Gently Daniel dropped a hand to her shoulder. Lizzie felt her breath catch in her throat as she anticipated his next move.
Slowly, so slowly, Daniel ran his fingers along the neckline of her dress, and she knew she’d scream if he didn’t delve deeper. Lizzie knew what they were doing was wrong, but she also knew that if Daniel stopped she would shatter from pure frustration.
Daniel stopped. Lizzie moaned, trying to pull him closer again, not caring if she was behaving like a common street walker. She wanted Daniel. Her body was screaming out in need of him.
She looked up with unfocused eyes and saw the confusion on his face. Of everything she’d expected to see there, confusion hadn’t been part of it.
Lizzie wondered once again what he saw when he looked at her. She knew he couldn’t truly be attracted to her, but when he kissed her it seemed so real, so passionate, she couldn’t believe he didn’t feel some spark of desire. Surely even the most consummate of actors couldn’t fake what they had just shared?
I started to write An Earl in Want of a Wife when I was heavily pregnant, and when I was planning this book my mind was taken up with all things to do with children. In this day and age in our society it does not much matter if your parents are married or not when you’re born, but with motherhood looming I got to thinking about families in Regency England. I realised that illegitimacy had far-reaching consequences for those living a couple of hundred years ago, and a man with an illegitimate child would have had many difficult decisions to make. With all this in my mind Daniel, a gentleman agonising over such decisions, was born.
As Daniel’s character developed I realised he needed a very special woman to help him overcome not only the harsh judgements of society but also his own sometimes misguided ideas about fatherhood. Lizzie is that woman. She is the quintessential ugly duckling, but throughout the book she blossoms into a confident young woman. When writing An Earl in Want of a Wife I was infused with the sentimentality of pregnancy, and I wanted her to find her happy ending just as I would my own child.
An Earl in Want of a Wife
Laura Martin
LAURA MARTIN writes historical romances with an adventurous undercurrent. When not writing she spends her time working as a doctor in Cambridgeshire, where she lives with her husband. In her spare moments Laura loves to lose herself in a book, and has been known to read cover to cover in a single day when the story is particularly gripping. She also loves to travel, especially visiting historical sites and far-flung shores.
For Jack, my constant companion.
Your smile melts my heart.
And for Luke.
Every day with you is even better than the last.
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