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    A Talent for Temptation
    A Talent for Temptation
    A Talent for Temptation
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    A Talent for Temptation

    By Sabrina Jeffries

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Filled with New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries’s signature charm and wit, this novella in the hugely popular Sinful Suitors series is sure to tempt you!

    Widow Meriel Vyse is stunned speechless when someone tries to abduct her on her way to a ball. Fortunately, Quinn Raines, her secret beau, shows up to foil the attack. Unfortunately, as the two of them are struggling with her abductor, Meriel accidentally stabs Quinn with a knife.

    Unbeknownst to Meriel, Quinn set up the fake abduction so he could play the hero and win her hand in marriage. But now that his plan has gone disastrously awry, can he convince her that he’s still the man for her?

    Sabrina Jeffries brings her famous “quick pacing, witty dialogue, and charmingly original characters” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) to this enchanting romance.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPocket Star
    Release dateOct 2, 2017
    ISBN9781501144530
    A Talent for Temptation
    Author

    Sabrina Jeffries

    At the tender age of twelve, Sabrina Jeffries decided she wanted to be a romance writer. It took her eighteen more years and a boring stint in graduate school before she sold her first book, but now her sexy and humorous historical romances routinely land on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists and have won several awards. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and son, where she writes full-time and is working on her next novel.

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      Book preview

      A Talent for Temptation - Sabrina Jeffries

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      To my sister-in-law Audrey Corliss, who has always been there for me, my husband, and my son. We love you, Audrey!

      One

      Mrs. Meriel Vyse hurried down the stairs of the Fulkham town house in a most unladylike manner. If she could complete this task for her brother-in-law, Gregory Vyse, the Baron Fulkham, before midnight, perhaps—

      Madam? their butler, Nunley, said, giving her velvet ball gown a once-over. His lordship’s mother told me you’re attending an exhibit at Somerset House while she’s playing cards with her friends down the street.

      Blast, she’d forgotten to tell the servants about the change in plans. I had intended to, yes. She jerked on her gloves. Until Lord High-and-Mighty Undersecretary to the Office for War and the Colonies decided that since he had to be at some secret meeting until the wee hours of the morning, I had all the time in the world to trundle off to a ball and assess some foreign princess for him.

      Nunley’s lips twitched as if he badly wanted to comment.

      What? she demanded. I know what you’re thinking, so you might as well just say it.

      It is not my place—

      Oh, don’t play that game with me, Nunley. You and I have been through too much to stand on ceremony now.

      He huffed out a breath. "Madam, I am trying to improve my skills as a butler for the day when the master ascends to the cabinet. And one of those skills involves not blurting out the first thing that comes into my head."

      You’re right, Nunley. I’m sorry. The last person she should be snapping at was him. "Still, you needn’t be discreet with me. I rely on you for your frank opinions."

      He softened. As you wish, madam. If you must know, my opinion is that since you were looking forward to the exhibit, you should perhaps, just this once, refuse to do as his lordship asks.

      Nunley! It is most unlike you to suggest such a thing. And decidedly not what she’d assumed he was thinking. I can’t refuse Gregory. I owe him too much. Both of us do.

      And you have repaid him for it repeatedly in the past four years.

      Not enough. She shook her head. Never enough.

      I believe Lieutenant Vyse would have said otherwise.

      Possibly. And Nunley would certainly know. Before he’d come to work for Gregory, he’d been a sergeant under John. He probably knew as much, or more, about her late husband as she did.

      And an awful lot about her, too. Like the fact that she craved a normal life free of schemes and spying and subterfuge, something that Gregory didn’t seem to realize. Something she was too much of a coward to tell him.

      She sighed. In any case, he’s merely asking me to attend a ball. What woman could reasonably complain about that?

      Though Nunley raised an eyebrow, he dutifully helped her on with her blue velvet cloak. I called for the carriage before you came down, but we shall have to inform the coachman of the change in direction.

      Of course, she said dully. Nunley was right—she had been looking forward to the exhibit. Or rather, to her tryst.

      As if Nunley had read her mind, he said, What about your young man? You said he’d be going to the exhibit as well.

      She winced. Quinn Raines is not my ‘young man.’ At nearly thirty, he wasn’t even all that young. And at twenty-seven, neither was she. He’s a friend, nothing more. When Nunley narrowed his gaze on her, she rolled her eyes. All right, he is more of a . . . flirtation.

      A suitor.

      Nunley could be entirely too perceptive sometimes. I should never have told you about him, she complained. And you’re sure Gregory hasn’t guessed that I spend time with Mr. Raines? Which was the only reason she’d involved Nunley—so he could keep an ear out for what Gregory knew.

      I’m sure. But you should tell his lordship yourself.

      I can’t. If he knew I was engaged in a flirtation that will go nowhere, he wouldn’t approve. His sister-in-law must behave above reproach, or how can he rise in politics?

      Why must your ‘flirtation’ go nowhere? Why not just marry your young man?

      She stared out the window. "Because we’re from different worlds. His mother is the daughter of a Spanish count, for pity’s sake! You can well imagine what she’d think to hear the truth about me."

      She might not care. And if Mr. Raines cares that much, he’s not the man for you anyway.

      Meriel was afraid to find out how much he cared. Because Quinn was the wealthy scion of the prominent Raines banking family, while she . . .

       . . . was indebted to Gregory. As a result, she felt she must support his furtive work, if only just in the planning. She was his secretary, so to speak. And sometimes his spy.

      Quinn could never be part of that. She wouldn’t want him to be. As the director of his father’s bank, Quinn had to be discreet and cautious and averse to the sort of risks Gregory’s minions took regularly in service to their country. Not to mention that having a wife with her sordid past would ruin him if it ever got out.

      She should never have taken up with Quinn. But it had begun as a flirtation, and by the time she realized it was something more, she’d become so addicted to their little trysts . . . to him  . . .

      Anyway, she went on, squaring her shoulders, "he may not be at the exhibit now even if I did go. I sent a note by the footman a few hours ago, telling him I couldn’t

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