Thanks for stopping by my blog and another excerpt for First Kiss Friday! My guest today is my friend Cerise DeLand who is celebrating her new release, Lord Ashley’s Beautiful Alibi. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

Kane parted the leaves of the trees and squinted through the slits. 

The riders came into his view. Two horses and… 

Two…women!

Merde. Girls, they were! One buxom and raven-haired with breasts that jiggled as she trotted forward. Her friend, a flame-haired witch, was a slender reed with bright white flashing teeth.

He drew back into the shadows. 

They came up the road from Rueil. No villagers lived near Madame Bonaparte’s beloved house this far down the road. Bonaparte’s guards discouraged casual visitors or gawkers so near Malmaison. And his co-conspiraator Pascal should have taken out any strangers when first they entered the lane.

Kane was stumped. No one had passed him this morning. Certainly not these two. He would have noticed. They were too young, too carefree and too damn beautiful not to make a man drool. Why were they out so early?

He knew. He stilled. Their journey was nothing but a lark. They stayed at Malmaison and were either guests of Madame Bonaparte or that lady’s servants out for a quick jaunt. They were dressed in muddy riding boots and thin muslin shifts bunched up around their shapely thighs. Their derrieres were pressed to smooth leather and their chats were open to the slick…

Kane shook his head. Business, man, not pleasure!

“I will race you, Augustine.” The red-head circled her prancing horse around her friend.

“My aunt’s ruby ring says you lose, ma cherie.” The raven-haired girl chuckled, then tossed her mane of unbound black tresses over her shoulder. 

Kane wanted a handful of those windblown curls.

“Not this time!” Her friend galloped off down the lane toward Malmaison.

Raven did not care. She arched an elegant black brow and serenely sat atop her mount to stare at the departing figure of her friend.

A whistle, loud and clear, rent the air.

Damn. Who was that? No whistling now!

Raven cocked her ear. Lifted her pert chin.

Hell.

She danced her horse around and scanned the woods as she bent low to her horse. “Qu’est-ce que, Mirage?”

Rene, at Malmaison’s gate, gave the signal of the chuck, chuck, chuck of locusts. 

He warns me of what I already know.

Raven spun toward the sound. Her dark eyes went wide. Her body stilled.

Kane was already lunging at her horse and reaching for the reins.

She snatched them from him. 

But he had one arm around her waist, another attempting to cover her mouth. “No, you don’t,” he ground out and hauled her off her horse.

“Arrêt! Arrêt!” She swung her head to and fro and evaded his hand. She clung to her horse.

He tore her off and she was in his hold. The animal took off toward Malmaison. 

Shit. A riderless horse would alert them all!

He clamped her plush little body to his and struggled to get a good grip on something other than one of her breasts. She cursed him roundly in a smattering of loud gutter French. 

“Colorful,” he snorted as he reached around for his baguette and aimed it at her mouth. “Ferme la—!”

“Laisse-moi partir!” She mouthed the bread and spit it out in bits. “Fils de pute!”

He huffed and jammed another a piece of the old roll in her open mouth. “Silence!”

Her eyes blinked up at him. They were big green and gold orbs, and for a split-second, he opened his mouth, dumbstruck. But she wrestled him like a wounded cat, writhing and digging her heels into the soft muck of springtime soil—and he subdued her with arms she could not budge. 

She fought like one of Madame Josephine’s well-muscled guards. All limbs, all energy, she pummeled him when she could, but he wrapped her flush to him and dragged her further off the trail. Caught by branches and leaves, she cursed. Clamped in the vise of his arms, she stared up at him. Once more, for one stupid moment, he was mesmerized by the beauty before him. That was when she lifted her knee to aim for his balls.

But he squeezed her so tightly she fought for breath, and she surrendered to his power and went limp.

“You must stop,” he told her quietly in his very good French.

She choked and pushed more bread crumbs from her mouth with her tongue. Her long black hair curled around her face and shoulders, her green eyes popping with indignation. “Let me go,” she did not beg or plead, but simply ordered him. In English.

Good English. Without any French accent.

Who was she?

“Quiet.” He raised his head. He had to listen…but the woods were silent. Too silent.. 

“You…. What are you doing here?” She was scrambling away from him, but he hauled her back into this embrace.

“Be quiet. Let me—”

“No!” She pounded his chest, and he clamped her to him again. She was both angry and afraid. 

He understood. But she didn’t. He did not kill people. But she could not know that.

She opened her mouth to scream and he did the only thing he could to shut her up. He kissed her.

Her lips were everything a woman’s should be. Warm and supple, her breath sweet with mint and when he plunged his tongue inside, she let him. The fright drained out of her. She came into his arms like a lover should, eager and mewling. Compliant and dragging his collar closer so that she could kiss him more easily…And bit him!

---

Lord Ashley’s Beautiful Alibi
By Cerise DeLand

She was his mysterious Raven, an agent like him, searching for her missing friend. 

He pretended he was her lover. She became his alibi…and his only love.

Augustine Bolton lives amid the social whirl and treachery of the stylish court of Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte. When Gus’s dearest friend, Amber, disappears, Gus must find her before the deputy chief of police  finds Amber and carts her off to his bed—or to la Force.

But Gus’s means are few and her own duties as an agent in Amber’s network mean she is also suspect. Gus needs help.

Kane Whittington is just the man for the job. 

He has worked for London merchant-cum-spymaster Scarlett Hawthorne for years and welcomes Scarlett’s call to build a large espionage network in Europe. His first task is to find the missing head of Scarlett’s espionage network.

The best person to help him is the lady’s best friend whom he’s never met. But when he sets eyes on ravishing Augustine Bolton in Josephine’s salon, Kane recognizes the black-haired beauty as the one he kissed years ago on the road to Malmaison during a botched abduction of Bonaparte.

Kane must persuade the beautiful Gus to allow him to help her. He suggests the cover for their escapade is simple: They show the gossipy Parisian court they enjoy a mad love affair. Thus, Gus gains an ally—and Kane acquires an alibi.But Gus’s ally is a darling man whose kindness thrills her. His alibi is a brave, beatiful woman he cannot give up. Can they find a way to fulfill their missions—and join together to claim their love for a lifetime?

Buy Link or read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/4abIpwO

About the Author:

Cerise DeLand is the USA TODAY bestselling author who loves to write about dashing heroes and the sassy women they adore.

Known for her poetic elegance and accuracy of detail, she’s won awards for many of the more than 60 novels she’s written.

Her work has been nearly life-long! First published in 1991 by Kensington, then Pocket Books, later by St. Martin’s Press and independent presses, she is now published by DRAGONBLADE PUBLISHING. Plus her books have been monthly selections of the Doubleday Book Club and the Mystery Guild.

To research, she’s dived into the oldest texts and dustiest library shelves. She travels abroad taking good walking shoes, trusty notebooks and pens, plus a camera! She visits chateaux and country homes she loves to people with her own imaginary characters.

And at home every day? She cooks. Never dusts. (That can be a problem.) She goes swimming or pumps iron once a week and tries (desperately) to grow vegetables in her arid backyard in south Texas!

Find Cerise at:

Cerise DeLand’s Website: www.cerisedeland.com
Cerise DeLand’s Delicious Doings Blog: http://cerisedeland.blogspot.com
Cerise DeLand’s Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0089DS2N2
Like her on Facebook: CeriseDeLandAuthor
Follow her on Twitter: @cerisedeland
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cerise-deland
Cerise DeLand’s Delicious Newsletter! http://www.cerisedeland.com