Today on my First Kiss Friday blog, I have the fabulous Elizabeth Ellen Carter who has a new series looming on the horizon. Isn’t the cover lovely? We hope you enjoy this excerpt from Deceiving the Duke that releases on February 4th. Happy reading, my lovelies!
Excerpt:
She approached the desk and glanced down at the papers there – drawings, lots of them. She recognized the complex web of warp and weft threads suspended on a loom.
“You recognize what this is?”
Ruby started.
“I… ah, yes… my father took an interest in textiles and how machinery operated. He would show me how each pattern would be set up.”
She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. He was interested in what she had to say, and she’d said too much.
Thank goodness it was he who broke the spell by priming another lamp. Apparently, he was uncomfortable as she with this new intimacy.
She took the second lighted lamp from the desk and picked the farthest corner of the library to conduct her search.
Poetry. Perhaps the duke had a romantic soul after all – presuming he had a soul.
As she browsed the titles, she listened to Seth returning to his work. The pen scratching on paper and the whispered sigh of pencils as they shaded in his diagrams.
This was ridiculous! Mooning over a man who could mean nothing to her.
She grabbed a book, only glancing at it, intending to return directly to her patient. It was a book of poems by Pierre de Ronsard. With her focus on the door, she did not hear her name called.
A touch on the arm stilled her.
“Don’t go… not yet.”
She should go. Oh, how she should go. But she made the mistake of looking at the earl… Seth.
Those eyes seemed to see deep into her soul and found its twin in the loneliness.
He must have heard the answering call because he removed the book from her hand and placed it on the small side table by the door. His face was half in shadows, but she could see his eyes clear enough. They searched her face and seemed to know what was in her deepest heart.
He lowered his lips to hers slowly, giving her time to escape from him if she wished.
But she didn’t wish.
Her eyes fluttered closed as his lips met hers. Never had she felt such emotion in so small a touch. She could taste the isolation, the need. She responded with a need of her own.
Seth responded by sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her into his embrace.
The kiss was all too brief, but his hold lingered. She had no idea how much she craved his touch until that moment.
Deceiving The Duke
By Elizabeth Ellen Carter
Hate brought them together. Will love tear them apart?
Welcome to book 1 in the exciting new series from USA Today Bestselling Author Elizabeth Ellen Carter.
William Musgrave, Duke of Auchen, is dying. When he goes to his grave, he will take with him the opportunity to right a wrong that has left Lady Ruby McAllister impoverished.
Ruby has the contract that pledged her father a one-third share in a successful Scottish textile mill. But Auchen never made good on his promise before Ruby’s father died. Now Ruby has lost her beloved Strathaird, home to the McAllisters for centuries. Her only hope is to confront the duke before he dies. And her chance comes when a vacancy arises for a new night nurse in his London household.
Standing in her way is Seth Musgrave, the duke’s estranged son, who despises his father for deriding him as an imbecile. In truth, Seth is the driving force behind his father’s successful enterprise. William Musgrave has heeded no one in his life except for his wife. She died twenty years ago, but Ruby hears him call for her in his nightly delirium.
What if Ruby answered his call, pretending to be the only woman who could ever persuade the duke to do the right thing?
How long can Ruby keep her secret when Seth is trying to distract her with his kisses? And what if Seth learns the woman he’s falling in love with is deceiving the Duke?
Available Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NL99DYN
About Elizabeth Ellen Carter
Elizabeth Ellen Carter is USA Today bestselling author and an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.
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