Starting next week I’m going to taunt you with snippets from Command Performance, since it comes out at the end of this month. 🙂
But today, since I’ve been on a historical romance reading kick, I’m going to share a snippet from my historical spanking work-in-progress, Disciplining the Duchess. If you like stern, handsome dukes and sweet, slightly rapscallion heroines, then you’ll definitely like this book. I’m telling ya, I’ve got a thing for those dukes!
This is a scene near the beginning. The heroine, Harmony, and her friends are discussing the impending arrival of a much-gossiped-about duke to their house party.
“I believe he must be something worse than a rake.” Viola flushed. “Did you see the older ladies’ expressions when his name was brought up?”
Harmony wondered what could possibly be worse than a rake. From the silent, uneasy pall that fell over the group, she supposed she wasn’t the only one.
“What did the ladies mean by ‘uncomfortable habits?’” Lady Mirabel whispered the last two words.
“I do not know,” said Lady Sybil, “but my brother spoke something of him to papa when he was considering the duke for my hand. Whatever he said, papa refused to repeat it to mama.”
This elicited horrified gasps from the entire company.
“Perhaps he has killed someone!” said one of the more fanciful girls. “A duke could get away with it.”
“I bet he has the most cold and sinister eyes,” another girl said.
“I’m frightened,” whimpered another. “Why would they invite him here among civilized people?”
Lady Mirabel put down her cup with a tsk. “If he killed someone, do you really believe the Darlingtons would have invited him here? And a duke cannot run about killing people on a whim. Dukes are powerful, but not that powerful.”
“Yes,” agreed Juliette. “How silly to leap from ‘uncomfortable habits’ to ‘murderer.’ As for his cold and sinister eyes, I thought he was considered handsome.”
“I have seen him in town,” said Lady Sybil. “He is handsome. Dangerously so.” She raised a brow for emphasis. Harmony was not quite sure how one could be dangerously handsome. Perhaps women fainted just from looking at him.
“He probably keeps dozens of mistresses.” Viola sighed, disillusioned.
“Maybe he cannot keep even one, because he is so awful to them,” said the fanciful girl. “Maybe he draws them in with his handsome nature, and then trods upon their hearts.”
“Or beats them,” suggested another. “Or kills them.”
Harmony sighed as the young women all joined hands, promising to protect one another from the terrifying menace of his wiles.
“Perhaps it is only that he drinks too much at dinner,” she drawled. “Or eats too much, and belches loudly and repeatedly. That would be an uncomfortable habit indeed.”
As usual, when Harmony spoke, all the girls looked at her as though she were mad. Which she nearly was, after days of listening to them natter on about the stupidest subjects. She stared back at them until they all looked down at their plates.
I am really enjoying writing this book. The hero and heroine have come so alive in my mind and their story is very sweet and sexy. I’m guessing it won’t be out until January of next year but I’ll share more news about it before then. I can say for sure that if you enjoyed Lily Mine, you’ll like this book.
Thanks for reading!