Amazon has it now available in paperback and e-book and it's still on pre-order with Wild Rose Press until Friday, when it will be for sale. It's going for a special price of $2.99 for a month.
As a special celebration, I will send an AUTOGRAPHED PAPERBACK of the book to a random commenter - USA and Canada only, please. So, if you've always wanted to leave a response, but were too shy, now's your chance.
Here's one of my favorite excerpts from the book, with a little hook at the end to further entice you! The scene is at Jack's French chateau, where he has brought Georgiana after a mishap at the ball earlier that evening. She sneaked into his room like she used to when she was little, and cried on him while he was asleep. Her sniffling awakens him, and then....
“To
what do I owe the pleasure of your company this evening?” He patted his shirt.
“And why is my shirt wet?”
“I
couldn’t sleep. This house is so big and empty.” She never realized before what
true quiet was, having lived at Fairwood Hall with more than fifty servants
always present.
“It
does feel like one rattles around the walls a bit.” He rose from the bed and
replaced the bottle on the table. “But you cannot sleep in here, much as I
don’t mind the company.” He winked. “It will be just my luck you’ll inform your
brother I compromised you, and he’ll lure me into the marriage trap. Perhaps
that was his idea all along, and you’re part of his conniving, scheming mind.”
His
teasing tone stirred something in her. She drew the quilt up to her neck and
backed further against the headboard. “Oh, please, let me stay. I’ll sleep on
the settee, or the floor. I don’t want to be alone.” She purposely swiped a
stray tear from her cheek and sniffled loudly.
He
heaved a sigh. “If you were not so tall, I would throw you over my shoulder and
carry you back to your own chamber.” He indicated the settee. “Throw me a
pillow, will you? I suppose I’ve had worse beds than this.”
“It’s only for one night.” She tossed him a pillow.
He blew out the candle.
“It
had better be. I did not sign up for this journey as a nursemaid, much as I
would love taking you across my knee and giving you a well-deserved spanking
for all the trouble you cost me this evening.”
“Nursemaid
Jack,” she sang softly. He snorted, and she laughed quietly. “Was she very
beautiful?” She’d spoken before she’d given it a thought. His personal life was
none of her business.
“Who?”
“The
paramour you had to leave tonight on my account.”
He
snorted. “There is no paramour.” He punched his pillow in the darkness.
“You
came to the ball alone?”
“Yes.
I often attend balls unaccompanied. One has a damnably difficult time meeting
strange ladies if one is attached to another. Why the interest in my
activities, she who ventures to balls in a foreign country with no chaperone?”
“I
assumed there must be some reason to have kept you from visiting Aunt Adele and
me.” She bit her lip, scolding herself for sounding petulant.
“I
apologize for not coming to see you. My grandfather will accept nothing but
absolute perfection. And if there was a paramour, Miss Lockewood, this is less
than suitable talk from one as young and innocent as you.”
“When
I am one and eighty, will you still consider me a little girl, I wonder?”
“You
will always be my friend’s little sister, dear Pudding Face.”
His
voice held a barely perceptible warning. She lay back on the pillows and
snuggled beneath the quilt. “I should tell Jonathan you compromised me. That
will be fine revenge for all the times you called me Pudding Face. He would be
forced to call you out, and you will feel so guilty you’ll allow him to kill
you.”
He
harrumphed loudly. “I can imagine that duel. He would talk me to death before I
could get in the first blow.”
“If
you promise to take me somewhere tomorrow, I promise not to mention what
happened tonight to my brother.”
“That’s
called blackmail.”
She
echoed his snort. “Call it what you will. I want to enjoy myself while I’m away
from home. It’s my last chance.”
“You’ve
seen what trouble you’ve found in having so much fun, haven’t you?”
“I
will not be in trouble as long as you’re with me.”
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