He licked his lips as a hot slicing shock of desire ricocheted through his body and settled in his loins. Beneath the water, he began to throb.
“This is a private room,” he managed to croak out.
Her eyebrows lifted and a slight smiled turned up her lips. “Oh, I certainly hope that is true, considering what I have planned.”
She took a step into the water and immediately that white chemise went sinfully sheer against her calves. Another step and her thighs were revealed as the water sloshed up and down against her movements.
He swallowed, his head spinning now, but not with its normally unpleasant thoughts. No, it spun with desire, confusion and a desperate need to have her come deeper into the water.
“Who are you?” he asked.
She smiled. “Violet Milford, my lord,” she said, and he almost expected her to put out a hand as if they were meeting under more normal circumstances.
He sucked in a breath, and her smile broadened.
“You know my name, do you?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. The courtesan.”
She hesitated on the third step of the pool and nodded. “And I know you, as well, Lord Windbury.”
Liam settled back, resting his good arm on the edge of the pool behind him as she continued into the water. Waves covered her body, but she was waist-deep now.
“Did my man arrange for your appearance?” he asked. Sometimes Mal did that, but never without Liam’s request as the impetus.
She shook her head. “That hulking beast outside? No, he has no idea I’m here.”
“Then I almost hate to ask this question, but how did you get past him?”
She smiled, and something in him shifted. When her full lips tilted upward, her already beautifully exotic face became even more intoxicating. He wanted to drag her against him and kiss her until she couldn’t form coherent words. It had been a very long time since he felt such strong, animal reactions. Sex had become a necessary bodily function, not a pleasure as of late.
“I brought along a distraction,” she replied, seemingly unaware of the place his wicked thoughts had taken him with just her smile. But then, her gaze dropped under the water swiftly.
He doubted she could see he was naked beneath, or hard and ready with just her unexpected appearance here, but given her vocation and knowing eyes, he would wager she had guessed both.
Perhaps she even counted on both.
“I am not looking to become someone’s protector,” he warned her, though he found himself offering a silent prayer that this fact wouldn’t scare her away.
She moved into the water, dropping under so that it soaked her shoulders before she stood up again and revealed her chemise, utterly sheer and plastered against full breasts. He couldn’t contain a grunt of ever-increasing need.
“I’m not seeking a protector, my lord,” she whispered as she reached him. She reached out and touched his face, the side without the scar, so he didn’t move away from her fingers. “I’m on holiday. I’m only looking to enjoy myself.”
She was so close, he could smell the light musk of some kind of perfume, and he lost all semblance of reason. He reached for her without thinking and dragged her hard against him. Her arms wound around his neck and she lifted her mouth just as he smashed his down.
The kiss was spectacular. Her lips, which looked so full, were exactly what he wanted. Soft and supple, they parted as his tongue demanded entry into her mouth. She denied him nothing, even as he fisted her wet chemise in his hand and dragged his nails against her back in the process. She merely arched against him, rotating her lips against him with suggestive and wanton response.
“Damn,” he muttered against her mouth as his blood began to boil with out of control desire.
He crossed an ocean to find her. His secret could prevent him from claiming her heart.
Claimed by the Rogue
© 2014 Hope Tarr
Claimed, Book 1
When Robert Bellamy signed on with the East India Company and set sail for Calcutta, Lady Phoebe Tremont took his promise to heart. Their separation would be but brief; in six months he would send for her.
Six years later, believing her love to be drowned at sea, Phoebe hides her tears behind a disguise at a masked ball to celebrate her engagement to a dashing French aristocrat. It is there she encounters a handsome guest costumed as a rogue of the sea—a pirate. When he drops his mask, she finds herself looking into a dead man’s eyes. A ghost’s eyes. Robert’s eyes.
Through hardship and degradation, Robert never lost his resolve to return home to England a rich man. Now a successful ship’s captain, there is one prize left to reclaim—Phoebe.
But the demure debutante he left behind has grown into a dazzling, decidedly self-determined woman. Nor is Robert the callow youth who set sail in search of adventure. Yet the one thing that could win her heart is the very dark truth his pride warns him never to reveal…
Warning: This book contains steamy sex, some violence—and a hero so swoon-worthy you’ll find yourself seduced into staying up into the wee hours turning pages.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Claimed by the Rogue:
The garden lay below, lit by torches and strings of Chinese lanterns much as it had been six years ago, the breeze sweetened by early blooming roses and the honeysuckle intertwining the trelliswork. Phoebe crossed to the rail, reaching it as the first angry tear splashed her cheek.
Oh, Robert, if only…
The costuming, the music and collective chatter, the ceaseless press of people wishing her happy when she felt anything but, was suddenly all too much. Feeling as though she might suffocate, she pulled at her mask, the surprisingly sturdy ribbons resisting snapping.
“Bloody, bloody, bloody hell.”
She tore the accursed thing off, hauled back and pitched it over the ironwork, the force straining her gown’s seams. Breathing hard, she gripped the ironwork and looked over. The fit of temper, better worthy of Belinda, had reaped the intended and instantly regretted result. Beyond reach in the thorns, her mask was as good as gone.
“Whoa! Whoever he is, he’s not worth it.”
Phoebe let out a gasp and spun about, her backside bumping the balustrade.
A tall man costumed as a pirate pushed away from the plasterwork column against which he must have been leaning. “You would fare far better with a lover who makes you laugh than one who makes you curse—and cry,” he added, stepping into the cone of colored light.
Beyond mortified, Phoebe dashed a quick hand across her damp eyes, hoping he might at least miss that much of her shame. “Sir, you should have made your presence known.”
One dark brow arched upward. “I believe I am doing just that.”
A gentleman would apologize for the intrusion and excuse himself to go inside. He, however, showed no sign of budging. Arms folded over his broad chest and legs akimbo, he stood his ground, raking her with his gaze. Stunned by his boldness, Phoebe studied his lantern-lit face. Who did he imagine himself to be? More importantly, who was he? His broad-brimmed hat with its extravagant plume and form-fitting doublet coat were not the standard fare found in costuming shops. He must have taken the invitation’s call for authenticity seriously indeed, for his leather breeches and riding boots wore a cannily real-looking coating of dust.
As foolish as she felt, still she forced her shoulders back and her chin high. “I do not care for being spied upon.”
Beneath the hat, his brow beetled. “Spied upon?” He let out a guffaw. “I’ve been standing in plain view all along.”
Phoebe hated to admit it, but he had fact on his side. Given the way she’d barreled out, it was a mercy she hadn’t plowed into him.
Still, she refused to be cowed. “You are forward, sir.” She lifted her chin another notch. “And rude.”
And handsome as sin, or so he seemed from what she’d so far surveyed. The throat of his silk shirt lay indecently open, the undone buttons revealing a muscular neck band
ed by a fine silver chain similar to hers. Even in the low light, she marked the darkness of his skin. Gentleman though he undoubtedly was, he must spend a great deal of time out-of-doors.
“You wound me, lady.” He fell back, pantomiming pulling an invisible dagger from his pectoral. In contrast, the wicked-looking curved sword tucked into the crimson sash at his waist looked frighteningly real. “You’d be better served to save your ire for another—the one who made you weep.”
Robert. Robert made me weep. And yet she could hardly fault a dead man for being dead any more than she could a living man for failing to live up to him whom she so dearly loved.
A square of snowy linen appeared in one bare, broad-backed hand. “Please,” he said, passing it to her, his eyes no longer mocking but softened by what seemed to be concern.
Phoebe hesitated and then accepted the handkerchief, acknowledging the courtesy with a small, silent nod. He was barehanded, highly irregular considering the formality of the affair. Their fingertips brushed and gloved though she was, still she felt a tiny tremor trill through her.
“All brides cry,” she snapped, blotting at her eyes with the hankie, the cotton so soft and finely woven as to be Egyptian. “It’s…tradition.” The latter was a lame excuse but she couldn’t think of what else to say. Indeed, with his eyes fastened upon her, she could scarcely think at all.
His smile froze. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had the pleasure of being leg-shackled.”
So he was a bachelor. That tidbit of intelligence lifted her spirits far more than it ought. “In that case, you’re hardly in a position to be offering romantic advice.”
“I suppose you are correct on that count.” Framed by black felt, his bold gaze perused her, the thorough inventory beginning and ending with her eyes.
Handing back the hankie, Phoebe eyed the sword at his side and a hopeful thought struck her. “Perhaps you might employ your weapon to retrieve my mask from those bushes below. I…dropped it,” she added, the bald lie brought on by his steady stare.
His crack of laughter flared heat into her face. “The devil you did. You tossed it over the rail out of pique.” Phoebe opened her mouth to protest, but his chuckle cut her off. “By the by, you’ve an impressive arm for a woman. Beyond my sister, I’ve never seen the like on any female.” One corner of his mouth, his full, sensuous mouth, curved upwards. Phoebe’s heart hitched. She hadn’t seen a smile like that in…a very long time.
More put out with herself than him, sharply she asked, “Will you help me or not?”
“Since you implore so charmingly, how can I refuse?” He turned to the rail, braced both hands atop and peered below.
Coming up beside him, Phoebe tried not to notice how ungodly good he smelled. Not like Aristide, who had a heavy hand with bottled scent, or the other gentlemen of her acquaintance, but rather like leather and sandalwood and the musk of male sweat. And his breath bore the faintest aroma of what must be licorice. “It’s just there,” she said, pointing to the thorny bower upon which it perched, her shoulder inadvertently brushing his side.
He nodded. “Aye, I see it.” One hand on his sword hilt, he took a step back. “Stand away,” he ordered, gaze no longer on her but on his quarry.
For the first time in years, Phoebe obeyed without question. As soon as she’d moved, he unsheathed his weapon and stabbed it into the bushes below, neatly hooking her mask on the tip.
He pivoted, presenting the mask with a bow. “Milady.”
Phoebe hesitated and then plucked the mask from the sharp blade point. Amazingly, the fabric had escaped so much as a tear. “You have my gratitude, sir,” she said, meaning it. Her life seemed to be filled with a surfeit of men of words but standing before her was, at long last, a man of action.
Straightening, he sheathed his sword. “If there are other articles of clothing with which I can assist, please do not hesitate to ask.” A roguish smile accompanied the wicked offer.
That smile seemed to suck the breath from Phoebe’s lungs. “You are most adept with your sword, sir, but I believe that shall suffice.” Dear Lord, had she really said that?
A flash of even, white teeth greeted her gaffe. “For now, perhaps, but should you desire another…demonstration, I shall be happy to oblige.”
Beautiful Distraction
Jess Michaels
Can true love begin with a lie?
The Pleasure Wars, Book 4
It has been a particularly trying day for Olivia Cranfield. Despite her impeccable manners, stylish clothing and posh accent, another protector has detected her lowborn status and rejected her out of hand.
When fellow courtesan Violet invites her to come to Bath to help with the wicked seduction of the scarred, reclusive Earl of Windbury, Olivia jumps at the offer, eager for some excitement and a change of scenery.
The moment Malcolm Graham lays eyes on the delectable woman lurking in the bathhouse alley, he knows she’s a decoy to keep him busy while her friend seduces the earl inside. For a moment, he allows her to play her game…but one touch, and all he can think about is ending the two years of self-denial he’s endured in the name of friendship.
Instant attraction quickly turns into a decidedly erotic affair that makes Olivia question all she’s ever known about passion. But when the truth behind Violet’s assignment comes to light, betrayal threatens to bring everything they’ve built crashing down around Olivia’s broken heart.
Warning: This book overlaps with Beauty and the Earl, so some passages may seem familiar to readers of both. Contains a lady lying for a good cause, a gentleman as loyal to his friends as he is passionate in the bedchamber, and a steamy affair that will change them both forever.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Beautiful Distraction
Copyright © 2014 by Jess Michaels
ISBN: 978-1-61922-174-1
Edited by Amy Sherwood
Cover by Kim Killion
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2014
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
About the Author
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