The Devilish Mr. Danvers: The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series (22 page)
Read The Devilish Mr. Danvers: The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series Online
Authors: Vivienne Lorret
Tags: #Romance, #Historical, #Regency, #Historical Romance
An Excerpt from
Ribbon Ridge Book Two
by Darcy Burke
In the second installment of Darcy Burke’s contemporary small-town saga, the black sheep of the Archer family is finally home, and he’s not looking for love . . . but he’s about to find it in the last place he ever expected.
K
yle Archer pulled into the large dirt lot that served as the parking area of The Alex. He still smiled when he thought of Sara coming up with the idea to name their brother’s dying wish after him. It only made sense.
The hundred-plus-years-old monastery rose in front of him, its spire stretching two hundred feet into the vivid blue summer sky. The sounds of construction came from the west end of the property, down a dirt lane to what had once been a small house occupied by the head monk or whoever had been in charge at the monastery before it had been abandoned twenty-odd years ago. It was phase one of the project Alex had conceived—renovating the property into a premier hotel and event space under the Archer name, which included nine brewpubs throughout the northern valley and into Portland.
Alex had purchased the property using the trust fund left to each of them by their grandfather, then set up a trust for each sibling to inherit an equal share of the project. He’d planned for everyone to participate in the renovation, assigning key roles to all his siblings. And he’d made his attorney, Aubrey Tallinger, the trustee.
She’d endured copious amounts of anger and blame immediately following Alex’s suicide because to all of them it had seemed unlikely that she’d established the trust without knowing what Alex had planned. But she insisted she hadn’t known, that Alex had told her he was simply preparing in the event that he died young, something he’d convinced her was likely with his chronic lung disease.
However, things hadn’t quite worked out the way Alex had envisioned. Not everyone had been eager to return to Ribbon Ridge, least of all Kyle. He shook the discomfort away. He’d fucked up. A lot. And he was trying to fix it. He owed it to Alex.
While Alex had been tethered at home with his oxygen tank and debilitating illness, the rest of them had gone off and pursued their dreams. Well, all but Hayden. As the youngest, he’d sort of gotten stuck staying in Ribbon Ridge and working for the family company. His participation in the project should’ve been a given, but then his dream had finally knocked down his door, and he was currently in France for a year-long internship at a winery.
Kyle stepped out of Hayden’s black Honda Pilot. He’d completely taken over his brother’s life while Hayden was off making wine—his car, his job, his house. Too bad Kyle couldn’t also borrow the respect and appreciation Hayden received.
He slammed the car door. It wasn’t going to be that easy, and he didn’t deserve it to be. He should have been driving his own goddamned car, but he’d had to sell it before leaving Florida so the same shit that had driven him from Ribbon Ridge wouldn’t also drive him from Miami.
But hadn’t it?
No.
Things hadn’t gotten as bad as they had four years ago. No one had bailed his ass out this time. He’d learned. He wasn’t the same man.
An Excerpt from
The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series
by Vivienne Lorret
Vivienne Lorret, the
USA Today
bestselling author of
Winning Miss Wakefield
, returns with a new series featuring the three roguish bachelors of Fallow Hall. Gabriel Ludlow, Viscount Everhart, was a fool to deny the depth of his feelings for Calliope Croft, but the threat that kept him from her five years ago remains. Now he must choose between two paths: break her heart all over again or finally succumb to loving her . . . at the risk of losing everything.
“S
urely you’ve heard of the Chinese medicinal
massage,
” Gabriel said, attempting to reassure her. Yet the low hoarseness of his voice likely sounded hungry instead. Slowly, he slid his thumbs along the outer edges of the vertebrae at the base of her neck.
“I don’t believe I have,” she said, relaxing marginally, her voice thin and wispy like the fine downy hairs above her nape teasing the tops of his thumbs.
“Taoist priests have used this method for centuries.” His own voice came out low and insubstantial, as if he were breathing his final breath. As it was, his heart had all but given up trying to lure the blood away from his pulsing erection.
This was a terrible idea
.
He was immensely glad he’d thought of it.
His fingertips skirted the edge of her clavicle. Hands curled over her slender shoulders, he rolled his thumbs over her again.
Calliope emitted the faintest
oh
. It was barely a breath, but the sound deafened him with a rush of tumid desire. As if she sensed the change in him, she tensed again. “Are you trying to seduce me, Everhart?”
“If you have to ask,” he said, attempting to add levity with a chuckle, “then the answer is most likely
no
.” Yet even he knew differently. The
most likely
was said only as a way of not lying to himself. He wanted to seduce her, slowly and for hours on end.
For five years he’d wanted to feel her flesh beneath his hands. For a moment this evening, he’d even thought this one touch would be enough to sate him. He hated being wrong.
Those pearl buttons called to him. He feathered strokes outward along the upper edges of her shoulder blades, earning another breathy sound. Only this time, she did not tense beneath the heat of his hands.
“I’ve read—
heard
stories,” she corrected, “where the young woman is not certain of seduction until it is too late.”
Gabriel caught her quick slip and was not surprised. Her penchant for reading was another aspect of her character that drew him to her. Earlier today, in fact, he’d spotted her disappearing through the library doors.
Unable to control the impulse, he’d found a servant’s door off a narrow hall and surreptitiously watched her from behind a screen in the corner. Browsing the shelves, she’d searched through dozens of books. Yet her method fascinated him. She only viewed the last pages of each book. When she found one she liked, she clutched it to her breast and released a sigh filled with the type of longing he knew too well. He had little doubt that she sought the certainty of a happy ending. All in all, it had taken her over an hour to find three books that met her standards. Yet, instead of being bored, he’d been enthralled by every minute.
And now, here they were . . .
Under the spell of his massage, her head fell forward as she arched ever-so-slightly into his hands. Rampant desire coursed through him. Even so, he was in no hurry to end this delicious torment.
“I cannot imagine that a woman would not suspect an attempt at seduction in some manner.” He leaned forward to inhale the fragrance of her hair, the barest scents of rosewater and mint rising up to greet him. “Aren’t all young ladies brought up with the voice of reason clamoring about in their heads?”
His gaze followed the motions of his fingers, gliding over her silken warmth, pressing against the supple flesh that pinkened under his tender ministrations. He’d always wondered . . . and now he knew she felt as soft, if not softer, than any one of his dreams.
“Curiosity has a voice as well,” she said, her voice faint with pleasure. “And are we not all creatures put upon this earth to learn, just as you have learned this
exquisite
medicine?”
And sometimes curiosity could not be tamed.
It was no use. Did he truly imagine he could resist her? “Well said, Miss Croft.”
Unable to hold back a moment longer, Gabriel gave in to temptation, lowered his head, and pressed his lips to her nape.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from
The Maddening Lord Montwood
copyright © 2015 by Vivienne Lorret.
Excerpt from
Changing Everything
copyright © 2015 by Molly McAdams.
Excerpt from
Chase Me
copyright © 2015 by Tessa Bailey.
Excerpt from
Yours to Hold
copyright © 2015 by Darcy Burke.
Excerpt from
The Elusive Lord Everhart
copyright © 2015 by Vivienne Lorret.
THE DEVILISH MR. DANVERS
. Copyright © 2015 by Vivienne Lorret. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition APRIL 2015 ISBN: 9780062380524
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062380517
AM
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007