Secrets of a Perfect Night

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Overview

Once upon a time, three young women each attended a New Year's Eve ball...The moon shone brightly, music filled the air. Kisses were stolen and promises made. But what happens when morning comes?

Stephanie Laurens

A new year brings new scandal when a rake awakens in the bed of the flame-haired temptress who had seduced him years before. All of society has them bedded, but can he convince her to become wedded?

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Author Information

Bio of Victoria Alexander

New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full-time and is still shocked it worked out. Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she has written twenty-one full-length novels and six novellas. Her books have hit the top ten on the New York Times bestseller list and regularly appear on the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, as well. She has twice been nominated for the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award. Victoria credits much of her writing success to her experiences as a reporter. Her years as a broadcast journalist were spent in two radically different areas of the country: West Virginia and Nebraska. In West Virginia, she covered both natural and manmade disasters. She was on the scene when a power plant construction accident in a small town left 52 men dead. She once spent the night on a mountain waiting to learn of the fate of coal miners trapped in a mine collapse. Victoria was producing a newscast when her husband (who worked at the same television station) and several other journalists were held hostage by a disturbed Vietnam veteran. In Nebraska, she reported on the farm crisis and watched people lose land that had been in their families for generations. She covered the story that was the basis of the movie Boys Don't Cry and once acted as the link between police and a gunman who had barricaded himself in his home. Her investigative work exposed the trucking of New York City garbage to a small-town dump in rural Nebraska. During her journalism career, Victoria covered every president from Ford to Clinton. She knows firsthand what it feels like to be surrounded by rising floodwaters and inside a burning building. She's interviewed movie stars, including Kevin Costner; ridden an elephant; and flown in a governor's helicopter. She's covered a national political convention and Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Denver, as well as small-town festivals celebrating everything from walnuts to Glenn Miller. Her work was honored by numerous organizations, including the Associated Press who called her feature about a firefighter's school "storytelling genius." It was the encouragement she needed to turn from news to fiction. She's never looked back. Victoria grew up traveling the world as an Air Force brat. Today, she lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband (whose name she routinely uses when she needs a dead husband in a book), two kids in college (buy her books!), two bearded collies who believe they're human, a house under constant renovation and the accompanying parade of men in tool belts, and never-ending chaos. She laughs a great deal--she has to. Victoria claims her love of romance and journalism is due to the influence of her favorite comic book character: Lois Lane, a terrific reporter and a great heroine who pursued Superman with an unwavering determination. And why not? He was extremely well-drawn.

Bio of Rachel Gibson

With the publication of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rachel Gibson's first book, readers discovered one of contemporary romance's freshest voices. Four of her novels were named among the Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year by Romance Writers of America. Rachel's storytelling career began at the age of sixteen when she ran her Chevy Vega into the side of a hill, retrieved the bumper and broken glass from the ground, and drove to her high school parking lot. With the help of her friend, she strategically scattered the broken pieces and told her parents she'd been the victim of a hit and run. They believed her, and she's been telling stories ever since. When not writing, Rachel can be found boating on Payette Lake with Mr. Gibson, shopping for shoes, or forcing her love on an ungrateful cat.

Bio of Stephanie Laurens

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens began writing historical romances as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly ballooned into a career with the publication of her wildly popular novels about the Cynster family. She currently has 30 novels and 4 novellas published, all of which are continually in print. All of her novels have been translated into other languages and are published around the globe. Her last 15 books have been New York Times bestsellers, many in both hardcover and mass market editions. From her home outside Melbourne, Australia, where she lives with her husband and two feline princes, Stephanie continues to pen her signature historical romances set in Regency England. Her latest work, Beyond Seduction, is the sixth book in a group of novels about the members of the exclusive Bastion Club introduced in the novel The Lady Chosen. All of Stephanie's historical romances form part of the larger "World of Stephanie Laurens."

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

880.67 KB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9780061171925

Excerpt from: Secrets of a Perfect Night by Victoria Alexander

Chapter One
New Year's Day 1823

After the Cavendish-Mayhews' New Year's Eve ball, Adrian Andrew Hawsley, sixth Viscount Dere, swore off women, He had had enough-figuratively and literally.

Slowing his blacks for a turn, Adrian drew in the chill air, then exhaled; his breath misted instantly.

"There 'tis." From his perch behind him, his tiger, Bolt, a grizzled veteran, pointed to a sign.

Adrian nodded. Although it was past midday, the grip of the early morning freeze had yet to slacken; he kept his horses to a wary trot as he set the curricle down the road to the southwest.

Despite the weather, he was determined to press on. With every mile that passed he felt better, as if a vise locked about his lungs for so long he'd forgotten it was there were finally easing open, as if a weight he'd forgotten he was carrying on his shoulders were lifting away.

By the end of last night's ball, he'd been fed up--overwhelmingly bored and not a little disgusted. If a crown existed for the premier lover in the ton, he could probably legitimately claim it--indeed, it would very likely be offered to him on a purple silk pillow. Discretion, absolute and inviolate, might have been his watchword for years; despite that, the ton had learned enough to form its own opinion of his prowess, his expertise. Much of the gossip was true, which left him with little doubt as to the sources of the information. As a result, a competition had developed with ladies vying to see who next could command his highly regarded attentions. Over the past few years, he had never lacked for invitations to ladies' beds.

Bad enough. The Cavendish-Mayhews' ball had been worse.

Ladies of amorous intent had surrounded him until he'd felt hunted. He did not appreciate the inversion of roles--far as he was concerned, he was the hunter, theyshould lie the prey These days that wasn't how it was. Two sorts of women lay in wait to ambush him-most were married ladies whose only interest was in trying out his paces so that they could say they, too, had I partaken of the latest acclaimed experience. Such mesdames jostled check by jowl with unmarried ladies plotting his matrimonial downfall, their calculating eyes fixed on his title and burgeoning wealth rather than on his more personal talents.

He didn't know which he disliked more. He'd felt like a fox cornered by slavering hounds.

Enough. More than enough. It was time to take charge of his life and steer it ... into deeper waters.

He uttered a short laugh. The superficiality of his life did indeed grate. He was thirty today--it was his birthday. What had he thus far accomplished in his life? Nothing. Where was his life headed? He didn't know, but he was determined to set his wheels on a different road.

At present his curricle's wheels were rolling down the road to Exeter. He'd left the Cavendish-Mayhews' mansion outside Glastonbury early that morning while all the bejewelled ladies were still snug in their beds. None had shared his, which fact had caused no little confusion and, even some annoyance. He was there, wasn't he? They expected him to perform, to live up to his, scandalous reputation, all for their amusement. The ton, as he well knew, could be a demanding world. They could demand all they liked-he was no longer interested in playing their games.