It's two hundred years ago in Regency England...
Clarissa wonders how on earth to go on...or should that be what is going on...
As she pulled her
chemise over her head, the ties caught in her hair and Clarissa realised she’d
forgotten to tie a ribbon around her plait. With a sigh for her forgetfulness –
she’d find a ribbon in a moment – Clarissa untangled her hair, dropped the
chemise and then rolled her stockings off. Naked she lifted up the nightrail.
A scuffling noise
caught her attention.
Mice? Surely not?
She shuddered. Please not mice. She
dropped the fine linen nightrail and resisted the temptation to climb onto the
chair. Instead she curled her toes up tightly and scanned the room. The clock
ticked off the seconds, but no other noise assailed her senses.
Nothing. She
relaxed. Her imagination was overacting, that was all.
The noise came
again.
Under the bed? Clarissa bent, very cautiously, and peered
under the edge of the covers that hung almost to the floor, certain she would
see nothing.
Two blue eyes
stared at her from out of the darkness.
She screamed and
took refuge on the chair, with eyes closed and her chest heaving. A loud bang
indicated rescue was at hand. The door from the hallway sprung back on its
hinges, and she opened her eyes cautiously. Then thought it might have been
better to keep them closed. Ben, naked as a jay, with his staff bobbing in time
to his steps, ran in. Even in her heightened state of terror, she blinked at
the impressive sight, and then she ogled. Shamelessly. That was supposed to fit
in her? Heavens above.
‘What?’ Ben asked
breathlessly. ‘You screamed. Why? What’s wrong?’ Luckily he didn’t seem to
notice where she stared.
Clarissa shuddered
and pointed towards the bed. The sight of his naked body had veered her
thoughts away from the monster under the bed. Perhaps that was all she needed
to keep her mind off night terrors? A bare Ben. His words, however, brought all
her shivering dread and panic back in a rush. ‘There. Under there, something.
Big glaring eyes. Big.’ She wrapped her hands around her shoulders. ‘Ready to
eat me. It’s waiting to pounce.’
Ben bent down and
looked under the bed. His arse presented to her, and she admired his taut
buttocks. She did her best not to look further, to see if any other part of him
lived up to those etchings she’d pored over, giggling and disbelieving with her
school friends. His rear wriggled – oh my
– and disappeared for a second before he squirmed back from out of the
stygian gloom that she decided must be the state under the bed.
He stood up,
sneezed and dusted down his body. A cobweb clung to his left ear, and he
brushed it off impatiently. ‘Nothing except cobwebs and dust. Not even a spider
or a fly, and even they would be hard-pressed to live under there for long. I
doubt it’s seen a broom in many a month. I really should have given Mrs
Titchmarsh more notice of our arrival.’ He glanced towards Clarissa, who still
stood on the chair. ‘Truly, I could see nothing.’
‘Well, there was
something. Big blue eyes that flashed and sparkled and a funny noise.’ She
swallowed. ‘And if it’s not there – and there was something – where is it now?’
‘Honestly? At
least ten miles away now, I would think. Scared witless by your excellent
imitation of a banshee. I thought the walls had fallen down, or the house on
fire at the very least.’
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…
Happy reading,
love R x
What was under the bed? Will we ever find out?
ReplyDeleteEeek, not mice!
ReplyDeleteClassic damsel in distress.
ReplyDeleteThe view was well worth the fright. Nice tease! :)
ReplyDeleteLove that scene, lol. Greta tease, Raven :-)
ReplyDeleteLove this!!!!
ReplyDelete