Book Name-Seeking Scandal by Nadine Millard
Genre-Historical Romance
Release date-17th July,2014
Hosted by Fallen For Books
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Two years ago, Caroline Carrington had made the biggest mistake of her life; she had rejected the man she loved.
Now, she was back in London and ready to find a husband.
But first, before proper Caroline did exactly what was expected of her, she wanted a little scandal, something to remember during her life as a perfect society wife. Not enough to ruin her, but enough to make her feel alive.
Who then is better placed to help her with her quest than Tom Crawdon, the man whose mere presence still had the power to weaken her knees, and her heart?
Tom had promised himself that he would never allow another woman to get under his skin the way Caroline Carrington had. He had returned to London intent on forgetting her and moving on with his life.
Forgetting her however, would have been a lot easier had she not arrived in London at the same time as he had.
What was worse, she seemed to be on a mission to shake off her good girl reputation. And who better to help her than a notorious rake like him?
But could he help her while still protecting her unblemished reputation? And what happened if she snuck her way right back into his heart?
Excerpt 1
Especially someone he l- cared for.
A sound drew his attention and he turned to see Caroline trying to get herself back onto Fortuna.
No doubt she was trying to storm away. But since Fortuna was far too large for Caroline to be able to reach the stirrups alone, all she had managed to achieve was to be halfway up the horse, with one foot in the stirrup and the other dangling uselessly as her arms clearly did not have the strength to continue pulling.
“Er – what exactly are you doing?” he asked politely.
“Minding my own business,” she snapped back, “you should try it.”
Ah, she was still upset.
He didn’t think he’d ever seen her in a rage before. It was most amusing.
“Let me help you”, he tried again.
With a huff, she gave up on the frankly impossible task of mounting her horse alone.
She whipped round to face him, her face red from the exertion of scaling a horse, her eyes flashing fire.
“Oh, now you want to help?” she drawled sarcastically. “Well, no thank you. You have made your feelings on helping me perfectly clear.”
Tom felt his temper rise to match her own.
“I cannot believe that you are angry with me for trying to preserve your reputation.”
“Hang my reputation”, she shouted now.
“Hang it, indeed. You forget I know you Caroline and I know that you may speak as if you do not care but I was there the night you decided that your reputation was more important to you than anything else in the world, remember?”
His outburst brought an abrupt stop to her ranting and there was a deadly silence between them both.
He had thought that his words had taken the sting out of her mood? That she would apologise and say that he was right?
He watched as she bowed her golden head and waited for her to lift it again, to see her eyes filled with contrition.
Lift her head she did, but her eyes were glinting with determination now. Not contrition.
He was immediately suspicious.
“I have told you before, I am well aware of what I did two years ago. And what it cost me”.
His heart slammed at her words. Was she saying that she regretted it? That she felt she had lost him?
When all it would take was a word from her?
Before he could speak, however, she continued.
“I am prepared to live with the choices I have made. And live with them I will. I will become everything I thought I wanted to be and I will do so with good grace, as all ladies do.”
She sounded now much more like the Caroline of old and he felt a certain relief at it. This new Caroline kept him constantly wrong-footed and it wasn’t a feeling he liked.
“However”, she continued, a hard edge to her voice now, “I am still absolutely determined to enjoy a little scandal before that happens. And if you won’t help me I will find someone who will.”
A rage such as Tom had rarely felt burst through him at her words. The thoughts of her kissing another man as she had been kissing him just moments before were enough to make him want to hit something.
“Like hell you will”, he growled.
She raised a disdainful brow.
“And who will stop me?”
She was goading him. He knew it. He knew that he should not rise to it. Knew that she was probably calling his bluff.
And yet…
What if she were true to her word? What if she meant to give another man her smiles, her laughs, her kisses?
He’d be damned to hell before he allowed that to happen.
Looking her dead in the eye, he reached out and grabbed her to him.
Her eyes widened but rather than fear, they held unbridled passion and excitement. And it was his undoing.
“Me”, he finally answered before once again crushing her lips beneath his own.
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