Thankyou so very much for readingThe Duke Who Despised Christmas! I hope you loved Quint and Joceline’s road to happily ever after because I loved every second of writing their story. So begins a new holiday tradition where each year, I’ll add a new, stand-alone story to this Christmas series. If you’d like to see what’s next from me in the meantime, read on for a small sneak peek of Duke with a Reputation (Wicked Dukes Society Book 1), featuring the Duke of Brandon and Lottie, Lady Grenfell, who you may recall meeting in Her Virtuous Viscount.
Please stay in touch! The only way to be sure you’ll know what’s next from me is to sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/dyJSar. Please join my reader group for early excerpts, cover reveals, and more here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scarlettscottreaders. And if you’re in the mood to chat all things steamy historical romance and read a different book together each month, join my book club, Dukes Do It Hotter right here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hotdukes because we’re having a whole lot of fun!
Duke with a Reputation
Wicked Dukes Society
Book One
The Duke of Brandonis London’s most infamous rake. But his world crashes to a decided halt when the sins of his past come back to haunt him in the form of one small she-devil of a childwho has green eyes just like his. To make matters worse, his disapproving grandmother has decided he must marry or forfeit his inheritance.
Now, he has no choice but to raise a daughter, find a suitable wife, and keep his harridan grandmother from discovering his sordid secrets as the founder of the Wicked Dukes Society. So when the tempting, fiery-haired Countess of Grenfell propositions him, he offers her something else instead—a marriage of convenience.
Lottie, Countess of Grenfell, is London’s most notorious widow. Her doomed, one-sided marriage left her with a broken heart and a determination to never wed again. What she wants is simple—passion, independence, and one night in the Duke of Brandon’s bed. Or in his scandalous chair. Perhaps even against a wall. She wouldn’t marry him, however, if he were the last man on earth.
Brandon is quickly running out of time and his troublemaking daughter has decided no one else shall do as her step-mama but the maddening countess. He must persuade Lottie to become his duchess with all haste or risk losing everything. As he sets out to seduce her into marriage, he’s shocked to realize he’s done the one thing he previously believed himself incapable of along the way—he’s fallen in love. But Lottie’s bruised and battered heart is more guarded than his, and she has vowed to never allow another man to hurt her again.
Chapter One
Brandon was having a nightmare.
That was the only explanation for the sight opposite him, he was certain of it. Either that, or he had imbibed one ofKing’s ingenious brews and was now suffering the delusional aftereffects of the dubious elixir.
“Have you nothing to say for yourself, Brandon?”
The sharp, censorious voice, however, was disturbingly real. As was the glacial green-eyed glare so similar to his own. And the massive, billowing silk gown, beneath which hid a crinoline more suited to the fashions of thirty years ago than now.
He blinked, hoping the action would dispel the image before him. Pull him from the throes of sleep. Cast away the demons brought about by one of King’s inspired concoctions.
But no.
His grandmother remained.
Hellfire. Perhaps she was real after all.
Brandon cleared his throat. “I do beg your pardon, Grandmother, but I have no notion of what I ought to be saying for myself.”
“Have you not heard a word I have just spoken?”
Admittedly, he had been wool-gathering. Hoping he had found himself thrown into some slumberous alternate reality.
“I’m afraid not,” he conceded.
Her nostrils flared, and for a fanciful moment, he imagined her breathing fire like a mythical dragon swooping in to scorch him and other unsuspecting mortals in her path.
“I will begin again, Brandon,” she said succinctly, as if she feared very much he possessed the mental acuity to comprehend. “Do try to heed me this time.”
Her scolding was nothing new; Grandmother had always been harder than granite. Although her dark hair had long since turned snowy and the face that had made her the most-sought-after debutante of her day was now lined, there was nary a hint of infirmity surrounding her. She was a tiny wren of a woman, but sturdy of form.
Now, as ever, she terrified him.
Brandon shifted on his dashed uncomfortable chair, wishing he’d had the forethought to have Grandmother await him somewhere other than the drawing room, a chamber he scarcely used for its Louis Quinze devotion. “Of course. Pray, proceed.”
She inclined her head and with a regal air, continued. “As I was saying, a visitor most unexpected and uninvited paid a call upon me yesterday. I am told she was turned away by your domestics. Ordinarily, I would have no desire to concern myself with such matters. Indeed, it is most unseemly. However, the child has your eyes and nose.”
Surely he must have misheard.
“The child?” he repeated, feeling as if the world had suddenly turned on its head.
