Excerpt & Giveaway: Four Nights with the Duke by Eloisa James
Four
Nights with the Duke
Desperate Duchesses # 8
Desperate Duchesses # 8
By:
Eloisa James
Releasing
March 31st,
2015
Avon
Blurb
As
a young girl, Emilia Gwendolyn Carrington told the annoying future
Duke of Pindar that she would marry any man in the world before
him-so years later she is horrified to realize that she has nowhere
else to turn.
Evander
Septimus Brody has his own reasons for agreeing to Mia’s audacious
proposal, but there’s one thing he won’t give his inconvenient
wife: himself.
Instead,
he offers Mia a devil’s bargain… he will spend four nights a year
with her. Four nights, and nothing more. And those only when she begs
for them.
Which
Mia will never do.
Now
Vander faces the most crucial challenge of his life: he must seduce
his own wife in order to win her heart-and no matter what it takes,
this is the one battle he can’t afford to lose.
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Excerpt
“Love
custard”? Mia hadn’t the faintest idea what that meant, but she
knew instinctively that it was something disgusting. Boys were
disgusting by nature; she’d temporarily forgotten that while pining
for Vander. When she thought he was godlike.
In
reality he was a heartless pig.
“You
haven’t gotten under her skirts, have you?” Oakenrott sounded
gleeful at the prospect. “Her father could take this line about
beinglost
in your sweetness and
pressure you to make an offer.”
“Never!”
Vander sounded so appalled that the word slid over Mia’s skin like
a snake. “It’s a little odd to think that she’s been lusting
after me. What sort of fifteen-year-old girl thinks in these terms?
Though I suppose she is her father’s daughter.”
Mia
could hardly breathe because she was trying to sob without noise. He
made her sound repulsive, saying that she was lusting after
him. It wasn’t like that. She wasn’t like that.
“Have
you ever noticed her staring at you from the side of the room?”
Thorn asked. “Because here it says, Like
the bird that gazes all night at the moon, I gaze at you.”
“Like
a bird, or a Bird of Paradise?” Oakenrott put in. “Maybe she can
set herself up as a literary light-skirt. One sovereign for a poem
and two for a you-know-what.”
“All
I can say is she’s a God-awful poet,” Vander said. “Even I know
that poems are supposed to rhyme.”
What
an idiot. Mia took a shuddering breath. She had to escape. She
simply could not stand any more of this.
“I
think you should frame it,” Thorn said, “because I can tell you
right now that no one else will think you’re pretty enough to
rhapsodize about. Especially given the size of your moonbeam.”
That
brought on a scuffle and more laughter. At her expense. Mia could
feel the air rattling in her throat. Likely it was the death rattle.
Maybe she would die, and they’d find her body in this very spot.
“You
know, I have to warn the fellows,” Oakenrott said. “Some bloke
might be chatting with her right now, having no idea what a jam tart
she is.”
Mia
stiffened.
“If
she’s like that at fifteen, what’ll she be like at twenty?”
“Don’t
even jest about it. You’d ruin her,” Thorn said sharply. “You
mustn’t say a word.”
“The
poetry is evidence for the obvious,” Oakenrott protested. “She’s
got a sluttish look about her. It’s all there. Most girls that age
have apple dumplings in front, but hers are more like cabbages than
cherries!”
Cabbages? Cabbages?
Mia
stifled another sob. There was silence for a second, just long enough
so that Mia could imagine Vander standing up for her, like a knight
in shining armor. Growling, Shut
your mouth, Oakenrott. She does not look sluttish.
That
didn’t happen.
Author
Info
A
New York Times bestselling author, Eloisa James is a professor of
English literature who lives with her family in New York, but who can
sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. (Her husband is an honest to
goodness Italian knight!) Eloisa’s website offers short stories,
extra chapters, and even a guide to shopping in Florence. Visit her
at www.eloisajames.com.
Giveaway Time!
Book 1: Desperate Duchesses; Book 2: An Affair Before Christmas; Book 3: Duchess By Night; Book 4: When the Duke Returns; Book 5: This Duchess of Mine; Book 6: A Duke of Her Own; Book 7: Three Weeks With Lady X)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Book 1: Desperate Duchesses; Book 2: An Affair Before Christmas; Book 3: Duchess By Night; Book 4: When the Duke Returns; Book 5: This Duchess of Mine; Book 6: A Duke of Her Own; Book 7: Three Weeks With Lady X)
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