She wants to be a duchess! Just not HIS duchess!
Pure and proper Lady Juliet Frain was born to be a duchess. Everyone says so. Now society awaits the announcement of the elegant beauty’s engagement to the dignified and honorable Duke of Granville. However all Juliet’s plans go awry when she meets the scandalous but sinfully attractive Duke of Evesham. The wild libertine is the last man Juliet wants to find irresistible, yet somehow she can’t keep her hands off him. And suddenly to her chagrin, nobody is calling Juliet either pure or proper!
He’s no Romeo…
After ten riotous years on the Continent, Lucas Hebden, Duke of Evesham, has returned to London, trailing a well-earned reputation as a rake and a reprobate. But an unexpected loss in a card game finds him far from London’s fleshpots and playing at amateur dramatics in the country. Even worse, he’s starting to confuse the poetic passion in Romeo and Juliet with the real-life passion that has him pursuing his disapproving but breathtakingly lovely leading lady. It’s clear that Lady Juliet Frain has no time for bad boys, and any sensible man would give up – but then nobody ever called Evesham sensible!
When Juliet’s suitor Granville arrives to propose, it’s the battle of the dukes! Once the curtain falls, which duke will emerge victorious and take the starring role in Juliet’s heart?
An international e-book release 29th February 2024 (Amazon) and 14th March 2024 (all other platforms)
Buy from Amazon US; Amazon UK; Amazon Australia; Amazon Canada; Barnes and Noble; Kobo US; Kobo Australia; Kobo UK; Kobo Canada; Apple US; Apple Australia; Apple Canada; Smashwords
Afton Park, Wiltshire, June 1817
Juliet closed her eyes and jutted her chin forward. Her heart raced so fast that she felt giddy. In a breathless hush, she waited trembling for the touch of Evesham’s lips.
And waited.
Eventually exasperation replaced anticipation, and she opened her eyes. Evesham studied her as if she belonged to a species that he’d never before encountered.
“What?” she asked, puzzled.
“Haven’t you ever seen a man and a woman kiss?”
She stiffened. No, she hadn’t. Not a kiss of passion. “You’re laughing at me.”
He smiled. “Only a little.”
She marched past him with a swish of blue skirts. “I won’t stay to be mocked.”
“Juliet, don’t go.” He caught her arm. As ever, immediate heat rushed under her skin. Her foolish heart skipped a beat before taking off on another reckless gallop.
“I changed my mind. I’ve lived all my life without playing silly flirtatious games. I can continue very well without you deigning to put me on the pathway to perdition.”
“Hardly that. It’s just a kiss.”
“So why didn’t you do it?”
“Because you caught me by surprise when you stood there, like a little girl waiting for her first dance partner to give her a peck on the cheek.”
She was annoyed and uncomfortable. And she felt inadequate, as she often did when she thought of herself as a woman and not as a future duchess. Which made her even more annoyed.
“What should I have done? Hurled myself into your arms, panting for your attentions?”
His lips twitched. “You can if you like.”
With a low growl deep in her throat, she pulled away. The fact that he let her go increased her irritation. Which made no sense. “This is all a joke to you, isn’t it?”
Most annoying of all was admitting that she was hurt. She didn’t want to acknowledge that he held such power over her emotions.
The amusement drained from his expression. She caught a glimpse of what, even in her innocence, she recognized as hunger. The summer twilight was fading, but she could see his face quite clearly. “No. On my soul, no.”
“You don’t have a soul,” she said, knowing she was being unfair.
“You make me feel like I’ve got a soul,” he muttered, and this time she saw more than hunger. She saw that this yearning that drew them together left him as bewildered as she was. Perhaps she wasn’t alone in finding this attraction both inexplicable and invincible.
So she didn’t resist when he caught her hand and drew her closer. God forgive her, she curved forward when he wound his arm around her waist.
Evesham released her hand and caught her chin in a grip that felt both powerful and tender. Juliet caught the flare of heat in his dark eyes, before his face moved closer and his lips brushed hers.
Searing heat that lasted a second. An impression of fresh breath. A tingling aftermath.
His hand dropped away from her face. She made a brief murmur. Protest? Plea? Even she wasn’t sure which.
Her eyelids felt heavy, as she lifted them to discover Evesham watching her with a steady interest that made her stomach clench in forbidden longing. Forbidden and unknowing, because while she understood the mechanics of what happened in bed between a man and a woman, she had an inkling that more was involved than a mere interlocking of bodies.
“What did you think?” he murmured.
Juliet licked her lips, expecting to taste him, but his kiss had been over too soon. His gaze fastened on the movement with feverish urgency.
“It was rather pleasant.”
If only she didn’t find his smile so inviting. “I’ve had better reviews.”
She was conscious of the weight of his arm around her waist. His tangy scent teased her senses. He was so close that she felt his warmth, as alluring as a crackling fire on a bleak winter’s day.
Juliet struggled to remind herself that fire could blister as well as comfort, but the warning had no power to break the enchantment. “I thought…I thought there might be more to it.”
She recalled how vivid her sister Viola had looked after she was caught kissing the Earl of Renfrew in the Tierneys’ garden. Disturbed and radiant, as if she’d glimpsed a dazzling new world.
Juliet didn’t feel like that.
Evesham groaned and closed his eyes in brief torment. “I was trying not to frighten you.”
“So there’s more?”
“Much more,” he said with fervor.
That should spur her into running back to the house. But instead, she stayed just where she was. Because shocking as it was, she wasn’t satisfied with that single taste. Despite saying that he could kiss her only once. Despite all her common sense insisting that it was time to bring this encounter to an end. Insisting that she was all kinds of fool to start this in the first place.
“Will you show me?” Juliet was surprised that her question emerged steadily.
She didn’t feel steady. Anything but. She felt like she’d swallowed a whole pond full of frogs who jumped around inside her. Her rubbery legs threatened to fold up at any moment.
Instead of seizing her – some wild part of her longed for him to sweep her up against that hard chest – he eyed her with a hint of suspicion. “Are you sure?”
“No,” she said. Or rather squeaked. She was having difficulty drawing in enough breath to fill her lungs. Her hands opened and closed at her sides over and over.
“Well?”
She bit her lip and made herself meet his eyes. She expected to see mockery, but he was watching her as if he was willing to let her decide what happened next. “You’re meant to be a rake. Why are you hesitating?”
He ran one hand through his hair. It was a characteristic gesture, she’d noticed. One that he made when he was frustrated or impatient. “Because I don’t want you deciding that I took advantage of you. I don’t want you deciding that you hate me again.”
“I don’t hate you.” Before she could think to stop herself, she lifted her hand to cup the severe angle of his jaw. The skin beneath her palm was warm, and she felt the prickle of his whiskers. “I’ve never hated you.”
She’d never touched a man like this. It was thrilling and strange. And addictive.
He briefly closed his eyes, as if he, too, found the contact stirring. “You didn’t like me much when we met.”
No, she hadn’t. In truth, she still wasn’t sure why she did like him. He was everything that she disapproved of. A wastrel. A libertine. A man happy to expend his youth and talents in the aimless pursuit of sensual entertainment.
“I wouldn’t let you kiss me if I held you in disdain.”
Another of those self-derisive smiles that always made her silly heart cramp. “If you decide you hate me again after this, the play will suffer.”
That surprised a laugh out of her. Then before she could reply, Evesham lashed his arms about her and hauled her up until his mouth crashed into hers.