Hi everyone visiting from Coffee Time Romance!
If you love historical romance, I do hope you enjoy mine. I’m running a Facebook promotion where you can win a certified organic botanical perfume Delicious by Miessence – an infusion of Cacao, Vanilla and Honey. The details are in the graphic below.
In the mean time here’s an extract from Moonstone Obsession especially for you!
The popular country dance ended and the floor cleared, gentlemen taking a bow, ladies a quick curtsy, and lovers retreating into the shadows and out to the garden for fresh air.
Heavy lead crystals in suspended chandeliers, lit by hundreds of candles, caused prisms of light to dance on the empty parquet floor as the orchestra sounded the first few bars of a new piece, one that was all the rage on the Continent. The waltz.
A murmur ran through the crowd along with titters of amusement. Those men who had not selected partners for the next dance quickly pressed their claim with their favorites.
“Shocking! I’m surprised the Duke of Chesterfield allows such indecency,” Selina overheard an elderly dowager seated behind her harrumph to her companion. “Have you ever seen a waltz? Pressing bodies together so barely a kerchief passes between.”
Although growing in popularity at the most fashionable soirees, waltzing was highly risqué. Selina had only ever danced it with one of William’s twin boys on her hip as a dance partner. She smiled at the memory while she watched couples move out onto the dance floor.
“Do you wish to scandalize the Countess of Harrogate?” James spoke close to her ear.
She jumped, but not before a delicious shiver ran down her spine.
Selina’s first thought was to demur, but the promise she made to her sister-in-law weeks ago to flirt and enjoy asserted itself, so she gifted James with a dazzling smile.
Reacting to her changing expression with a knowing look of his own, James bowed formally, taking a proffered hand to escort her to the floor.
Selina was surprised at how smoothly she and James moved together. In contrast to the other dances this evening, with their highly rehearsed steps, the waltz simply required the couple to move in harmony.
Encircled by James’s right arm at her waist, his left hand holding her right, Selina was more than aware of his masculinity as they moved around the floor. Unlike some of the other men she had danced with this evening, men whose overly liberal scent of cologne nearly made her gag, James smelled of crisp pine and rich, fresh tobacco.
She looked up to find him regarding her equally thoughtfully. It was disconcerting, so she spoke.
“My Lord, do you feel a sharp pain in your back?”
He frowned, confused.
“I fear the daggers being cast in your direction by the Lady Abigail must surely be drawing blood.”
“Ah, so that’s what it was I felt.” He grinned before leaning in to whisper, “I thought the ill will was from the Viscount Canalissy for dancing with the most intriguing woman here.”
A sudden rush of heat bloomed through her, and with that, every coherent thought fled. If not for James’s firm hold and skilful movement, Selina was sure that she would have tripped over her own feet.
“Oh, now I know you’re having fun at my expense,” she said breathlessly.
“Are you sure?” He grinned.
She looked him full in the face and arched an eyebrow.
James’s smile broadened as Selina recovered her poise.
“You don’t believe me?”
She gave a long slow smile and shook her head in response.
Seeing the challenge, he leaned in. “Let’s go see,” he whispered, and changed direction suddenly, pulling her close so her body molded to his as he deftly pivoted midstep.
