Tempted (26 page)

“As to my heir, Charles Reinleigh Drummond Montgomery—”

At last. Rein perked up.

“—I leave nothing.”

Rein blinked. Blinked again. Then said in a low voice, “I beg your pardon?”

“I can, of course,” the solicitor read on, “do nothing about those lands that are entailed, however, the rest of my estate—those properties that produce the Wroxly wealth—those I leave in trust—”

In trust?

“Until such a day as a new heir is born, or the title passes on. Those lands will then revert to the rightful heir, unless—”

And Rein knew he wouldn’t like what came next. His hands clutched the arms of the red chair he sat in, his cheek twitching in a spasm he clenched it so hard.

“Unless the current Duke of Wroxly can prove his worth—”

What the blazes did
that
mean?

“—by living on his own for one month’s time without aid from friends or family, and without telling a single soul of his plight, and by leaving to do so immediately so as not to alert those friends and family, and so that he is unable to stash certain funds to help him through the process.”

Stash funds? What the
blazes
was the solicitor talking about?

“If, and only if,” the solicitor read on, “the new Duke of Wroxly succeeds in this endeavor, will he be allowed to inherit the properties mentioned above.”

“What the blazes
is
this?” Rein could contain himself no more.

The solicitor looked up, lowering the paper he’d been reading from to a position right above his well-polished cherry desk, the reflection of his nearly bald head a near mirror image on the desk’s surface.

“This,” the solicitor explained, the glass in his spectacles turning almost white with a glare, “is what the duke came up with to test you.”

“Test me?”

The solicitor nodded. “You, your grace, shall live on you own for one month’s time without aid from friends or family or servants, and without using a penny of your own wealth, nor telling anyone who you are. You must live by your wits and your wits alone, and if you do not—” The little man tapped the edges of the will on his desk. “—you won’t get a farthing from those properties not entailed. In short, your grace, if you fail in this challenge, you will be destroyed both financially and personally.”

And all Rein did was stare, his hands fingers clenching tighter and tighter until the fabric caught under his nails.

“Bastard,” he hissed.

THE EDITOR’ DIARY

Dear Reader,

Telling the truth isn’t easy, but sometimes keeping a secret is even harder. And the consequences can have devastating and sometimes naughty effects, as both Mary Callahan and Lily Holt have discovered in our Warner Forever titles this January.

Amanda Quick says, “
Pamela Britton
writes the kind of wonderfully romantic, sexy, witty historical romances that readers dream of discovering when they go into a bookstore.” Well, fear not—your dreams are about to come true with her newest book,
TEMPTED
. Alexander Drumming is certainly no innocent. With a rather colorful reputation behind him as a rake of the highest order, he has vowed to give up his wicked ways. But now he needs a woman—an amazing woman to tame his little hellcat of a daughter. Spirited and intelligent, Mary Callahan is the perfect nursemaid. But her luscious lips and mysterious, bedroom eyes look more like trouble than salvation to Alexander. For Mary is hiding a secret and soon these two people will find themselves on the brink of scandal and will learn the risks of mixing danger and desire …

Moving from naughty seductions in Regency England to a childhood sweetheart reunion, we offer
Susan Crandall
’s
THE ROAD HOME
. Karen Robards calls Susan Crandall “an up-and-coming star” and she couldn’t be more right. Desperate to make a new start, Lily Holt reluctantly moves back home to Indiana with her teenaged son. But they’ve barely unpacked their bags when he gets into trouble again. Hoping that a job at the local marina will straighten him out, Lily is shocked to learn his boss is Clay Winters, the man who broke her heart fourteen years ago. Common sense begs her to stay away, but she simply can’t resist the broad-shouldered man who can still make her feel like no one else can. Her body aches for him, as it did all those years ago. But as explosive secrets come to light, will he break her heart a second time or help her heal it?

To find out more about Warner Forever, these January titles, and the authors, visit us at
www.warnerforever.com
.

With warmest wishes,

Karen Kosztolnyik, Senior Editor

P.S. Valentine’s Day is coming up so celebrate it with a handful of chocolates and these two Warner Forever titles, guaranteed to make your heart skip a beat. Karen Rose pens a bone-chilling romantic suspense about a serial killer preying on teenaged girls and the widowed cop and his teenaged son’s schoolteacher who vow to bring him to justice in
HAVE YOU SEEN HER?
; and Kimberly Raye delivers the funny and sexy story of a woman who trades lessons in the art of sexual fulfillment for a handsome NASCAR driver’s insight into the male mind in
KISS ME ONCE, KISS ME TWICE
.