, relax for his remaining holiday. Marriage wasn't part of the plan...until the girl next door barges in and turns his life upside down. The Duelist's Seduction by Lauren Smith - Helen Banks, disguised as her twin brother, fights a duel against Gareth Fairfax but he has other ideas in mind of how to have Helen repay her debt starting with a sinful kiss and a wicked embrace.. Get your copy now!!
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Here's a snippet from my story The Duelist's Seduction.
The predawn sky shone brightly
with flickering stars as Helen Banks readied herself for the duel. Her hair was
coiled and pinned tightly against her head, concealing its thick mass and
giving her a boyish look—a disguise she prayed would last. Checking the black
mask covering her face, she resumed walking. She took a deep, steadying breath
as she adjusted her breeches and the black coat she’d pinched from her
brother’s wardrobe.
The open field near the spa city
of Bath was quiet. Two coaches waited in the distance along the roadside, and
ahead of her, two men waited, watching her approach. Not even a breeze dared rustle the knee-high
grass as Helen walked up to her enemy and his second. Both men also wore masks
to conceal their identities should someone witness the illegal duel. The paling
skies played with the retreating shadows of night, lending a melancholy air to
the moment she stopped inches from the men.
“You are late, Mr. Banks,” the
taller of the two men announced coldly.
With his broad shoulders and
muscular body, Gareth Fairfax cut an imposing figure. He seemed perpetually
tense, as though ready to strike out at anyone who might offend him. Dark hair
framed his chiseled features, and the eyes that glowered from between the
spaces of his mask were a fathomless blue. They were the sort of eyes a woman
lost herself in, like gazing into a dark pool of water that seemed to sink
endlessly, drawing her in until she can’t find her way back to the surface. She
recognized the sensual, full lips, now thinned by anger, and the gleam of his
eyes on her. She was never more thankful that the early morning’s pale light
did not expose her as being a woman.
Helen hated knowing that even now,
faced with possible death at his hands, she still desired him. Having seen him
from afar over the past few months, she’d been enchanted. Gareth—for that was
the way she’d dreamt about him, not as Mr. Fairfax—had a way about him, an
animal magnetism that drew her in, with his smoky gaze and relaxed movements.
Sin personified—she’d once heard a woman describe him thus at a dance and it
was true. Even angels would be tempted to stray to hell for one glance, one
lingering, seductive look. He smiled so rarely, she’d glimpsed it but twice in
the months she’d seen him. Both times it had fairly knocked her off her feet
with the sheer force of its power.
He’d never noticed her at the social
engagements. She had stood close to the wall, quiet and lost in dreams as she
watched him through her heavy lashes. Foolish, too, she knew, to look at him
and feel such hunger for the things his brooding demeanor promised. He had
passed her by on numerous occasions, but his head never turned and his eyes
never alighted on her. Even now, as she stood before him, ready to die at his
hands, she knew he thought her to be her twin brother, Martin.
If he ever discovered she was a woman, he
would be appalled and furious. Especially given that she was only dueling him
to save her brother’s life.
She briefly studied her
opponent’s second. He was just as tall, his features nearly as striking as
Gareth’s.
Helen choked down a shaky breath.
“I was waylaid.” She prayed her voice sounded gruff and masculine.
Gareth’s eyes were dark orbs,
burning with thinly controlled anger. He shifted restlessly on his feet, his
imposing form momentarily revealed by the dark blue coat that contoured to his
shape.
“Is this your second?” His growl
sent shivers down her spine as his glaze flicked to the squat man in his
mid-thirties standing behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, widening her
eyes in silent encouragement for her second to come closer.
“I am,” Mr. Rodney Bennett
replied and bowed.
“Mr. Banks, I am Mr. Ambrose Worthing,”
Gareth’s second announced politely.
Well,
finally someone was acting like a gentleman. “Mr. Worthing,” Helen said, making sure to keep
her voice low. “Allow me to introduce my second, Mr. Rodney Bennett.”
Bennett passed by Helen, and he
and Worthing shook hands. Bennett offered the pistols to Worthing for
inspection. Since Gareth and Worthing had not brought the weapons, that duty
fell to her as the challenged party. As the two men drew apart from her and
Gareth, she tried not to stare at him. He was impossibly handsome, in that
dark, mysterious sort of way that a woman simply couldn’t ignore. Like gazing
upon a visage of an angry god, all fire and might, ready to burn her to ash
with passion.
Her opponent glowered at her. “I
suppose I should trust that you’ve not tampered with my pistol?”
His icy tone made her bristle
with indignation. “You have my word it shoots fair,” Helen snapped. The nerve
of the man to accuse her of cheating!
“Your word? We would not be here
if I could trust your word. A man who does not honor his debts may not find it
necessary to honor the rules of a duel,” Gareth retorted.
She wanted to scream. Her fists
clenched at her sides. Her nails dug painfully into her palms as she struggled
to calm down. She wanted to throttle her brother, whose rash and inconsiderate
behavior had gotten her into this mess.
“Easy, Fairfax. Both pistols
appear to be in working order,” Worthing announced as he and Bennett rejoined
them.
Helen breathed a sigh of relief
as Bennett resumed his position behind her. She’d paid him the last bit of
money she’d had for him to appear as her second. She didn’t really know the
man, having only met him briefly when she’d had to drag her brother away from
the card tables a few nights ago. When she first approached Bennett with her
plan, he had tried to talk her out of it, but when she offered money, he
couldn’t refuse and had agreed to help her take her brother’s place in the
duel. Even though he was a gentleman, the gambler inside him craved any bit of
money he could get his hands on to return to the tables. She was lucky he
hadn’t gambled away his pair of pistols, or else she would have been completely
humiliated to turn up at a duel without weapons.
“Now,” Mr. Worthing said, “before
we settle this, is it possible that you and Mr. Banks can reconcile the
dispute?”
Helen started to nod, wanting
desperately to find a way to settle the problem without bloodshed, but Gareth
spoke up, stilling the bobbing of her head.
“Mr. Banks has run up a debt to
me of over a thousand pounds. He has not been able to pay it back to me over
the last three months. Furthermore, he created an additional liability of five
hundred pounds last evening when he played with money he did not have.”
Helen swallowed hard, a painful
lump in her throat choking her. Martin,
you damned fool…
“Why did you accept his vouchers
then?” Rodney spoke up. “I saw you agree to play with him. You didn’t have to.”
“Banks had money on him. I
assumed he’d replenished his funds and would settle his debts to me.” Gareth shot
a withering look in Helen’s direction. “Shooting him will be a bonus.”
Helen held his stare for a moment,
feeling the regret deep in her belly that she hadn’t known better than to trust
her twin brother—too childish for a gentleman of one-and-twenty—to be more
responsible. Instead of helping to secure her a position as a governess—their
finances dim after the death of their parents and no good marriages likely—he
had been losing what meager fortune they had to men like Gareth Fairfax, who
had plenty to spare.
A man who would now take her life
as payment for a debt she didn’t owe. But what else could she do? She couldn’t
let Martin die. A man had options to survive, a woman did not, at least not one
that wouldn’t make her despise herself for the rest of her life.
Her memory of the previous night
was tinged with fury and disappointment in Martin. Her heart had plummeted into
the pit of her stomach when she’d retired for the evening and found his room
empty. All of her hopes were dashed the moment she’d learned he’d gone back to
the gambling tables.
She’d hidden in the shadows
outside the gambling hell, trying not to be seen by anyone passing by. The
smell of alcohol stung her nose, and the raucous laughter echoing from the
entrance sent chills of trepidation down her spine. It would ruin her
completely if she were witnessed outside such an establishment. Bennett had
promised to bring Martin out to her, but when Martin emerged, he was being
roughly hauled out by a dark-haired gentleman, a man she recognized, a man
she’d admired for the last few months from afar.
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I LOVED THIS SPICY ROMANCE.
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