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She’s the other sister…
Overshadowed by the beauty of her older sister, Lillian is better known as the other Tisdale; unremarkable and unsure how she will ever deliver on the promise of her family's name.
He’s a rake in need of reforming…
Will Colton leads a frivolous existence, embracing notoriety instead of managing his family’s fortune. Determined to forget his financial burden and his father’s growing resentment, he maintains a lifestyle dedicated to pleasure and self-indulgence. When Will is invited to the Tisdale estate for an extended holiday, he never expects to become friends with the forgettable Lillian. But when a family secret comes to light, he must choose between leaving London and protecting the honor of one woman or staying and risking the reputation of another.
Upon his return, Will finds the girl he left behind has come out of the shadows and into her own. Lillian’s finally the center of attention, and not all of it good. With his own reputation in tatters, can a reformed rake lure her out of the hands of London's bachelors and back into his own arms? Can he escape his past and reclaim her heart, or has he lost her forever?
Read an exclusive excerpt:
“Psst.”
The sound startled her and she dropped her charcoal. Lilly narrowed her gaze and looked around the garden, half-expecting Tamsin to jump out at any moment and scare her half to death.
Lilly set her sketch pad to the side and stood up, her heart still beating madly. As soon as she found the ginger-haired menace, she planned on giving her a proper wallop.
“Up here.”
Lilly looked up and saw the unmistakable figure of a man. She gasped, her pulse bounding in her ears. The sun was high and from her position she could only make out his outline. She shielded her eyes from the light and the shape slowly started to become discernible.
Suddenly, she was nauseous.
“Lord Colton! How did you get in here?” The wall was nearly eight feet tall surrounding the back gardens.
He looked down at her from his branch. “I scaled the wall and then made my way up this tree.”
“How-”
Will held his hand up, stopping her mid-sentence. “I used to be quite good at sneaking into places, climbing walls, trellises, whatever it took. Apparently, I never lost the skill. I’m a little rusty, but not half bad if I do say so myself.”
She hated to think about just how many bedrooms he’d snuck into over the years to have grown so accomplished in a skill that had so little respectable applications. Lilly looked around, validating that she was indeed alone. “You must leave at once.” If she were found alone with him ...
“Aren’t you going to ask what I’m doing here?”
Lilly pressed her hand against her forehead. Was she feverish again? She looked up and found him smiling smugly down at her. “I don’t really care why you’re here, only that you leave straight away.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“No,” she argued. “You most certainly can. Just climb down from there, then leave the premises in the exact manner as you arrived. See—quite simple, indeed.”
Will climbed off the branch and made his way down the tree, shimmying down the trunk to the ground next to Lilly. “I tried to call on you earlier.”
Lilly shrugged. “We were busy. It’s Tuesday, my sister Ambrosia keeps a tight schedule and we don’t see callers on Tuesdays.”
He crossed his arms across his chest. “So, I had no choice but to take more drastic measures.”
“You’ve completely lost your mind! What made you so sure I’d come out here anyways? For all you know, I could have been any one of my sisters. You’re lucky Tamsin wasn’t the one to find you.”
He averted her gaze, choosing to look at the ground instead of her.
Then she knew.
“You knew it would be me. You’ve been watching me!”
He held his hands up, as if defending himself from an expected blow. “Not really.”
Her eyes grew wide and he quickly tried to appease her. “I asked after you specifically, and the butler told me that you’d be busy for the rest of the day, that Tuesday afternoons you like to draw in the garden. I just happened to catch a glimpse of your hair-”
“Over the wall? You just happened to catch a peek of my hair over this wall?” She pointed behind her at the wall that towered over the man before her.
Will cleared his throat. “It may have been a bit more involved than simply peeking.”
“And?” she asked, gesturing for him to move along with his story.
“And when I didn’t see you here, I figured I’d just wait for you to come out.”
“In a tree?”
“I thought it held some sentimental value.”
She felt her nostrils flare. “Wrong tree!”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t just stand here and wait for someone to see me. I had to hide somewhere.”
“Yes, of course,” she wrapped her arms around her middle. “Because that’s exactly what any rational person would have done,” she bit back, her voice dripping sarcasm.
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Chasing the Other Tisdale, Compromising Miss Tisdale, and Taming Miss Tisdale from Soul Mate Publishing, available now on Amazon!
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ReplyDeleteThe romantic cover is my favorite part of the post.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading today's excerpt.
ReplyDeleteI loved this excerpt. I really want to read all the books in this series.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteI love that he is going through all this trouble to get to talk to 'the plain' Tisdale sister. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI loved the cover and hearing about the book!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway! =)
It is a great cover.
ReplyDelete