Eileen Dreyer | Teased by TWICE TEMPTED

Hoping to be tempted? Read this special excerpt from Eileen Dreyer's ravishing historical romance TWICE TEMPTED.

He arched an eyebrow. “Lord Whitmore again? Please, Fiona. Don't do that to me.
When I hear Lord Whitmore, I think of my uncle, who had six fingers and thought
bathing was a trick of the devil.”

She giggled. “I can understand your wanting to maintain the distinction.”

“Every time you call me Lord Whitmore, I will call you Eloise.”

She glared at him, the curtains clutched to her chest like bedclothes, as if she
were a maiden in threat of seduction. “You wouldn't.”

He shrugged. “It is your name. Lady Eloise Fiona Ferguson Hawes.”

“No one knows,” she hissed.

He leaned in very close. “I do.”

She reared back and almost tipping the ladder again. “That is patently unfair.”

He shrugged and reached up for the curtains. “All is fair in love and safety.”

She refused to budge. “I do not believe that is precisely the quote.”

Grinning, he put his foot on the second rung, just beneath her. “Close enough.”

And then he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. Her blue, blue eyes that
were suddenly black with arousal. He heard the sharp intake of her breath and
saw the erratic pulse beating at the base of her long white throat.

His own body reacted just as it had every time he'd gotten close to her. He
focused in on her, his grip on her tightening. Still she didn't move, caught in
the circle of his free arm, her hip pressed against his chest, her mouth just
above his. All he had to do was climb another rung, and he could satisfy a
four-year-old craving.

His heart was galloping suddenly, and he could feel a bead of sweat roll down
his back. He could see a glow on her forehead, her upper lip. Her eyes widened,
as if she could read his thoughts, and he could scent something new. Arousal.
Need. Hunger. His own body was shaking with it. He swore his cock had taken on a
life of its own, and his brain simply shut down.

He leaned a bit closer, his foot still on the step beneath her and paused,
giving her a chance to escape, to clout him in the head if necessary. She
didn't. She watched him the way prey might a raptor, unsure and wary. He didn't
blame her. He wasn't certain how much control he had over himself. It had been
so long since he'd had a woman. So much longer since he'd really liked the one
he had.

Slowly, so he didn't startle her into tipping the ladder, he rose up and set his
other foot on the rung. She was frozen in place, one hand fisted around the
blood-deep velvet, the other clenched against the ladder, as if she was still
uncertain whether to use it.

She didn't. She inhaled, her mouth opening just a bit, as if there wasn't enough
air. As if she were struggling to stay afloat.

Sink, Alex wanted to say as he lifted himself face-to-face with her, mouth-to-mouth. Sink into me. “I knew it!” a voice screeched behind him, shattering the moment. “What did I tell you about lettin' them jackanapes in here?”

Fiona reared back, as if he'd attacked her, again throwing the ladder off
balance. Alex instinctively pulled back to stabilize them. He pulled back too
far and the ladder tipped.

There was a lot of yelling and a couple of muffled thuds as Alex landed on his
back, cushioning Fiona's fall. He wasn’t so lucky.

“Are you all right?” Fiona asked immediately, leaning over him.

“Serves him right,” the housekeeper snapped from the doorway.

He had hit his head so hard he was seeing stars. But he was smelling cinnamon and Fiona, so he really couldn't complain

“That is enough, Mrs. Quick,” he heard. “Alex? Your eyes are open. Can you hear me?”

Rather than admit that he was too distracted by the plump pressure of her breast
against his chest to answer, he simply closed his eyes and groaned. The act
would have been unworthy of him if his head weren't pounding and his arse aching
from hard contact with the floor

“Mrs. Quick,” she was saying, her hand on his cheek. “See if Mr. Clemson is
outside. Send him for the doctor.”

He knew his injuries didn't merit such concern. “No doctor.” He blinked a couple
of times until the multiple Fionas resolved into one. “I'll live. My head is a
bit bruised is all.”

In retaliation, she took away both her hand and breast, which almost set Alex to groaning again. She actually smacked him on the arm. “Then don't frighten me like that....again.”

“Don't know why you let him in here at all,” came the grumble from the doorway.

Untangling them both from the curtains, Fiona sat up. “Thank you, Mrs. Quick. I
think we're all right now.”

“Ya think that, do ya?”
Fiona gave her the kind of glare that betrayed her aristocratic heritage. The
housekeeper, still grumbling, clasped her hands in a parody of good servile
behavior and stalked off down the hall.

Fiona looked back down to where Alex lay, and he could see the cost of the last
tumble on her face. He should have been outraged. He was lying in a nest of
curtains with a fresh headache and the humiliation of his fall, and she
was...laughing.

She tried so hard not to. She held her hand to her mouth. She shook her head. He
could see her shoulders heave. He would have chastised her, except the minute he
opened his mouth, he burst out laughing, too.

“You are not very beneficial to my amour propre,” he wheezed up at her.

She couldn't stop laughing, full-throated, full-bellied, as if too much
suppressed laughter had simply spilled over. “I...I....didn't...”

“Mean it,” he managed, making it up as far as sitting beside her. “Yes, I know.”

She frantically shook her head. “Think anything could be so...funny!” She was
gasping, bent over her hands at her waist. “The look on your face!”

He had meant to get up, to reassert his mastery of the situation. He refused to
sacrifice this perfect moment with her on the floor. Wrapping an arm around her
shoulder, he wiped at the tears that coursed down her cheeks.

“It's not that funny,” he groused.

She started laughing again. “Oh, yes it is. You can have no idea of how long
it's been since I had the chance to laugh. Since I last saw your sister, I think.”

He had to grin. “Well, yes. Pip would set anybody to laughing. She's a
ridiculous little thing.”

For that he got a resounding smack on his chest. “Do not dare speak ill of my
best friend.” She hiccuped, her eyes widening a bit. “My only friend, actually.
Except for Sarah and Lizzie. And now that Sarah is married to my brother, I have
no idea at all how we will meet again.”

There was the faintest plaintive note in her voice that made Alex want to curl
her completely into his arms and shield her from hurt. Dear God, how lonely she
must have been. “I promise,” he said instead. “I fully respect my sister's
loyalty. It's her good sense I frequently question.”

Her breathing was evening out. She nodded. “Pip does have a knack for acting
before thinking.”

“She's like a whirlwind.”

“She needs to finally capture her Beau,” Fiona said with a definite nod. “That
would settle her down.”

Alex snorted. “Poor Beau. He'd never have another moment's peace.”

And for a long moment, they just sat there in a pool of sunlight and velvet, his
arm around her and her head on his shoulder. It felt so good. So whole.

It couldn't last. If he didn't move, he'd damn well take her here on the floor.
He opened his mouth to tell her, and then made the mistake of meeting her gaze
again.

Her lips were still parted, but she wasn't laughing anymore. He could see the
pulse jumping at her throat, and her hands were clenched again, as if she were
trying hard to keep them to herself.

He didn't know why. Lifting his own hand, he cupped her cheek. Again he gave her the chance to pull away. Again she didn't. His own heart started to skip around. He was rock hard. There was no longer a question. He had to kiss her.

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About TWICE TEMPTED

Fiona Ferguson's troubles began with a kiss . . .

It feels like a lifetime ago that Alex Knight saved Fiona from certain doom . . . and stole a soul-shattering kiss for good measure. Wanting nothing more than to keep her safe, he left her in the care of her grandfather, the Marquess of Dourne. But Fiona was hardly safe. As soon as he could, the marquess cast her and her sister out on the streets with only her wits to keep them alive. Alex has never forgotten that long-ago kiss. Now the dashing spy is desperate to make up for failing his duty once before. This time he will protect Fiona once and for all, from a deadly foe bent on taking revenge on the Ferguson line-and anyone who stands in the way . . .

About Eileen Dreyer

New York Times best-selling author Eileen Dreyer has won five RITA Awards from the Romance Writers of America, which secures her fourth place in the Romance Writers of America prestigious Hall of Fame. Eileen is an addicted traveler, having sung in some of the best Irish pubs in the world. Eileen also writes as Kathleen Korbel and has over three million books in print worldwide. Born and raised in Missouri, she lives in St. Louis County with her husband Rick and her two children.