Glad you could make it over to my First Kiss Friday blog! I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am that Jude Knight has finally written the story of Aldridge, the Merry Marquis. I’ve been waiting for years and after having the privilege to beta read To Tame the Wild Rake, I know you’re just going to love it. Be sure to check out Jude’s Rafflecopter giveaway below in celebration of her soon to be released novel. Happy reading this first kiss scene, my lovelies, and enjoy!

In this excerpt from the novel To Tame the Wild Rake, Charlotte has come to Aldridge and asked him to take her to bed. He hopes by doing so to convince her to marry him. 

Excerpt:

Anthony poured another two drinks and brought them to set them on the low table, then took his seat beside her. “There are some things I need you to agree to, Cherry. Guidelines, if you will.”

Charlotte nodded, cautiously.

“First, we do nothing that you don’t like. Stop me if I frighten you or go too fast for you.”

She nodded, but reminded him, “I am not a virgin, Anthony.”

He kissed her, another quick peck on the lips. “Your only experience was horrific. We need to make sure nothing we do is anything like what happened to you, so you will tell me if you are frightened or if you want to stop for any reason. Any reason at all. Will you promise?”

She nodded again.

“Second,” he said, “and it is connected, you will let me know what you like. What you enjoy; what gives you pleasure. Every woman is different, and you and I will discover together the surest and best ways to bring your body to the sweetest of all destinations, that state of bliss the French call le petit mort, and that doctors call a paroxysm.” 

He was stroking her hands as he spoke, long brushes of his fingers, and the tingling he produced was making it hard to think. “I like what you are doing now,” she said, and he smiled.

“I’m glad. I like it, too. Third, I want you to remember that the journey is not just about the destination. As we travel this path together, we will take as long as we need, and we will enjoy everything we do together. It does not matter if you do not, this time, reach your paroxysm; if I do not. We will have a memorable journey.” He lifted her tingling hands and placed a lingering kiss in first one palm, then the other.

“May I help you off with your pelisse?”

She nodded again, and then grasped her courage and told him, “If I can help you with your coat.” 

He pressed his next kiss to one corner of her lips. “We shall disrobe one another, then. You start, my angel.”

How to do this? His coat was moulded to his form, fitting his shoulders like a second skin. If he turned his back on her so she could ease the garment off from behind, he would have to stop kissing her, running his lips down one side of her face and then up the other.

She slipped her hands out of his, put her palms on his chest and slid them under the coat and up towards the shoulders. He took a shuddering breath at her touch, and nuzzled her ear, which distracted her from her task and set her trembling.

Focus, Charlotte. She ran her right hand over his shoulder, pushing the coat backwards and down his arm. He dipped and twisted that side, then used his other hand to pull the sleeve over his wrist and down. The other side slipped easily, and she caught the coat, folded it by its shoulders, and leaned away to lay it on the nearest chair.

“My turn, Cherry,” he said, catching her around the waist and pulling her to him for another kiss, this one full on the lips, his mouth open, his tongue shaping her lips until she gasped at the shock of pleasure that speared through her, and his tongue darted inside. She sank into the sensation, conscious of nothing but his mouth on hers until she felt him easing her pelisse off one shoulder. She turned her head to look, breaking the kiss, grateful for the firm hand around her waist and for the support of the sofa, for all her bones had turned to jelly. She had not even been aware of him unbuttoning her garment with his free hand. 

“Too fast?” he asked. She shook her head, her voice having got lost somewhere during that kiss.

The concern faded from his eyes, to be replaced by heat, as he changed the supporting hand and removed the pelisse from her other arm, tossing it onto the chair after his own coat.

She evaded his mouth so she could find his cravat pin, but she unknotted and unwound the cravat blind, as she allowed him to indulge her in another melting kiss.

---

To Tame the Wild Rake

The whole world knows Aldridge is a wicked sinner. They used to be right.

The ton has labelled Charlotte a saint for her virtue and good works. They don’t know the ruinous secret she hides.

Then an implacable enemy reveals all. The past that haunts them wounds their nearest relatives and turns any hope of a future to ashes.

Must they choose between family and one another?

Buy Links

Jude Knight’s book page https://judeknightauthor.com/books/to-tame-the-wild-rake/  

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09944JGMR/

Other links at Books2Read: https://books2read.com/CMK-ToTame

GIVEAWAY!

Jude is running six weeks of giveaways, contests, discounts, and extracts to celebrate the launch of To Tame the Wild Rake, with a grand prize at the end of it all.

Read all about it on her website https://judeknightauthor.com/2021/08/20/celebrating-to-tame-the-wild-rake/

And enter the contest on http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/a3037e757/

More about Jude

Jude Knight always wanted to be a novelist, but life got in the way for decades and she nearly lost the dream. She wrote a thousand beginnings, but it took a huge life event to shove her into writing an ending. That was in 2014. Eight novels and counting later, plus short stories and novellas galore, she’s living her dream: writing historical fiction with a large helping of romance, more than a dash of suspense, and a sprinkling of humor.

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