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A COMMON SCANDAL
The Grantham Girls #2
Amanda Weaver
Releasing May 30th, 2016
Carina Press
Finishing school taught Amelia
Wheeler how to put on a well-mannered performance—when she’s not bored and
looking for trouble. Lady Grantham’s is behind her and now it's time for Amelia
to keep her promise to her dying mother: marry a title and leave her wild days
behind.
That promise would be much easier to
keep if Nate Smythe hadn’t just reappeared in a London ballroom. The son of an
impoverished sailor, Nate—Natty, as he used to be called—has grown up to become
handsome, rich and polished. He claims to be looking for a proper bride who can
advance his business interests, but that doesn’t stop him from seeking out
Amelia every chance he gets. Challenging her. Kissing her.
Suddenly, struggling against her
simmering passion is the least of Amelia's problems—one of her titled suitors
is hiding a desperate secret that could stop Amelia from pleasing her parents
or finding happiness with Nate. As a weeklong house party threatens to derail
her hard-won future, Amelia must decide: fight against disaster or act like the
lady she's promised to become?
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Excerpt
Despite
knowing the sort of marriage she was destined for, she’d resisted making a
choice for so long because she’d hoped in time she might encounter a suitable
man who sparked some kind of fire in her. But not once, in all her forays into
Society, had she met a man who raised more than mild curiosity. She’d read
about flaming passions and heated kisses in the lurid, forbidden novels she had
traded with Vic and Grace, but her blood had never been stirred by a
flesh-and-blood male. She’d begun to think those passions were the invention of
novelists and no man could ever make her feel that way. And now one had, and he
was hopelessly out of her reach. It was wretched,
wanting something she couldn’t have.
“What’s the
verdict? Does Cheadle love you madly or not?”
She didn’t
trust herself to look at Natty, knowing her insides would plunge in an
unwelcome, delicious way. When he came near her, it was as if her whole body
stretched luxuriously and unfurled. Terribly unhelpful, when she was determined
to send him packing and behave.
“I’m sure the
answer will always be ‘not’, regardless of the state of the petals and
irrespective of whatever he might proclaim. Isn’t Lady Julia waiting for her
glass of punch or something?”
“Pardon?”
“The lovely
Lady Julia Harrow. I saw you sitting with her. Surely she’s missed you by now.”
“Somehow I
doubt it,” he muttered. “And what of Cheadle? Surely he’s climbing the walls
pining after you.”
She sighed
and turned to face him, tossing the last of the ruined flower to the ground and
brushing her gloved fingers together. “You know he’s not, Natty. Men don’t pine
after me, only my money. The only reason anyone at these things speaks to me is
because of my fortune.”
“I’m speaking
to you and I have my own fortune, thank you very much.”
“You only
speak to me to tease me.”
“You used to
like it when I teased you.”
“I’m not a
child anymore.”
“Obviously.”
The word hung
between them for a moment, rife with meaning. He might have only meant she was
all grown-up and out in Society, except his eyes made a lightning- fast perusal
of her body as he said it, so fast, he was likely unaware he’d done it. In a
rush, it broke over her that Natty was aware of her in the same way she was
aware of him. Not as an old playmate from his childhood. As a woman. He was as
affected as she was, even if he was spending his evening paying court to Julia
Harrow.
His eyes made
their way back to hers and they both held the gaze. This newly discovered
knowledge sizzled through her body. Her skin flushed and her breaths grew
shallow. Natty’s eyes stared into hers. His lips parted slightly, as if he,
too, was baffled by this sudden shift in the air. The atmosphere around them
felt charged, the way it did when thunder began rattling the windows and
lightning lit the night sky, but still the rain refused to fall. At any minute
the clouds could collide and deluge the world, but until then, all the energy
of the universe danced on the breeze.
She wanted to
tease and flirt with him to see how far things would progress. She wanted to
see the skies open up. She wanted to be drenched by the rain.
About the Author
Amanda Weaver has loved
romance since she read that very first Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel at fifteen.
After a long detour into a career as a costume designer in theatre, she’s found
her way back to romance, this time as a writer.
A native
Floridian, Amanda transplanted to New York City many years ago and now
considers Brooklyn home, along with her husband, daughter, two cats, and
nowhere near enough space.
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