Lover Be Mine A Legendary Lovers Novel - By Nicole Jordan Page 0,103
I didn’t want him to be alone, particularly if there was no hope for his survival.”
“I know you did,” Sophie said solemnly. “Your protective streak is what made me fall in love with you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, indeed. As for our first day together, we have our entire future ahead of us, and this is a perfect beginning. I suspect that when we’ve grown old and gray, we will look back on today with great fondness.”
Pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, Jack tightened his arms around Sophie. It was an appealing thought, growing old with the love of his life.
“I only regret,” she added with a hint of exasperation, “that my father took so long to agree to our marriage.”
“At least he acted out of love for you. In all honesty, I’m glad you have your parents to cherish and protect you, even one as hardheaded as your father. My mother and my adoptive parents were just as protective. And I have no doubt we will feel the same protectiveness toward our children.”
Turning her head, Sophie glanced back at him, searching his face. “Is that a promise?”
“Absolutely.”
Apparently satisfied with his answer, she relaxed against him again and sighed with profound contentment.
Jack felt a similarly intense contentment as he held Sophie and marveled at his good fortune. Remarkably, he’d found the same kind of passionate love his mother had known, an all-encompassing ardor where no sacrifice was too large. But his would be the kind that only grew richer and deeper with time. A passionate, greedy, breath-stealing love, the kind his family was famous for.
“I am an incredibly lucky man,” Jack said against Sophie’s hair.
To his surprise, she didn’t concur. “I don’t know about that. I would say that you made your own luck by pursuing me against all odds.”
“True.”
“I never stood the slightest chance of resisting you, did I?”
He heard the smile in her voice—and in his own voice when he responded. “Not the slightest inkling of a fraction.”
Sophie’s soft laughter warmed his heart. “My aunt was right. You are a prince of rogues, Lord Jack Wilde.” She turned fully in his embrace and lifted her face for his kiss. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
My heartfelt thanks to the wonderful vets
and caretakers who helped my mare Riva recover:
Dr. Ross Rich and the Cave Creek Clinic crew,
Jean Franzmeier, Judy Weiss, Heather Bruch, and Dr. Debra Tibbetts.
And especially to Dr. Charmian Wright,
who’s always been there
when my “kids” needed her most.
BY NICOLE JORDAN
Legendary Lovers
Princess Charming
Lover Be Mine
The Courtship Wars
To Pleasure a Lady
To Bed a Beauty
To Seduce a Bride
To Romance a Charming Rogue
To Tame a Dangerous Lord
To Desire a Wicked Duke
Paradise Series
Master of Temptation
Lord of Seduction
Wicked Fantasy
Fever Dreams
Notorious Series
The Seduction
The Passion
Desire
Ecstasy
The Prince of Pleasure
Other Novels
The Lover
The Warrior
Touch Me with Fire
Read on for a look at Book Three in
Nicole Jordan’s sizzling
Legendary Lovers series,
Secrets of Seduction
East Sussex, England, September 1816
She had never before pursued a man, but in matters of the heart, sometimes a lady needed to take fate into her own hands.
In the gathering dusk, Lady Skye Wilde peered through her carriage window at the hulking mansion shrouded in fog and drizzling rain. Built two centuries before, Hawkhurst Castle was an enormous edifice of gold-hued stone, complete with turrets. Once magnificent, it looked forsaken now, although faint lights shone in a lower-story window, giving Skye hope that her mission would not be in vain.
The Earl of Hawkhurst needed a bride, and she intended to interview for the position.
In truth, she’d been plotting this moment all summer long, ever since learning of Lord Hawkhurst’s intention to marry again. Now that the moment was at hand, an army of butterflies was doing battle in her stomach.
Skye was keenly aware her entire future could depend on this first meeting.
Before she lost her nerve, she pulled her cloak hood over her fair hair and stepped down from her carriage into the rain. No doubt it was idiotic to purposely get caught in a storm, yet the brewing tempest played well into her scheme to plant herself on the earl’s front doorstep. A downpour increased the odds that he would take pity on her and provide her shelter, perhaps even allow her to stay the night.
An ominous flash of lightning in the near distance warned Skye that she had little time before the worst hit. Even so, she hesitated to approach the sweeping stone steps that led up to the massive front door.
Actually, she had encountered the earl only once, yet Hawkhurst—known as Hawk to