Excerpt - Vexing the Viscount by Emily Bryan

Days 'till Memorial Day: 17

Days 'till A Little Light Magic: 18

Days 'till the Summer Solstice: 44

Today's treat is an excerpt from a perfect summer beach/pool book - Emily Bryan's Vexing the Viscount.

Emily's one of my favorite authors, and a blog partner of mine (along with Jennifer Ashley, Gerri Russell, CL Wilson, Bonnie Vanak, and Cindy Holby) on the blog site The Chatelaines.

http://www.emilybryan.com/



http://www.thechatelaines.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

And remember, today's the last day to post to enter this week's contest for a chance to win:

• a book from Emily Bryan's backlist (excluding Vexing the Viscount) see note below
  
• my own Celtic Fire
• Immortals: The Reckoning anthology by Jennifer Ashley, Robin T. Popp and Joy Nash!

This week's winners will be picked by random drawing tomorrow, May 9.

Winners of Celtic Fire and Immortals: The Reckoning will be chosen from among all this week's posters on blog entries from May 1-May 7.

Winner's of Emily's book will be chosen from among the commentors on today's excerpt only.

Winners' blog ids will be posted on Saturday May 9 - email me at joy@joynash.com to claim your prize!


From Vexing the Viscount by Emily Bryan

Since Lucian’s father holds an unreasoning grudge against Daisy’s family, Lucian won’t accept her backing for his archeological dig. But when she masquerades as the French courtesan Blanche La Tour, Lucian agrees to make her his partner, if she’ll also give him “lessons in love.” Acting as “Blanche’s” agent, Daisy convinces him that she’ll be an asset to his search for a lost Roman treasure. Lucian knows she’s fascinated by his Roman artifacts and can’t resist reminding her he caught her ogling a clay lamp shaped like an erect phallus and wondering aloud if it was ‘life-sized.’.

Lucian handed her a small whisk broom and cloth. “Your domain, Miss Drake. I apologize for the mess. I fear I’ve been less systematic than I should have been. I’ve been so intent on discovering the next tablet, I’ve neglected many of the other finds.”

“I’ll need to catalogue it all first,” she said, eyeing the disarray with mild trepidation.

“There’s a small lap desk here somewhere. Please do what you can to bring order to this chaos.” He started to go, but stopped short. “I should warn you that you may find some of the artwork . . . objectionable.”

The lewd little phallic lamp and the exceedingly naughty mosaic flashed through Daisy’s mind. She felt her cheeks heat.

“Pray, don’t trouble yourself, milord,” she said. “I am not easily shocked.”

“No, I’m sure you’re not,” he agreed with a raised brow. “In fact, as I recall, you possess a healthy curiosity about such things. To that end, I wonder if you’d clean this object first.”

He picked up a little statuette from the bench and placed it in her open palm. It was a representation of the goat god doing a cloven-hoofed jig, his enraged member out of all proportion to the rest of him, despite having a bit of the tip missing.

“I plan to take that to Mlle. La Tour this evening,” he said. “I think she’ll enjoy it, don’t you?”

Daisy’s heart tripped a beat or two. She was cleaning up this lascivious little bit of antiquity so he could present it to . . . her later in exchange for kissing lessons.

“Blanche will be charmed,” she said.

“Good.”

His smile was so blindingly white against his tanned face, it made Daisy’s eyes water to look at him. She sighed in relief when he turned back toward the pit.

“Oh, and Miss Drake, just so you know,” he called over his shoulder. “That’s not life-sized either.”



All the summer's best!

Joy Nash
www.joynash.com



Coming May 26!

A Little Light Magic

Summer at the Jersey Shore has never been so hot!