Matrimony! Love does not advertise. Love is not proud.
Title: IF I LOVED YOU
Author: Cerise DeLand
Genre: Regency Historical Romance
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Book Blurb:
MATRIMONY! #1. IF I LOVED YOU
Love does not advertise. Love counts no wrongs.
But when a young woman needs to escape an ogre, she’ll take an ad to find a man she can adore.
Verity Carr wants a new life in a new town far from her old home—and the vile threat to her body and soul. She comes from a fine family, has a good education and a bold ambition to become a portrait artist. She’s ready to live her life with a man who will value her. A husband she can can respect—and in time, hopefully love. Yet valiant though she is, she questions if she can escape her past and the one who will not let her go.
Can a gentleman to whom great wrong was done, build a new life with a true wife and leave the past behind?
Miles St.John Armstrong never should have wed his first wife. He vows to select a new one with logic and careful investigation—via advertisement. The young lady he selects is Verity Carr who is no ordinary woman. She has charm, wit and a beauty that sears his soul. No wonder theirs is a relationship built quickly on admiration and trust. No wonder their marriage becomes one built of mutual mad passion.
But devoted as they are, their past comes to call.
And it asks of them the ultimate question: Can their love withstand the tempest and survive the terror?
Excerpt, IF I LOVED YOU. Copyright, 2023, Cerise DeLand.
Miles had not known her for more than a few hours, but he’d seen her shock over such a sizable bequest. Certainly he could revel in the good fortune of anyone. But if she had suspicions about who had given her such a large inheritance and did not wish to discuss it with him, he could understand that, too. But her new-found gain, enough to support her at current standards in meager means for her lifetime, could lead her to break their agreement to marry. The possibility of losing her created an ache in his heart. A place he’d never expected to feel anything at all ever again.
As they entered the Grosvenor Gate and passed the park wall, she strode more slowly and breathed more deeply. They took a turn on the path south and one glance at her told him she was more at ease.
“I hate to spoil your enjoyment,” he said, “but I think we should not walk here much longer. The shadows grow deeper.”
“You are right, of course.” She had her hands in her coat pockets as she stopped and spun toward him. “You have been very good to me today.”
He raised a hand, his smile wry. “No more gratitude, please. I am quite thanked.”
She stopped, faced him and tipped her head, suddenly the coquette, though to him, she did not seem to have planned the spontaneity of such an attitude. She was without guile—and he valued that unexpected characteristic more than he could ever have imagined.
“You are a darling man,” she said with an honesty that emphasized her simplicity and lack of artifice.
“You are kind to think so.” He remembered a few instances when the moniker he deserved was the opposite. Savage. Insane. Gullible. All came to mind in a rush of bile.
She put her hands to his and held tightly. “Do you still want to marry a woman you barely know?”
“I’d like to marry you, if you’ll have me.”
She shook her head as if the whole idea were impossible. “Why? Why?”
“I want a wife. A friend. I am lonely. You seem a gentle soul. I think we would do well together.”
“I cannot imagine that you have not met a thousand young ladies you know better than me who would not make you a friend and wife because they do know you better.”
But they knew his past, too. His wife. “I would never find happiness with any I’ve met. They see me as the mill owner, a cit with a new title, an upstart viscount, too rich for his title. They also see me as a widower.” Not knowing I am more aggrieved than grieving.
She stood immobile, only her large eyes searching his for what he would not reveal. “Did you love her?”
“When I married her, yes.”
“And do you miss her?”
“No.”
She nodded. “I see. Then your loneliness comes not from her lack.”
“No. It does not.”
She gulped. “Do you want children?”
He blinked and peered up at the deep blue clouds scudding across a darker moonlit sky. “I have not wished for that in many years. But now,” he said as he met her frank gaze, “I believe I would.”
She smiled as if he’d just given her the keys to the kingdom. “I would, too.”
He stepped closer to her, dropped her hands and cupped her shoulders. Her luscious curves fit into the planes of his suddenly very needy self. “Might we proceed to getting them?”
She arched her neck and let her eyes dance into his. “First we must be wed.”
“Will day after tomorrow do?”
“Quite well,” she said on a delighted laugh. “And then we must become better friends.”
He sent his fingers up into the heavy coil of hair at her nape. Her skin was as soft as charmeuse and her hair smelled of lavender. She’d been in his arms often today and her need had been great. Now, he would test to see if she might come for a new and startling reason. Might she come because she could want him? Want him as a man? As her lover?
She pulled back a little, a question on her plump lips. “Friends kiss.”
“They do,” he said with a smile that grew from a friend’s to a ravenous man’s. “Shall we?”
She studied his mouth and swallowed hard. “Oh, yes. From the moment I heard your voice on the Great North Road, I have wanted to know how you taste.”
“Well, then,” he said as he loomed over her lips, “we must not delay.”
She circled her arms around his shoulders and pushed up on her toes. “Please don’t.”
The temptation to take her with all the ardor he bore her raged through him. He could not devour her like a satyr. He was a man who had foresworn passion and love. A man of reason and temperance. But then…
She put her lips to his, a brush of warm temptation. The sensation of her desire met the one of his quest as if two stars collided in the dark of night. Blinded by it, he groaned and caught her up. Her mouth was lush, and as his tongue invaded, he knew how hot her body was. How sweet. He swept the inside of her mouth and felt her complete surrender. This was what he’d craved. A woman who might love him.
He pulled away, breathless, cupping her cheek. “Darling, we must stop.”
In the shadows of the soft spring evening, she tipped her head and smiled at him. “You’ll kiss me again?”
“As often as you wish.”
There again was that sweet woman who drew him to her with the artless look of enchantment. “Must I tell you each time?”
“No,” he said on a laugh and hugged her close, then set her from him. “Only look at me like that, my darling, and I am yours.”
“As I am forever yours,” she said and put her arm in his to turn and walk home.
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Author Biography:
Cerise DeLand is the USA TODAY Bestselling Author who believes love brings rich rewards from a life lived with honesty, valor—and a functioning funnybone.
Known for her poetic elegance and accuracy of detail, she's won awards for many of the more than 70 novels she's written.
Her work has been nearly life-long! First published in 1991 by Kensington, then Pocket Books, St. Martin’s Press and independent presses, she is now published by DRAGONBLADE PUBLISHING. Plus her books have been monthly selections of the Doubleday Book Club and the Mystery Guild.
To research, she’s dived into the oldest texts and dustiest library shelves. She travels abroad taking good walking shoes, big notebooks, trusty pens and a camera! She visits chateaux and country homes she loves to people with her own imaginary characters.
And at home every day? She cooks. (Every night.) Never dusts. (That can be a problem.) She goes swimming or pumps iron once a week and tries (desperately) to grow vegetables in her arid backyard in south Texas!
Social Media Links:
Website: www.cerisedeland.com
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Title: BECAUSE OF YOU
Author: Cerise DeLand
Genre: Regency Historical Romance
Publisher: Dragonblade
Book Blurb:
MATRIMONY! #2 BECAUSE OF YOU
Love does not advertise. Love is not proud.
But when a young woman has nothing left but pride, she places an ad and hopes for a husband to treasure.
Miss ‘Daisy’ Molyneaux is desperate. All her family is dead. Her home in Normandy, attacked by mobs. Now that the little general has abdicated, she has a chance to gain back her lands. But she needs a husband who will help her regain her rights. So she pays to post an advert for a husband.
When the man who answers is not one she could ever love, but his nephew could be, can she accept his proposal?
Garrick Ruxton appears to her like a golden-haired hero, a handsome creature who saves her from an imperfect marriage. Garrick vows to accompany Daisy to France and, in the bargain, solve his own problem. His shipments, meant for British forces on the Continent, constantly go missing. He knows not who or how or why the thieves steal his goods. Worse, someone has attempted to kill his uncle. Daisy, too.
Garrick must find all those guilty before he is accused of treason. Before Daisy loses all hope of regaining her rights. And before they both lose the one chance they have to find happiness together.
Excerpt, All rights reserved. Copyright, Cerise DeLand, 2023
The next morning, Garrick and Daisy bade farewell to the coachman who had driven them to the Dover inn Garrick had chosen. Exhausted from their poor night’s rest from the bumpy ride in the sparely upholstered carriage, he led Daisy up the stairs to the largest room in the old inn.
The porters carried up their trunks and valises while the innkeeper stoked the fire higher. Within minutes, the newlyweds were alone.
No sooner had he helped her off with her pelisse, she spun to face him, her gaze full of a lazy speculation that endeared her to him more than seemed usual for a new bride on her first morning—at the ungodly hour of eight.
She pressed her hands to his chest, her fingers upon the buttons of his waistcoat. “How adept are you, sir, at being a ladies’ maid?”
He understood the many questions she sought to have him answer. He cocked a brow at her, and covered her hands resting upon his beating heart. “I have had a little experience. But I will seek to perfect my skill with only you.”
She lifted her chin, bravery the first look on her lovely face, coquettishness the next. “I have no experience as a valet. But I want to become accomplished. With only you.”
“How good to know.” He grinned and cupped her cheeks. “Might I kiss my valet?”
She chuckled softly and tipped her head to and fro. “Well… If I can kiss my maid.”
He traced his thumb along the edge of her lower lip. “Please do.”
She rose on her toes.
He brought her against him, sliding his arms around her slim waist, her lips a breath away from his.
At the first touch of her mouth to his, his mind went blank. Her skin was silk. A smooth brush of her flesh on his, and his hope soared high. Her kiss was fresh, naïve, and hot. His response was careful, tender. She leaned against him, her search for something more apparent in her haste. And he gave it to her.
Crushing her close, he braced himself to hold her tightly to him. This time, he bent and captured those lips that had tormented him since she had kissed him nights ago. This time, he showed her how a groom kissed his bride. He could not bury his need, and he took her with a desire that shocked him.
And to his surprise, she did not pull away but met him, kiss for kiss, until, breathless, she pulled away.
She tipped back her head to examine him, her brown eyes dancing in the dim firelight. “If I’d known maids kissed like this, I would have tried it sooner.”
He threw back his head to laugh. He should let her go. He was a cad to possess her so, but he wanted her ever nearer, around him, inside him. “The valets I’ve known never offered much appeal.”
She touched a fingertip to his mouth. “I’m pleased.”
“We have years to learn the art.”
Her long, dark lashes fluttered, and he saw in her eyes how relief warred with want and won. “I am tired.”
“Turn around.”
She presented her back. He undid her garments, even the hated half-corset with all the mistakes of his fumbling fingers. When she clutched her undone garments to her shoulders, he drew her back against him and blessed the long, graceful arc of her throat with his lips. “Climb into bed, valet. It’s cold and we are both tired.”
She whirled to face him. “And you will come to sleep beside me, won’t you?”
There was only one bed and only one place he wished to be. “I will.” He touched the tip of her perfect nose. “Go.”
When, minutes later, he climbed under the heavy quilts to lie down beside her and curl her against him with an arm across her waist, she snuggled backward. “We’ll stay warmer if we share our heat.”
He wanted to groan, but from somewhere he found forbearance and repositioned his hips to be less suggestive. “A challenge for me, Mrs. Ruxton.”
“I know,” she said, sending a little giggle to the night air. “Thank you for everything.”
“There is no need for that.”
“Oh, but there is, Garrick. I must tell you…I must. I did not want to marry Daniel.”
In her stilted words Garrick found confirmation of what he’d suspected with her avoidance of his uncle the past few days. Some humor would do in lieu of a discussion of her meaning. “He would have been a terrible maid.”
She flinched at his words. “I could never be his valet.”
“No, my darling.” Garrick kissed her shapely, bare shoulder. “You are mine.”
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NEW RELEASE!!!!
Title: You Made Me Love You (Matrimony! Book 3)
Author: Cerise De Land
Genre: Historical Romance
Book Blurb:
Love does not advertise.Love extracts no price.
When a young widow wishes to marry again, will the man she grows to love ask more than she can give?
Mrs. Tynley Wallingford yearns for a quiet, comforting marriage to a man whom she can respect. She’ll go to any lengths to find the best candidate who can respect her, in turn. Even correspond with one fellow at length before she agrees that Kendryck Hollens is the man whose words awaken her desire for a husband she might grow to love.Tynley takes a risk and sails to Wales with the best intentions. She finds in Kendryck a man with a noble ambition—and a family filled with age-old conflict and despair.
Kendryck Hollens returns home to Wales after fifteen years abroad, a stranger to his cantankerous family. He assumes his rightful title as baron of the legendary house of Strade and attempts to change the dastardly reputation of his ancestors, and put his siblings on the right path to a purposeful life.Thrilled that Tynley has come to his home, he notices that her presence creates challenges among those in his family. But he feels assured she can help him obtain what he wants most in this world.
When a tragedy threatens to ruin his ambition and his family, he fears the price of endurance will ruin Tynley’s personal objective too—and drive her from him.How much can one ask of one whom they love? Are any prices too high?
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