 by Jodi Ellen Malpas.jpg)
Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Frank Melrose is on the cusp of taking his father's printing business global—the last thing he needs is the distraction of any woman, let alone the dazzling Taya Winters.
He's under pressure from the newspaper to unmask the mysterious highwayman causing havoc in Belmore Square, but his infuriating clashes with Taya keep slowing him down.
What's more, he's sure that the highwayman is right under their noses—and that exposing their identity will end not only his story, but ruin his family, too.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
I am nose-to-nose with the white stallion. My body as still as can be. But my heart? It thunders in my chest. My pulse? It booms. My God, I am more alive than ever. Whether it be with fear or excitement, I cannot tell. I allow my eyes to slowly travel up the horse’s nose to its rider. The horseman is staring down at me, their eyes hardly visible past their low hat and high scarf and the shadows they cast. Curious eyes, I’m sure, that are slightly narrowed, inspecting me. Then a small sparkle. Smiling?
I inhale and step back, needing to get the horseman in my sights, arms, body, legs and all, for I am certain I am not looking at a horseman at all.
But the impressive stallion moves before I do, rising up on its back legs on a neigh, loud and intimidating as I expect is intended. I stagger back and fall to my backside on the stones, but I somehow succeed in keeping my eyes up. The rider laughs but stops abruptly.
‘My God,’ I whisper, watching as she slides down from her horse and approaches me slowly, despite the warning of her two fellow, male – they’re definitely male – riders, who remain just a few yards away, their horses treading the ground impatiently. She holds out her gloved hand, and I take the dainty thing, getting to my feet. I must be at least a foot taller. She comes closer. Closer. Closer. Reaches up on her tippy toes. I close my eyes and breathe in, holding my breath. The skin of my cheeks heats, feeling her breath on my face from where she’s pulled her scarf down. And then her lips push into my rough cheek.
Magic.
Her face. Does she want me to see it? For she has removed her scarf.
I quickly open my eyes and blink, so very confused, my heartbeat ferocious in its pace, and find nothing before me. At least, no human, but the horse remains, and the rider is still upon its back.
What in the name of God just happened?
I reach for my cheek and feel it, as my sister hurries to my side and helps me to my feet, looking at the impressive white stallion as she does. I spend the few seconds I have before the rider kicks the horse into action committing every detail before me to memory, until all three of them gallop off into the distance, kicking up dirt, making the ground vibrate. I turn on the spot, mesmerised, in a trance, speechless, my head just about ready to explode with the pressure of words swimming around my brain.
I bolt up in bed on a gasp and glance around, a little disorientated, and exhale when I find I am, indeed, in my bed and not at the mercy of the highwayman. Or woman. It has to be a woman. Each time I dream the dream, a little something else is added. This time, a kiss. My God, I am obsessed.
I jump out of bed and go to my writing desk in the window, collecting my quill and dunking it in the pot of ink, not taking a seat – I don’t have time – my mind needing to get the words out. The smell of the horse. The tickle of its coarse hair when we stood nose-to-nose. The gallop of my heart that I’m sure pounded harder than the hooves of the horse at a full canter. I write until my hand aches and I drop my quill, exhaling, running a hand through my hair as I look up out of the window.
I lean forward and pull the half-drawn draperies aside, focused on the floating form of a girl across the cobbles. Lady Taya Winters. Also known as my brother-in-law’s little sister. The woman does not walk but floats. She’s quite a vision, I admit. Her bright green eyes shine, her dark blonde hair is adorably wild, her cheeks blushed, her lips plump, and her lashes long and fluttering.
My God, she is beautiful.
And completely forbidden.
From the day I met her, when she returned to Belmore Square with her mother, Wisteria Winters, and her brother, Lord Sampson Winters, I have been wary of her. I am not without female attention. I am, however, without the thrill one would expect from female attention. That has died a slow, painful death over the course of my time in London – a sign of my overindulgence, I suppose. I cannot tell you whether it be her aloofness or simply her unusual, wild, unconventional beauty, but when Lady Taya Winters glanced at me that fateful day, I felt as though I’d been struck by lightning. Twice. I walked away telling myself I need to keep my distance from Taya Winters, for she is sure to get me into trouble, and I need no trouble, no complications, especially now when I must convince my father to let me publish my story. I have never desired to write for our family newspaper. I have hardly expressed any interest in the operations of our family newspaper, The London Times, doing the bare minimum I could without doing nothing at all. Porter helped run the business with Papa, until, of course, his untimely death, and my sister wrote the most popular stories. I had very little enthusiasm for work or writing, so I made myself useful elsewhere. Usually in a woman’s bed.