Taken from The Scandalous Proposal of Lord Bennett. To be published by Carina UK on 9th September. Now available for preorder on Amazon and Kobo...
Blurb...
To
have and to hold?
Reluctant
debutante Lady Clarissa Macpherson has never forgotten the forbidden kiss she
shared with notorious rake, Lord Theodore ‘Ben’ Bennett, all those years ago.
Even now, he’s the one man who sets Clarissa’s pulse racing and her skin
tingling – no matter how hard she tries to ignore it!
Yet,
when Ben rescues her from the unwanted advances of a drunken Lord at a society
ball, she finds herself in a most scandalous predicament – engaged, to the most
eligible bachelor in London!
Wedded?
It appears so, but bedded? Clarissa demands more from her marriage than simply
surrendering to her new husband’s sexual desires, especially when she realises
she’s falling deeper in love with him every single day. Ben must prove that
she’s the only woman for him – and surrender his heart!
Yet
resisting her new husband’s delicious seduction may prove the hardest thing
Clarissa has ever done…
Ben was where she’d
left him. However, he had a companion. One he held close to his chest.
Piercing blue eyes
stared up at her, pleading for help. A whimper smote at her heart. She bit back
a giggle as Ben snuggled into his companion.
‘Lovely hair,’ he
said. ‘It makes me want to …’ He opened his eyes. Stared at his companion and
then with a wild look shot out of bed in the manner of a cork from a champagne
bottle. His legs tangled with the covers and he teetered for several seconds
before he landed back on the mattress. ‘Hellfire and damnation, what in hades
name is this?’
‘I’m not sure what
hell would call it, but I’d say it’s a whippet.’ Clarissa stared at the tiny,
golden-haired, shivering puppy and her heart melted.
‘A whoppit?’ He
shook his head. ‘I’m hallucinating without the brandy.’
‘No, you ninny. A
whippet, a puppy. Around four or five weeks, I’d reckon. It really should be
with its mama.’ Clarissa lifted the shivering animal and it whined in a pitiful
way even as it snuggled in to her. ‘There, there. The silly man. He loves you
really.’
Ben rolled his
eyes. ‘Thank you for telling me. How the hell did it get up here?’
‘Does it matter?’
Clarissa stroked the puppy. ‘She’s not an it. She’s a she and called Brodie.’
‘And you know that
how?’ Ben kicked out his legs and flung the bedcovers back before he stood up
successfully.
Was he going to
mention their middle of the night activities? Say something to reassure her it
had been good for him as well? His pego seemed to have decided it needed to get
noticed once more as it bobbed and swayed in time to his movements. Clarissa
averted her eyes. Really, to have to feast on that before breakfast wasn’t
easy. Mind you, his impressive chest, sprinkled with dark hair that arrowed
downward towards the other impressive part of his body, made it even harder to
look away.
Tell me you enjoyed what we did. Lord, I hope I didn’t say that aloud.
Clarissa gulped as Ben stayed silent. Had it not been up to his expectations
then?
Damn him.
The puppy wriggled
and whined. She bent her head to nuzzle it.
‘I have decided,’
she said imperiously. Sadly she then spoiled it by giggling. ‘And I looked.
Definitely female and she looks like a Brodie. If you don’t mind, can I keep
her? I’ve wanted a dog for aeons.’ She did her best not to plead. It was very
hard, especially as Ben frowned as he pulled on a banyan. This one was grey-striped.
Did he have one for every occasion?
‘It’ll be eaten by
the hounds.’
‘No it won’t
because it is a she and you won’t let any harm befall her.’
He grinned and
nodded. ‘Very true. You can break it to the housekeeper and so on when it
widdles over the Aubusson.’
‘We don’t have an
Aubusson.’ Clarissa looked down at the faded Wilton rug. ‘Do we?’
Catch all the other teases here
(and the picture below is just because, these lovely whopppits...er whippets gave me the inspiration for the Brodie in the book)
Happy reading
Love, R x
Aww, what a cute exchange. I'm glad he'll be there to protect the girl.
ReplyDeleteLOL I love how she stands her ground and reminds him of his role in protection. Great tease, Raven. :)
ReplyDeleteFabulous tease, Raven :-)
ReplyDelete