The Viscount's Pleasure House
&
Embracing Scandal by Suzi Love
Embracing
Scandal
By:
Suzi Love
Book Blurb
After Lady Rebecca Jamison, a
mathematical genius, saves her family from financial ruin by secretly investing
in railway stocks on the London stock exchange, a greedy syndicate, desperate
for Becca’s calculations and predictions, murders her friend and threatens the
Jamison family, forcing Becca to beg assistance from her childhood friend,
Cayle St. Martin.
The newly titled Duke of Sherwyn has
returned to London after five years on the continent extending his family’s
shipping interests. He’s shunned his privileged London life and his father’s
unbending attitudes, and becomes committed to employing the spying tactics he
learned on the continent to help Becca indict the syndicate—and using his
skills as a lover to seduce her into his bed.
But how will Cayle be able to
convince Becca, a determinedly self-sufficient spinster, that he can be more to
her than just a protector?
Lady Rebecca Jamison watched Cayle. Under the rules of etiquette, she must remember to address him as Your Grace or Sherwyn in public, despite knowing he’d abhorred the bowing and scraping expected by dukes, including his father.
Becca tried to judge his level of inebriation and his reaction to her news, though she was wise enough to stay out of arm’s reach. In the past, her knight in shining armour had constantly overreacted if he thought her adventures, or misadventures, placed her in harm’s way.
“Please, my dear.” The new duke's fists unfurled as he flung his arms wide in a dramatic gesture. “Go ahead and clarify that terrifying statement.” His voice lifted another octave.“Before my hair turns completely white. Or my legs give out.”
Neither Cayle’s fury nor his towering size frightened Becca. But she was terrified that the city would awaken and the streets fill with people before he became calm and rational and listened to her plea for his help in collecting the final proof that would send at least a dozen of their peers to prison for illegal trading practices.
"Or even worse.” He voice was a low snarl as he pointed at the floor. “I misplace the contents of my heaving stomach all over the duchess’s prized carpet.”
Becca winced. For the tenth time she listed to herself the reasons she’d bravely bearded this particular panther in his lair.
To protect her family.
To secure the nest eggs saved by the fallen women at the shelter.
To save her own life.
As the new Duke of Sherwyn, Cayle was her best, or possibly only, chance to do all that and to keep her promise to Scotland Yard. She hoped he’d listen with an open mind. Hoped he’d comprehend how much danger her family and friends were in without realising how close she had come to also being murdered.
“I’d gone to Peggy’s cottage to collect some letters she’d written on behalf of our Women’s Society. The door was ajar. I knocked but Peggy didn’t answer so I went inside.”
Peggy had been sprawled across the floor, her sturdy legs protruding at odd angles from her yellowing nightgown. Her hair had been matted with blood and tangled in the strings of her dislodged nightcap and her plait had been a rusty red mess instead of a neat tail of plain brown.
“I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see the murderer standing over Peggy’s battered body. But he runs towards me. Not away.” She shuddered and closed her eyes.
Fingers brushed her cheek. “Becca, I’ll not let anyone harm you.”
“If I’d only arrived at Peggy’s cottage a few minutes earlier.”
“Stop it. You mustn’t blame yourself.”
“How can I not? One life has already been destroyed because of me. My friend was killed. Her body discarded like a tattered rag doll.”
His bloodshot gaze narrowed on her face. “So, knowing how your mind works, you’ll try to focus the consortium on yourself, and thereby keep everyone else out of danger.” He raised a brow. “Am I correct?”
Damned man was still a mind reading menace. “You’re wrong. I’ve little wish to confront those men by myself. But neither will I allow anyone else to be hurt.”
“And who protects you from the current set of fire–breathing dragons?”
She raised her chin. “I’ve outgrown such childishness.” She lowered herself to the closest settee, a demonstration of ladylike maturity and a reprieve for her trembling knees.
Embracing Scandal
The first in my historical romance scandal series featuring heroines whose scientific knowledge and intellect are an affront to increasingly prudish late Regency / very early Victorian society.
Publisher- Crimson Romance
Publication Date - February 18th,
2013
ISBN - 1440560498 (ISBN13: 9781440560491)
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The
Viscount’s Pleasure House
By:
Suzi Love
Book Blurb
Lady Chrissie Wellsby and her two
country friends research dozens of rogues before selecting the notorious
Viscount Hawkesbury, owner of London’s most exclusive and expensive brothel, to
educate them in erotic seduction. The ladies abandon respectability and coerce
Justin Tremayne into letting them visit The Pleasure House and to teaching them
the sensual tricks mistresses and prostitutes use to entertain men.
Though Justin believes three naive
ladies will see the debauched romps in his themed rooms, cover their eyes and
ears, and run back to their sheltered lives, he underestimates the desperation
of abandoned women who imagine a wider knowledge of sex will keep the men in
their lives at home, in their own beds. But despite watching several of their
friends, men and women, perform raunchy acts at his brothel, the ladies insist
on participating in the last of Justin’s infamous Sultan’s galas, held in
numerous silk tents and outdoor bathing areas on his estate.
Justin concedes to Chrissie’s demands
only to gain information about his long-lost mother and sisters, but the
world-weary viscount falls head over heels in love with his emotionally bruised
pupil. He yearns for a wife, children, and an uncomplicated wife, but can he
convinced Chrissie to take a chance and marry again? Because Justin never wants
to leave her bed.
Book Excerpt
Justin, Viscount Hawkesbury, stepped closer and in reaction the
black-clad lady moved back. As if remembering her reasons for coming, she shook
her head and moved that same pace forward. Not as close as before, yet near
enough to appear fearless.
He sighed, and rubbed a fist across his aching eyes. “I’m
fatigued, out of sorts, and my friends and I have business to conduct. Either
join in, or leave.”
He waved towards the door, hoping she’d walk out and leave him
in peace, but also hoping, ridiculously, that she’d unveil, undress, and stay.
Because something about this particular woman was different. Something about
her stirred his first true sexual interest in many months.
He smiled a little. “I’d still like to see a little more of you.
I can’t even see the color of your hair.” He pointed towards her groin. “Top or
bottom. Here, let me unbutton you,” he said, his fingers set to work on her top
button, brushing the soft skin of her nape as he did so.
She flinched and held tight to the gaping neck of her dress with
clenched fists.“Please. Listen to me. I’m not seeking employment.”
“Ah, then you’re simply a bitch in heat like all the others.
Wanting a lusty tale to recount to your upper-class friends over tea and cake.
Perhaps compare notes on Viscount Hawkesbury’s infamous prowess.”
Her quick series of breaths hissed and sizzled like water
spitting on hot coals. He heard the girls tut-tutting nearby, but taunting,
teasing, and arousing the lioness who’d dared brave his den so late at night
had proved too delicious a temptation to resist. Only one more jest at her
expense and then he’d summon the butler and a couple of strong footmen, and bid
her farewell.
He turned, slowly and deliberately, and spoke to his two
friends. “Gentlemen, which of you is capable of keeping your prick upright long
enough to provide such a lusty lady with the thrill she so clearly came to my
house seeking?”
Justin knew that in their heightened state of inebriation,
neither Bart nor Thomas would be capable of servicing any girl tonight. And the
Virile Viscount had given up such jaunts. The only business he involved himself
in now was the palace and even then he kept a very low profile. By next month,
he’d no longer own that either. His pleasuring days were finished. Investing in
the rapidly expanding railway tracks and steam engines was far more profitable,
and respectable, for a man who hoped to bring his mother and sisters home to
live with him.
Thomas, red-faced, lurched to his feet. “I say, Justin, she
seems like a lady.”
“Thomas, you should know by now, on the outside they’re all
ladies. However, underneath they all seek the same thing.”
The woman flinched. Justin yawned, not bothering to cover his
mouth, and then collapsed back into his armchair. Leaning his head back on the
headrest, he laughed.
“My love, if you’ve better to show me than them, do as I’ve
asked. Undress!”
She muttered something that sounded like, “Rude swine.”
He laughed and indicated the empty space on the chaise longue
beside Bart. “If you’re suffering personal timidity, at least take a seat and
watch. Give the girls your opinion on what tricks attract gentlemen the
fastest. What do you do to entice a man?”
Her hands fisted at her sides but she stood her ground. “I
realize you’re amusing yourself at my expense, but I give you fair warning, my
lord. If you continue with these childish taunts and force me to leave without
letting me speak to you, in private, you’ll regret it later.”
He pointed to the door. “And I’m also issuing a warning. Join in
or leave. Perkins will show you out. I’ve run out of patience with the
so-called weaker sex and the schemes and lies that women seem to delight in bringing
to my door. ”
Bart spat out an uncouth curse while Thomas muttered under his
breath, both scolding him for his rudeness. Disgust suddenly flooded Justin’s
body and the heart he’d assumed was frozen in his chest clenched, hard. Despite
being forced into unseemly money making ventures, the three of them had vowed
to remain, at heart at least, gentlemen. They all needed to take their places
in society, which was why Justin never usually entertained this sort of female
at his house. Too many watching neighbors and too many wagging tongues in this
respectable neighborhood.
Had he now passed the point of no return? Had the indecent acts
he’d committed, all to either survive or earn his some of the ready, tainted
his thinking to this extent? It terrified him that his morals were as lost as
those idiots who assumed a title and riches gave a man leeway to be rude,
arrogant, and even to inflict pain on those they considered inferior.
He’d picked out this woman and had intended on using her as an
example, encouraging her to pass along his message to long line of societal
whores who would continue to plague him. He wanted to stand in the street and
scream and yell,“The Virile Viscount is finished!”
Behavior such as his here showed the arrogance he’d always
deplored. Rude attacks on a woman were despicable, and it was especially
ill-bred of him to tease and taunt what he now suspected was a well-bred lady.
But he’d underestimated the woman’s pluck, or perhaps her determination to make
herself heard.
“Be warned, my lord, I shall return. Tomorrow. Early. Very
Early. And if you refuse to speak with me, I’ll haunt your house until you are
prepared to listen to me.”
Her ferocious expression made him burst out laughing again. Bart
wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner and held out his hand to encourage
the woman to take a seat on the thigh of the woman he still held.
“I like her, Justin. Can I have her?”
“Feel free, Bart. If you dare! Though I suspect Thomas is
correct. I’ve come to the unwilling, and unfortunate, conclusion that she’s not
here to audition for the Harem.”
“Certainly not.” Her tone was icy. “I’m offering you an
exchange. Your skill in tutoring my friends in return for information.”
“Regrettably, my services are no longer for hire.”
She inhaled so sharply he swore her ribs vibrated. Then she made
her announcement.“If I leave this room, I’ll take with me what may be your last
chance to see your mother. Alive, at any rate.”
Buy links -
Author Bio
Suzi Love lives in
a sunny part of Australia and loves to travel - anywhere and everywhere.
Her romances,
ranging from sexy to erotic, are set in Britain, Australia, and the South
Pacific, while her historical romances take place during her beloved late Regency
to very early Victorian years. Best of all, Suzi loves exploring the
many-layered and ever-changing aspects of society from the end of the Regency
through to Queen Victoria's very early reign.
Her titled heroes
and heroines may appear to live privileged lives in and around London, but
these strong characters challenge traditional manners, morals, and occupations,
either through necessity or desire, and expose the seamier sides of tonnish
life. Though Suzi's books often have a grittier side, she tries to make history
fun, one year at a time.
Apart from writing
and reading, her favorite thing is traveling. She loves to visit historically
famous places and speak with fascinating people and uses her research in her
vivid and romantic books.
Author links
Other places I blog -
