Today it's my pleasure to feature Tarah Scott, author of To Tame a Highland Earl.
TARAH
SCOTT
Award winning
author Tarah Scott cut her teeth on authors such as Georgette Heyer, Zane Grey,
and Amanda Quick. Her favorite book is a Tale of Two Cities, with Gone With the
Wind as a close second. She writes modern classical romance, and paranormal and
romantic suspense. Tarah grew up in Texas and currently resides in Westchester
County, New York with her daughter.
To
Tame a Highland Earl
A man torn between
two worlds. Both need him...neither wants him.
Groomed for a life
amongst the English aristocracy, Lord Erroll Rushton is unexpectedly thrust
back into his father’s Scottish world when the Englishwoman he compromises
refuses to marry him.
No gentleman breaks into a lady’s
bedchamber...but then, no lady sleeps with a pistol under her pillow.
Miss
Eve Crenshaw will marry for love or won’t marry at all. When London’s most
notorious rakehell breaks into her bedchamber in the dead of night and
compromises her beyond repair, Eve plans a daring escape that shocks even the
Earl.
To Tame a Highland Earl
My newest
book, To Tame a Highland Earl: A MacLean
Highlander Novel, is now available for preorder for the sale price of
$2.99.
Excerpt--
March 1807
Manchester, England
If ever a woman deserved to be shot, it was Miss Crenshaw.
But dawn appointments weren’t meant for the weaker sex. Weaker sex. The lady was anything but weak, which is why Erroll
intended to throttle her.
Erroll laid a shilling in the innkeeper’s palm. “You
understand the need for discretion.”
“Indeed, I do, my lord,” the man replied. “Your betrothed’s
reputation is safe with me.”
Erroll managed to maintain a bland expression as the
innkeeper handed him the key to the lady’s room. So news of his impending
nuptials had sped from Coventry to Manchester even quicker than he had—which
meant London society would hear the news by morning light and the story would
cross the border to Edinburgh just as quickly.
Which of the gossipmongers had he to thank for that? He was
grateful to the heavenly powers that his mother had remained in Scotland and
not accompanied his father to England this month. God help him if she got wind
of this entanglement before he had a chance to extricate himself from the
tenacious claw of the husband-hunting wench.
“A beautiful woman is hard to resist,” the innkeeper said.
“Indeed,” Erroll murmured, glad the man had interrupted the
mental picture of his mother outfitting the deceitful huntress in her wedding
dress. No bachelor’s mother was more determined to see her son wed than
Erroll’s own dear mamma, and since his return from the navy, his father had put
his considerable weight behind her efforts.
He whirled toward the stairs, climbed to the second floor
and made a left down the hall. At the third door on the left, he stopped.
Erroll had endured his father’s hour-long diatribe that ended with the command
to marry the woman who had accused him of compromising her—a woman he’d never
laid eyes on—before he finally broke away to discover his accuser had fled
Coventry. The hard five hour ride to catch her before she reached her father’s
estate would have been in vain if not for the fact a wheel on her carriage
broke forty miles distance from Manchester.
This experience would teach him to dally with the women
outside of London. Had he satisfied himself with the eligible ladies in Town—if those females could be called
ladies—he wouldn’t have gone to Coventry and attended the damn house party that
had gotten him into trouble. The fact he’d spent a pleasurable hour with a lady
in the hostess’ gardens had only served to put him in the very place his
accuser said he’d been. Erroll felt sure the cunning creature was well aware
he’d been in the gardens, and therefore claimed to be the object of his
attentions.
Erroll quietly unlocked the door, slipped into the darkened
room, then eased the door shut and slipped the key into his pocket. Faint
moonlight filtered in through thin curtains and outlined the sleeping figure in
the bed. Erroll crept forward until he reached the bed. He braced a knee
against the side of the mattress, then placed a hand on each side of the woman
and brought his face to within an inch of hers.
She shifted in her
sleep and lush breasts grazed his chest. He wondered how long it would be
before she became aware a man was in her bed, then concluded that since she
hadn’t awoken with a shriek she must be accustomed to having a man in her bed.
He should ravish her as she’d said he had just for good measure. The thought
froze at the pressure of a pistol jammed against his abdomen.
“I am a crack shot.” The feminine voice was steady—as was
the hand holding the gun. “But even the worst shot in Great Britain couldn’t
miss.” The gun dug deeper into his belly. “Move away.”
Erroll considered. Her calm response to his presence almost
made him think she’d expected him. “If I’m to be shot, I should at least commit
the crime for which I’m accused.” The click of the pistol’s hammer being pulled
back was his answer. “I see you do not agree.” He straightened off the bed.
“Step back,” she ordered.
He retreated two paces.
“More.”
He moved back another two paces.
“I promise you, sir, my aim is as true at such short a
distance as it was when you were an inch from my face. Back against the door.”
Erroll complied. A light click indicated she had released
the hammer back into place. She rose, a small figure in the shadows, and picked
up something from the night table. The clink of glass was followed by the
scrape of a match on wood, then light flared and he got his first look at the
woman who claimed he had ravished away her innocence. Dark brown eyes pinned
him with a hard stare. Honey-brown hair tumbled down her shoulders. The top of
her head was no higher than his chest.
The muff pistol remained pointed at him as her attention
shifted to the lamp on the nightstand. She bent slightly and her full breasts
strained against the nightgown as she lit the wick. His cock jerked and he
couldn’t deny his good fortune in not having met her at Lady Baldwin’s party.
He very well might have fallen prey to her charms and been guilty of her
accusations.
She blew out the match and tossed it onto a metal tray, then
took a step toward him. The lamplight illuminated the outline of her body
through the nightgown. The curves he discerned were fuller than were
fashionable and the kind he’d sought without success. His cock began to lift.
He might end up shot after all.
“You are no common housebreaker,” she said. “Who are you?”
Erroll’s mind snapped
to attention. The wench didn’t recognize him. Fury doused his lust. He gave a
mocking smile and bowed. “Lord Erroll Rushton, at your service.”
Shock registered on her face, then an answering fire
appeared in her eyes. “I see we shall have to break you of the habit of
entering a lady’s room uninvited.”
“You use the term lady too loosely.”
“That is the pot calling the kettle black.”
He nearly laughed.
“One would think a prospective groom could keep his cock in
his pants with his wedding but two days hence,” she said.
“Three days,” Erroll corrected. That was how long it would
take him to get the special license his father ordered him to procure. “Pray
tell, what sort of lady carries a gun?” He didn’t ask what lady used the word ‘cock’ as easily as the word ‘groom?’ That
was perhaps too obvious.
“The sort who knows what to expect of a man,” she replied.
“The very sort who understands a man might object to being
forced into marriage?” he said.
She gave a derisive laugh. “You are a rakehell, sir.”
“I never denied being a rake, madam, but I am no liar.”
She wasn't what he’d expected. He’d been told this was to be
her second season, but this woman was no debutante and, given the way she
unabashedly stood before him in her nightclothes, he would wager she was no
virgin.
“Surely, you’re a little old for this game?” he drawled.
Her brow knit, but he detected no shame. She was too
collected. But a level head—along with a liberal dose of nerve—is exactly what
it took to accuse a complete stranger of compromising her.
“Did you really think you could get away with it?” she
asked.
The question startled him.
“Now who is the pot calling the kettle black?” he said. She
shifted and Erroll could have sworn he discerned a dark patch between her legs.
“A shame we met under these circumstances.” He flicked a glance at her breasts.
“We could have been friends.”
Her mouth thinned. “By God, I really should shoot you.”
“Tut tut, love, not until the vows are said and I claim what
is left of your virtue.”
She drew in a sharp breath.
“Your righteous anger is completely undone by the fact that
you’re nearly naked.”
Her mouth twisted in a derisive smile. “Forgive me, my lord.
Had I known you were coming, I would have dressed for the occasion.”
“You are impeccably dressed for the occasion.”
Did she have any idea how visible the contours of her body
were with the lamplight behind her…or how her nipples pressed against her
nightgown? She shifted, widening her stance slightly and his cock jerked
harder. Oh yes, the witch knew.
“I should send you to hell this instant,” she said.
He lifted a brow. “The marriage vows will take care of
that—had I any intentions of marrying.”
“My father will ensure that you do not escape this time.”
“That sounds as though you think I am getting what I
deserve.”
“You do not deserve such a good and innocent wife.”
Erroll laughed. “Innocent? A woman who puts herself in such
a position is no innocent.”
“How dare you?” she hissed.
“How dare I? I understand there were several suitors for the
honorable Miss Crenshaw’s attentions at Lady Baldwin’s party. I wager none of
them were as good a prospect as I, which is why you gambled that no one would
notice if I was included on that list.”
He didn’t miss the way her fingers flexed on the gun.
“Everything I’ve heard about you is true,” she said. “You
have no conscience.”
“In that we are alike. Should my father succeed in coercing
me into marriage, I will make the worst sort of husband you can imagine. I will
not settle down and sire an heir as he expects. Instead, I will send my wife to
the family estate in Scotland while I go about my pleasures in London.”
“So the choice is desertion or ruination?”
“Be honest, the ruination was done long before you concocted
this plan.”
“Plan?” she repeated. “I feel certain I can convince the
magistrate of self-defense. After all, you broke into my room.”
“Think again.” Erroll reached into his pocket.
“Beware,” she said.
He slowly withdrew the key from his pocket and held it up.
“The innkeeper was very obliging. He feels nothing should stand in the way of
true love.”
She frowned, then comprehension cleared her expression. “I
should have guessed. You think you can browbeat me into helping you avoid the
marriage vows. You, sir, are the worst sort of knave.”
“So we do understand one another.”
“You are a fool,” she muttered.
He’d had enough. “You are the fool if you believe I will
marry you.”
“Marry me? What—”
Erroll started toward her.
She took a faltering step backwards and he lunged. She gave
a startled cry. He seized the hand holding the gun and shoved it upward in
their tumble backwards. They landed on the bed, him on top of her. Her lush
body yielded beneath his hard planes—his stiffening cock in particular. To his
surprise, she didn’t struggle, but released the pistol. The weapon bounced off
the mattress and struck the carpet with a thud.
“Is this how you described my having ravished you?” he
demanded.
Shock registered on her face. He blew out a frustrated
breath. He’d come ready to battle the vixen and she was already crumbling.
Moisture appeared in her eyes. Ah, there it was. She was simply moving onto
another tactic.
“Lies, pistols, tears, and…” He moved suggestively against
her breasts and felt the rigid nipples beneath his shirt. “Your arsenal of
weapons is impressive, madam.”
“I tell you, mamma, I heard a scream.”
A woman’s voice penetrated the door on the right wall.
Erroll jerked his gaze in that direction as the door swung open. Two women
stood in the doorway staring, one young—in her second season, he would
guess—the other, the mamma the girl had addressed.
Erroll looked at the woman lying beneath him. “I thought
that was a closet.”
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