Happy New Year, my lovelies, and welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog for the new year! Today’s guest is Tanya Wilde who has an excerpt from her novel, Almost A Scoundrel book one of her Ladies Who Dare series. Isn’t this cover fabulous? We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading.
Excerpt:
Lady Phaedra Sharp never thought a kiss could ever rob her of breath. She hadn’t thought about kisses at all until Deerhurst, the mysterious earl-next-door, planted his lips firmly on hers.
At first, she thought her imagination had run wild again, which seemed like the only explanation for why she found herself in the earl’s arms beneath the moonlit sky in the middle of the night. However, there were certain parts of the event that were too vivid for even the most robust of imaginations.
For one, there was the woody flavor of tobacco that clung to the lips kissing her. There was also no denying the velvet stroke of the earl’s tongue that smoothly glided over her bottom lip. Or the hand that pressed against the lower half of her back. So sensuous, it drew a gasp from Phaedra.
His tongue swept into her mouth, claiming entrance. A thousand butterflies flitted down her spine.
Intoxicating.
And scandalous. The stuff of ruin. There were no words to describe the sensations flooding her body. And certainly, no way to mistake the tension that sparked within the space between them. But not the kind where the air turned thick and heavy with pressure. Rather the kind that one never wanted to step away from. It sizzled. Danced from one nerve ending to another and absconded with all her senses.
The man tasted like pure, molten sin.
The promise of broken vows.
Phaedra had always thought a kiss to be just the smack of two lips together. Not this . . . this . . . loss of composure!
The arm curled around her waist pulled her up against him. No thought of refusal entered her mind. No thought that this might be a trap and she’d thoroughly been ensnared. On the contrary, not to be outdone, she shoved her fingers through his silky hair.
The sound that rose from the back of his throat startled her.
No. Not his throat. Her throat.
Feminine.
Sultry.
A sound she did not recognize as her own.
God’s breath.
He kissed her like a man who had found water after years wandering the Sahara Desert. But it was a short track through the wilderness, as Phaedra was jolted out of this entrancing world of two by distant laughter, a sobering reminder of her whereabouts.
What on earth had gotten into her?
Sanity injected into her consciousness, and Phaedra’s mind, which had conveniently blocked out reality, swung open the gates once more.
She wrenched away from Deerhurst, not forgetting to cast a reproachful glance his way. Her heart still pounded, partly because of the kiss but mostly because of what may come next. She had no plans to fall into a matrimonial trap. Ever. Even one of her own accidental making.
“You kissed me . . .” she accused.
“I did,” Deerhurst drawled with half a scowl, as though he, too, couldn’t quite believe what he’d done. “You kissed me back.”
“I was caught off guard.”
“So was I.”
“How were you caught off guard?”
He shrugged, folding his arms behind his back. A smooth mask fell over his face. “It’s not every night I stumble across a beautiful woman in my garden.”
“I am searching for Puck.”
“Ah yes, the elusive cat that wandered onto my property.”
Almost A Scoundrel: Ladies Who Dare (Book One)
By Tanya Wilde
What if the biggest scoundrel in town has been by your side all along?
Phaedra Sharp is an heiress with a mind of her own—and her mind is dead set on becoming a cat-loving spinster and avoiding the scheming entanglements of men. But her plan goes awry when she is suddenly thrust into a whirlwind of wagers, fortune-hunters, and indecent encounters with the earl-next-door.
Marcus Lawson, Earl of Deerhurst, is a man with secrets. Secrets that will cost him his future if they’re ever revealed—perhaps even his life. He is also a man of many, many mistakes, and his latest include kissing Phaedra and letting her take sanctuary in his home. But the biggest mistake of all: entering into a fake courtship to foil the very rogues he accidentally set on her trail.
When secrets are exposed, Phaedra is mortified to discover the biggest scoundrel in town has been by her side all along. Will Marcus’s mistakes—and the dark secret he keeps locked in his heart—be too much for her to overcome
Buy for $0.99 or read for free in Kindle Unlimited:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Almost-Scoundrel-Ladies-Dare-Book-ebook/dp/B0CM7FN9C9
About the Author:
Award-Winning and International Bestselling author Tanya Wilde developed a passion for reading when she had nothing better to do than lurk in the library during her lunch breaks. Her love affair with pen and paper soon followed after she devoured all of their historical romance books! In 2020, she won the Romance Writers Organization of South Africa (ROSA) Imbali Award for Excellence in Romance Writing for Not Quite a Rogue.
When she’s not meddling in the lives of her characters or pondering names for her imaginary big, white greyhound, she’s off on adventures with her partner in crime.
Wilde lives in a town at the foot of the Outeniqua Mountains, South Africa.
Find me:
Website: https://www.authortanyawilde.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyawilde/