The Duke is Wicked (League of Lords #3) - Tracy Sumner Page 0,94

on Simon as the boy disappeared into the thicket of English oak bordering the lawn. “I can’t read a dead person’s mind, thank God. But Emma’s thoughts came to me. Like her visage, faint and faded, but there. Fragments of panicked reflection and fond emotion when she looked at Simon.” He rubbed the heel of his hand over his chest. “She feels strongly for him, too.”

“A time traveler,” Humphrey said in a weary voice. “Just what we need around here to liven things up.”

Sebastian linked his fingers with Delaney’s and tugged her in the direction of the orangery, away from the growing debate about a girl named Emma. He leaned in, his breath whispering warmly past her ear. “How long do we have until the next feeding? My darling girl is on a rather tight schedule for her meals, I’m proud to say.”

She caught her husband’s gaze, a spiral of heat darting between her thighs at the look in his eyes. “An hour, maybe less.”

His hand clenched around hers as he strode ahead, gently pulling her along behind him, his signet ring glinting in the light. “Not ideal, but acceptable.”

Delaney dipped her head, her joy limitless, but her embarrassment real. “They know where we’re going. Everyone knows what we do amongst your orange trees.”

Turning to walk backward, Sebastian dragged her into his arms and captured her mouth, making her world tilt. “I’m fine with that, Temple.”

She grinned up at him, her smile almost matching the brilliance of his. “Me, too, Tremont.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Lifting her skirt, she broke into a run, a challenge he wouldn’t be able to ignore. “Nothing, my wicked duke, absolutely nothing.”

~ END ~

Thank you for reading Sebastian and Delaney’s love story! I hope you enjoyed The Duke is Wicked as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Come along for Finn and Victoria’s wild ride in The Rake is Taken (book 2) and Julian and Piper’s tumultuous affair in The Lady is Trouble (book 1).

Next up? Simon and Emma’s magical, time-traveling tale, The Hellion is Tamed.

Read on for a sneak-peek of The Rake is Taken (book 2)!

The Rake is Taken

A gorgeous psychic.

An unwanted betrothal.

A tantalizing compromise.

An independent hellion, a thief of time, and the only woman who can capture his heart…

Lady Victoria Hamilton has a supernatural gift, a fiancé, and a guardian angel. She just never expected her protector to be the most dazzling man in England, a devilish scoundrel they call the Blue Bastard. Victoria has agreed to marry for duty, not love, but her unforeseen desire for her mystical angel threatens to destroy not only her plans for the future but the armor surrounding her susceptible heart.

A confirmed scoundrel, a mind reader, and the only man she desires…

Illegitimate son of a viscount and reigning king of London’s gossip sheets, Finn Alexander has spent a lifetime hiding his ability to read minds behind charming smiles and wicked behavior. No one knows the real man, and he likes it that way. Until he meets the lone woman who sees the man beneath the disguise—a blue-blooded temptress with the power to bring him to his knees.

As they embark on a journey of passion and friendship, Victoria and Finn must decide if they’re willing to risk everything for the promise of true, magical love.

Prologue

In a very loathsome part of the city…

London, 1855

Finn had two choices. Which wasn’t dreadful, as he often had none.

Trust the word of the men waiting in the alley outside his lean-to. Or run. When he’d spent all nine years of his life running. Dodging misfortune, grasping hands, chaotic dreams, and thoughts not his own.

There’d been a life before. He had memories. A girl with flaxen hair clutching his hand as they raced through a field of some splendid purple flower, her smile wide, her gaze focused on him in a way no one’s had since. But those memories were as out of reach as Queen Victoria’s blooming crown, as murky as the rotten, throat-stinging stew hanging over the river outside his door.

Finn wiped his nose on his tattered sleeve and shivered, a frigid gust tearing inside his shack and sending the city’s stench into his nostrils. A reminder of how close to the bone he lived. All he didn’t have. Opportunities he couldn’t afford to miss.

The men, their promises, could be a good thing.

Against the better judgment of a world trying to beat that belief out of him, Finn hadn’t given up on good things.

He glanced around the dark, dank warren he’d constructed beneath