"THE NAKED LAIRD" in LORDS OF DESIRE
Virginia Henley,
Sally MacKenzie, Victoria Dahl, and Kristi Astor
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-2965-6; ISBN-10: 0-7582-2965-8
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: February 2009
The viscount's house party promises to be
one of the Season's highlights, and Lord and Lady Kilgorn are delighted to
attend. If only the long-estranged couple had realized that they were
both invited--and assigned to the same bedchamber...
Nell swirled her fingers through the bathwater. What would
her life have been like if she hadn’t lost the baby?
She’d have a daughter--or a son--now, a sturdy youth of
ten, a child with quick strong limbs, a ready smile, and a sharp wit who’d
spend hours climbing trees and swimming in Kilgorn Loch. She smiled.
Surely she’d have other children as well--two or even three more. She and
Ian--
What was she thinking? She detested the man. He’d
never mourned their poor bairn--he’d just wanted to get busy making
another. He certainly hadn’t wasted any time after she’d left finding
another female to warm his bed.
Well, all right--not his bed at the castle. He hadn’t
brought a woman into his home, but that was a distinction without a
difference. He’d visited plenty of Sassenach beds in
London. He was a
man--he’d only one thing on his mind.
She rubbed the soap vigorously. He was just like
Pennington. That cod’s head had had his arm around her waist when Mr.
MacNeill had barged into the library. For once the butler had actually seen
something of note--ha! The old man’s eyes had just about popped out of his
head. She’d wager an entire month’s pin money he’d never run so fast as he
did that night to send a message to Ian about her supposed flirtation.
Pennington wasn’t the first amorous male she’d had to
elude--Mr. MacNeill had had plenty of grist for his rumor mill over the
years. Some men seemed to take her odd marital situation as a
challenge--but Mr. Pennington? He owed his employment to the man he
apparently wished to cuckold!
She glared at the soap cake. Not that Ian cared, of
course. If the gossip in the newspapers were true, he’d already selected
the Earl of Remington’s widow as her replacement--and given the woman a
thorough interview between his sheets.
Well, to be fair, he had just turned thirty. The
succession must be on his mind. He needed an heir, and to get an heir he
needed a wife--a real wife, not the girl he’d married too young.
She sunk lower in the tub. Oh, God, what a mess.
She should write him today. This had gone on long enough.
They were adults now, even if they hadn’t been when they’d married and then
separated. Surely they could solve this...problem in a sensible fashion.
He was not malicious.
The door opened and closed. Annie, her maid, must be back
with the tea. Nell splashed water on her face. If her eyes were red, the
girl would only suppose she’d got a little soap in them.
“Did you see the blue-eyed footman, Annie?”
“Blue eyed--what the hell?”
Her heart stopped.
Oh God, oh God. That voice. Even after ten years, it slid
around her heart as no other ever had. After all the tears, all the pain,
it reminded her of laughter, of lying on sun-warmed heather with a summer
breeze blowing cool off the loch. Of twisted bed sheets, slick flesh, heat
and damp and...
No, it couldn’t be.
“I-Ian?” She struggled to her knees, turned to grasp the
back of the tub. It was Ian. He’d changed, of course. The slender,
wiry lad had broadened. His features were more chiseled; there were lines
around his mouth and eyes that hadn’t been there before. His eyes
themselves were the same, though, the same turbulent green of a
storm-whipped sea. They were staring at...
She looked down. Water dripped from her naked breasts.
“Ack!” She leapt for the towel, but it was a little too
far and the tub was a little too slippery. She pitched forward. “Ow!
Aaa!”
The edge of the tub smacked her knee and shin hard, but the
floor was going to smack her face harder.
*****
Want to read another excerpt?
Sample Kristi Astor's Edwardian set novella "Swept Away"
here!
*****
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