Title: How to Rescue a Rake
Author: Jayne
Fresina
Series: The Book
Club Belles Society, #3
Pubdate: January
5th, 2016
ISBN: 9781402287824
Nathaniel Sherringham has returned to Hawcombe Prior a
changed man. Gone is the reckless rake who went out on a limb to propose to
Diana Makepiece three years ago. Now Nate’s mysterious new wealth has the
town’s rumor mill spinning. To stir things up (and get Diana’s attention), Nate
boldly announces his plans to marry “any suitable girl” under the age of 25.
Diana, now 27 and still single, is acutely aware of Nate’s
return. When her mother suggests a trip to visit a cousin in Bath, Diana leaps
at the chance to escape the heartbreak and regret she can’t help but feel in
Nate’s presence…and avoid his irritating charade to find a bride.
But for Nate, Diana has always been the one. He might just
have to follow her to Bath and once again lay his heart on the line to win her
attention—and her heart.
Jayne Fresina
sprouted up in England. Entertained by her father’s colorful tales of growing
up in the countryside, and surrounded by opinionated sisters, she’s always had
inspiration for her beleaguered heroes and unstoppable heroines. She lives in
upstate New York. Learn more about the author at www.jaynefresinaromanceauthor.blogspot.com.
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1P3M7JV
Apple: http://apple.co/1P3h9U5
Chapters: http://bit.ly/1m2ui4j
Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1QHNIXR
***
How to Rescue a Rake, the third in Jayne Fresina’s Austen-inspired Book Club Belles series, comes out
this January! For all of you Jane Austen fans, this fun new release is based on
Persuasion and it’s a book you don’t
want to miss. To celebrate this latest release, the heroine is here to give our
readers a tip on how to rescue their own rake and to share an excerpt with us.
Tips for Capturing
a Rake's Attention: By Diana Makepiece (Or How to Stay Calm and Capture a Rake)
A tongue-in-cheek
guide by one old maid, who has lost her bloom, has let her last chance for
happiness pass her by and is now, at twenty-seven, half way to death (according
to the parson's wife)... and not at all bitter about it, thank you very much.
Stay chilled and
any rake worth his salt will immediately want to warm your extremities for you,
regardless of any protest you might be obliged to make for the sake of
appearances.
An Excerpt:
“I
sent you a message the morning I left, Diana,” he said. “I fired it myself
through your bedchamber window with a sling.”
“You
did what?”
He
ran a hand over his face, flattening rain-drenched spears of hair to his brow.
“I climbed that damnable oak behind your mother’s cottage. I didn’t want to
leave without giving us another chance.”
She
tried to think, but her mind wouldn’t cooperate. Don’t believe him, Diana. This is
another of his practical jokes, no doubt. Any moment now he will burst his
seams with laughter.
Diana
sniffed. “What did this supposed note say?”
He
frowned.
“And
don’t bother making something up, Captain, for I will know you’re fibbing. It
comes naturally to you and always did. But I never fell for it, did I?”
The
frown broke with exasperation and then reformed with scorn. “Oh, you know me.
It was childish nonsense. Just what you would expect. Good thing you never read
it.”
“Don’t
tell me then,” she grumbled into her handkerchief. “It hardly matters now
anyway. The years have passed, and we are both too old for climbing trees.”
“Quite,”
he snapped. “Three years is an eternity.”
For me it has been, she longed to say.
Suddenly
Nathaniel seized her hand. “We should start again, Miss Diana Makepiece, and
put the past behind us.”
“And
why, pray, would we do that?”
He
lifted her gloved fingers and pressed his lips against her knuckles.
“Captain?”
she demanded.
He
met her frown with a narrow-eyed, somewhat menacing appraisal. “Your opinion of
me might improve.”
“Well,
it could hardly get any worse.”
Nathaniel’s
hand tightened around hers and tugged her closer. “I am not all bad. We may
become friends.”
Skeptical,
Diana tried to retrieve her hand, but his grip was too strong. “I wouldn’t hope
too hard, Captain.” She admired his spirit; she envied his lively manners and
his fearlessness. But to feel more for such a capricious man would be a
mistake. “I think you should—” A dark, devious twinkle sizzled in his blue eyes
and made her draw an anxious breath. “Do not think of it!”
He
blinked, but the wicked sparkle remained. “Do not think of what?”
“That.
It is not proper!”
“I’m
afraid not. It is, however, necessary.”
“Captain
Sherringham, if you dare—”
The
words were stolen away as his mouth lowered to hers, claimed her lips. She’d
said the wrong thing, of course. In his case, saying “if you dare” was like
waving a red rag at a bull.
Diana
was almost lifted off her feet, left to hover on her toes as he took his kiss.
His tongue touched hers and stroked it gently. A raindrop that fell from his
eyelashes to her cheek was warm and soft, tickling her skin as it trickled down
the curve like a tear and finally gathered on the ridge of her jaw. Until the
tip of his tongue followed it and then licked it away.
She
was stunned speechless.
“If
you don’t believe me about the note,” he whispered, his lips warm against her
ear, “ask Jamie Bridges. It was his sling I used.”
Every
inch of his hard body was pressed against her, and in her wet clothes she had
little defense. He must feel her heartbeat. She might as well be naked. The
wicked thought flashed through her mind as if he had put it there with his
kiss.
“Ask
him,” he repeated. “Unless you’re afraid.” A flare of white teeth showed as he
smiled. Oh, that lethal charm. He would never lose it. “The world might tip
upside down if I was proven honest for once.”
Nathaniel’s
eyes shone down at her and she was caught up in their brilliance, like a fly
trapped in a spider’s web.
“I
once fell out of a tree for you,” he whispered, sounding bewildered.
“That
would explain these bouts of madness,” she reasoned.
