Beauty Like the Night
He doesn't trust the woman who sent him off to be hanged
She doesn't trust the man who showed up in her bedroom
with a knife
Séverine de Cabrillac, orphan of the French revolution and sometime British intelligence agent, has tried to leave spying behind her. Now she devotes herself to investigating crimes in London and finding justice for the wrongly accused.
Raoul Deverney, an enigmatic half-Spaniard with enough secrets to earn even a spy's respect, is at her door demanding help. She's the only one who can find the killer of his long-estranged wife and rescue her missing twelve-year-old daughter.
Séverine reluctantly agrees to aid him, even though she knows the growing attraction between them makes it more than unwise. Their desperate search for the girl unleashes treason and murder. . . and offers a last chance for two strong, wounded people to find love.
and an excerpt . . .
He touched the side of her mouth with two fingers, deliberate as if he were adding one of the smaller punctuation marks to a sentence. “We stopped too soon last night.”
“No, we didn’t. Let’s talk about the amulet.”
“We’ll get to that.” With those two fingers, shock leading to shock, he outlined her lips. “I did this poorly before. Let me be more skillful. Kisses can be an enjoyable game. Harmless, lighthearted, friendly.”
“Not for me, monsieur.”
“But then, you live a useful, busy life, filled with grim purpose, while I’m a thief and frivolous. Did you never find the right man to play these games with?”
In Spain, once, long ago. “For some women, there is no right man.”
Lightly he set lips to her temple. Then to her eyelids.
Raoul Deverney’s kisses were not reassuring and ordinary. The drawling stroke of his hand at the curve of her ear disturbed her profoundly. Other men, in attempts at seduction, had never created one tenth the magic Deverney achieved with one finger arrested in its tracing down her cheek.
The green-hay smell of the stable filled her senses. Thick walls kept the city’s noise at bay. The plaster was cool at her back even in the heat of the day. The floor, rough and gritty beneath her feet. So ordinary a stable to enfold her so completely.
They engaged in a few more kisses. The chestnut mare — surely the worst duenna in history — scraped hooves in the straw. Nobody came into the stable to make certain they were not stealing sacks of grain, or horse tackle. Or horses, for that matter.
At last she said, “I don’t like this.”
“You don’t like stables? Horses? The second Tuesday of the month? Me?” He looked down at her seriously as he spoke. “You don’t like kissing?”
“Exactly.”
“I do. That’s one of those British understatements, by the way.”
You can order Beauty Like the Night here at a selection of e-stores, at Fountain Book, (my local Romance-supporting Indie bookstore,) and, overseas, at Book Depository.
My Other Books
(I am so proud of them)
You can haz excerpt
Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Fountain Book Store, Book Depository
In Australia, at Rendezvous
Buy the audiobook at Amazon.
You can haz excerpt
available at Amazon, Barnes&Noble,Fountain Book Store, Book Depository
Buy the audiobook at Amazon
You can haz excerpt
available at Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Fountain Book Store, or the Book Depository
In Australia, at Rendezvous
And the audiobook at Amazon
Available at Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Fountain Book Store
or the Book Depository
In Australia, at Rendezvous
And the audiobook at Amazon
You can haz excerpt
Available at
at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, Indigo.ca,
Fountain Book, (my local Romance-supporting Indie bookstore,) and, overseas, at Book Depository.
Available at Amazon..
