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New Release: Wolf Bride by Elizabeth Moss



Title: Wolf Bride
Author: Elizabeth Moss
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Historical Erotic Romance
Series: Lust in the Tutor Court Book #1

Summary

Bound to him against her will…

Lord Wolf, hardened soldier and expert lover, has come to King Henry VIII's court to claim his new bride: a girl who has intrigued him since he first saw her riding across the Yorkshire moors.

Eloise Tyrell, now lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn, has other ideas. She has no desire to submit to a man she barely knows and who-though she is loath to admit it-frightens her more than a little.

Their first kiss awakens in both a fierce desire that bares them to the soul. But as the court erupts into scandal around the ill-fated Queen, Eloise sees firsthand what happens when powerful men tire of their wives...

Author Biography

Born into a literary family, Elizabeth Moss lives with her husband and five children in South-West England, and is a keen countryside walker. She writes fun and sexy historical romances. She also writes award-winning fiction as Victoria Lamb. For more information, please visit her website: www.elizabethmossfiction.com.

An Excerpt: 

“Eloise! Wait!”

She turned, hearing the shout, and her lips tightened when she saw who it was.

Simon came hurrying down the steps into the courtyard where her covered litter stood waiting, a rolled-up paper in his hand. Much to her relief, Lord Wolf had not yet emerged from the palace, and her father seemed too busy speaking to the driver to have noticed her former suitor.

“My love,” Simon said, embracing her. His lips touched hers, though he did not seem aware of how still she held herself beneath his touch. “I’m so glad I caught you, Eloise. I could not stand the thought of you leaving court without so much as a farewell.”

“It would be best if we did not speak to each other again,” she told him frankly. “I am to be married soon, remember.”

“I told you, we need not let your marriage to Lord Wolf stand in the way of our desire.” Simon smiled, holding out the rolled-up paper. “Take it, and let my words warm you on your journey north. Only do not show it to your betrothed.”

“I cannot take it, Simon.”

He seized her hand, stroking her palm intimately with his thumb, and pressed the letter into it. “Don’t break my heart with this coldness. At least read what I have written to you, my love.”

“You must not call me that. You know that you do not love me.” Frowning, she shook her head at his hurried protest. “You only love yourself.”

“So cruel?”

“So honest,” she said drily.

“My dearest love,” Simon replied, his look pitying, “you will find honesty a worthless enough commodity in a marriage. No wife and husband were ever true to each other, whatever promises they may have made at the altar. And you do not love Lord Wolf,” he added pointedly. “You are only marrying him because your father wills it. Why be faithful to a man who will be your jailor for the rest of your days?”

She looked into his eyes. How deeply she had thought herself in love with Simon once. He still seemed so handsome and charming, it was hard to remember the careless nature of his deceit. Now she knew him for a young man who would think nothing of lying in order to dishonor a maid, or even of stealing a woman from her husband’s bed, so long as their night together brought him satisfaction.

“Because it is my duty,” she told him, and felt a chill of despair creep through her heart at those awful words.

“What’s this?” a voice asked coldly behind Simon, interrupting them. “Fond farewells from your lover?”

Lord Wolf!

Horrified, Eloise realized she was still holding Simon’s letter. She could only imagine what it contained, intimate words of love that could earn her a whipping for wanton behavior if her father or his lordship discovered it about her person. She thrust the rolled-up letter down into her bodice, and drew her shawl about her shoulders to hide it.

Simon had flushed. He bowed to them both, stammered something about archery practice, and disappeared back up the steps into the palace.

“How gallant of him to stay and defend your honor,” Lord Wolf drawled. “Come, the morning is already half gone. It is time for us to depart. I have arranged for some of my men to accompany us back to Yorkshire for your protection. Some of the roads in the north can be dangerous for unwary travelers.”

He saw her worried glance at the litter, which would barely house more than two persons, and smiled. “Your father and I will ride alongside, so you will be undisturbed.”

He handed her up into the covered litter where young Mary was huddled in the corner, looking very nervous at the prospect of her first long journey. Eloise settled back against the cushions, her face averted.

To her dismay, Lord Wolf leaned forward. “Just one more thing,” he murmured, and pressed a kiss on her lips.

She sat still beneath his kiss, her heart beating violently. She could not help remembering how he had touched her in the garden, and the powerful surge of desire she had felt. Even now it was difficult not to respond, to keep her lips closed beneath his and not lean into his masculine scent.

Then his hand slipped to her bodice, and he withdrew the letter she had hidden there.

“Now what could this be, I wonder?” he commented, straightening.

He unrolled the letter, reading though it with a hard face. Then he tore the letter into a dozen pieces and scattered them across her lap.

“Whatever Simon was to you once,” he told her coldly, “I advise you to forget him. You are mine now; do you understand?”

Lord Wolf did not wait for an answer, but jumped down from the covered litter and strode to his waiting horse.

Eloise dropped the curtain down so she could no longer see him, and sat in silence, her maid staring at her in horror. She wondered what had been in that letter. Had Simon repeated his suggestion that they should meet behind her husband’s back and make love?

If only she had thrown that damned letter in Simon’s face!

The horse pulling the litter began to move. The whole litter jerked, curtains swaying. Mary gave a little cry and clung onto her seat.

Outside, Eloise heard the jingle of harness and reins, Wolf shouting orders to his men in a curt voice, then the clatter of hooves beside the litter as the cavalcade made its slow, lurching way out of the courtyard and through the palace gates.

She brushed the torn pieces of letter from her lap and sat in an angr
y silence for the first few miles of their journey, eyes closed as though trying to sleep, but frowning. She could not help touching her lips from time to time, still tingling from his mouth. How could he arouse such pleasure in her body with just one kiss?

Whichever way she looked at it, there was no avoiding the truth of her situation. Wolf was to be her lord and master, and it seemed there was little she could do to escape him.
 

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Comments

  1. Loved the excerpt - sounds like a great read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, Simon sounds like quite a jerk! Hopefully, he'll get his just desserts at some point. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the upcoming release!

    ReplyDelete

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