One More Kiss
THE NOVELS OF MARY BLAYNEY
COURTESAN’S KISS
“Blayney crafts a powerful story with an outspoken modern heroine (à la Elizabeth Bennet) who wins readers’ hearts. All of Blayney’s characters leap from the pages into fully realized people you care about.… The twists and depth of emotion [are] unforgettable.”
—Romantic Times
(four stars)
“I can’t praise this book enough.… I’m highly impressed with the skill that is used to take diverse characters [and] have them fall in love while intertwining the story with a perfect rendition of Regency England.… Thankfully there will be another wonderful story coming.”
—Night Owl Romance
“A highly enjoyable love story, full of warmth and wit.”
—All About Romance
“The fourth ‘Kiss’ Pennistan Regency romance is a terrific entry.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
STRANGER’S KISS
“I couldn’t wait to see what happened next and I loved it. If ever someone wanted a perfect Regency romance, this would be it. I can’t think of any emotion that wasn’t seen and I can’t think of anything more that I could possibly want.”
—Night Owl Romance
“An emotionally charged story of revenge, loss, passion and redemption. Blayney plays readers like a virtuoso, allowing laughter, tears and every emotion in between to claim your heart.”
—
Romantic Times
“A terrific entry in a great Regency saga …
Stranger’s Kiss
is another winner from marvelous Mary Blayney.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
TRAITOR’S KISS / LOVER’S KISS
“Taut and daring, an emotionally charged tale that satisfies from beginning to end.
Traitor’s Kiss
will steal your heart!”
—G
ALEN
F
OLEY
“Reminiscent of Regency masters Putney, Balogh and Elizabeth Boyle … [Blayney’s] consummate storytelling completely involves readers.”
—Romantic Times
“Danger, deception, and desire blend brilliantly together in these two deftly written, exceptionally entertaining Regency romances.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“Mary writes with a quiet beauty and great confidence.”
—Risky Regencies
“These two exhilarating Pennistan family Regency romances are well written, filled with plenty of action and star great courageous lead characters.… Fans will enjoy both super tales.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“This beguiling pair of novels from author Mary Blayney delivers a double dose of romance and intrigue.”
—Fresh Fiction
One More Kiss
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Mary Blayney
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ANTAM
B
OOKS
and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-53574-0
Cover design: Lynn Andreozzi
Cover illustration: Aleta Rafton
v3.1
Prologue
Foxley’s Gaming Hell
London
December 1819
J
ESS
P
ENNISTAN WAS
in a world of trouble with no one to blame but himself. He rubbed his neck as he stared at the losing play, then looked at Crenshaw, acknowledging the bastard’s win with a nod. He forced himself to maintain his façade of bored patience even as a string of curses echoed through his head.
Bigger fortunes had been won and lost at this very table. What had just been wagered, a tract of land, seemed innocuous enough, but in his family wagering land was simply not done. More than not done. To wager land left to him by his mother was akin to spitting in his family’s face.
No one else seemed to be aware of this drama. Play went on accompanied by shouts of triumph, the occasional groan of loss, and the laughter of men and women who were playing an entirely different game.
The place was overheated, which exaggerated the cloying perfumes that only partly covered the stink of
men and women who had decided that washing was an unnecessary annoyance.
Baron Lord Crenshaw was the exception. Despite the amount of brandy he’d imbibed and the hours he’d spent gaming, Crenshaw looked refreshed, his linen still spotless, his smile an invitation to play on.
“If you will accept my voucher, Lord Crenshaw, I will bring you the land’s worth in gold within a fortnight.” Surely he was due for a big win soon.
“Perhaps,” Baron Crenshaw allowed, swirling the brandy before drinking it down in one swallow.
Jess waited, well aware that Crenshaw was hoping to test his tolerance to the breaking point.
“I tell you what, Pennistan, I will hold the voucher if you will include with it the whore beside you. She’s the one that you won from Delcroft earlier this evening, is she not?”
Jess nodded and did not have to look at Sadie to feel her anxiety. “Damn it, Crenshaw, she is barely sixteen.”
“Del tells me the bitch needs someone with my talents to broaden her experience,” Crenshaw said, ignoring Jess’s objection. Then the man closed his eyes, smiling at some private thought. The idea alone aroused the sadistic pig, and the slut next to him whispered something in his ear. Crenshaw grabbed her hand and pushed it into his crotch. Jess turned away.
Sadie was watching him and Jess gave her the slightest shake of his head to reassure her. Tears began to leak from her eyes and trickle down her cheeks. How had this silly, stupid girl wound up here? She should be wife to some farmer in the Midlands, spending her
days tending children and baking bread, not in London spreading her legs for anyone with money.
“If you do not care to share, Pennistan, then I refuse the voucher and will take the land. I assume the acreage is worthless but, oh, the joy it brings me to know that your brother, the duke, will be enraged.”
Yes, Jess thought. This had been Crenshaw’s goal all along. And what did it say about Jess himself that he had been bored enough to take the risk of gambling with a man whom the world thought he had cuckolded?
“Unless you wish to wager something else of value, I will be going upstairs to allow Merribeau to finish what she has so delightfully started. Would you and your whore care to watch? It adds a certain piquancy to the experience especially when there are ropes and chains involved.”
Crenshaw stood up and pulled the willing Merribeau by the hand. “You see, Pennistan, I am more than willing to share. Indeed if you had not been so set on freeing me of my wife through divorce, I do think the three of us could have come to a very interesting arrangement.” With a shrug of indifference Crenshaw moved past him.
That last comment was more than Jess could stand. He pulled Crenshaw around to face him. The man might be famous for his pugilistic skills, but Jess had surprise on his side and years of practice in the boxing ring at home with his brothers.
Before Crenshaw could raise his hands, Jess swung at him, connected, and sent the man crashing onto a table, which collapsed under his weight.
Crenshaw was dazed, or perhaps unconscious; Jess didn’t care which.
He took Sadie’s hand and tossed some coins at Foxley, who appeared outraged, to cover the cost of the furniture. His “outrage” was only pretense. Such a show was good for business. Jess urged Sadie out the door anyway and decided that he was done with gaming hells for the rest of the Season.
He would send Sadie wherever she wanted to go, take himself off to see his brother David, and convince him to go to Sandleton House for some fishing. It would be easy enough for their brother, the duke, to find him there and consign him to some level of Dante’s hell for this biggest of missteps.
And maybe, just maybe, a few days of fishing and the quiet of Sandleton would give him a chance to think of a way to win the land back from Crenshaw.