Ladies In Love Collection Part 2: 4 Historical Steamy Romance Short Stories

By Elizabeth Reed

Ladies In Love Collection Part 2: 4 Historical Steamy Romance Short Stories

Total word count 20,608.

Please note that each of these short stories can all be bought as a standalone single story.

 The Viscount’s Test of Love

On the eve of his travels abroad Joseph makes it clear to Sophia that he is determined to have her, but he will wait patiently until she is ready to give into the strong attraction between them.

But Sophia refuses to submit to Joseph’s demands she will not be taken by him just to satisfy his lust! Not to mention that she has no intention of betraying the trust of Joseph’s father, the Viscount of Palmerton, who has taken her into his home and treated her as a daughter by starting an affair with Joseph.

But Sophia does not know that it is the Viscount who has sent Joseph away, to give both his son and herself space and time to understand what they really mean to each other. So that when Joseph finally returns, both he and Sophia will find out whether absence really does make the heart grow fonder and the desire for the other greater!

The Viscount and the Traveller

Jamie, the Viscount of Richmond, surprises himself when instead of seeing to it that Miranda is punished for trespassing on his land, promises to offer her all the help that she needs to look after her sick mother. Perhaps the answer to his strange behaviour can be found in a set of striking big brown eyes that appear older and wiser than Miranda’s lovely youthful appearance, and which immediately bewitches him, to the point that he longs to take her in his arms.

Miranda has always viewed men like Jamie as far removed from her world. He is from a settled ruling class, and she, in comparison, is a wandering traveller with no fixed living location. But now she finds herself questioning all that she believes, as the Viscount becomes her protector and continues to treat her with a real kindness. And even more confusing for Miranda are the powerful emotions and feelings that Jamie is able to stir from within her, feelings that make her forget all but the desire that she holds for him!

Her Lady’s Gamble

In her anger, Miss Alice Carter places a wager against the devastatingly attractive Mr Lucas Jones. If she wins their card game, she will take back her home and possessions that she believes Lucas to have cunningly and wickedly stolen away from her father.

But if she loses the wager, she must give Mr Jones what he has always desired and wanted.....she will have to give herself to him, forsaking all her virtue, but it is a price she is prepared to stake for a chance to wipe away the arrogant grin from Lucas’s face.

Alice just hopes that luck will be on her side, as she takes a deep breath, turns her cards, and allows fate to decide what her future holds!

A Lady’s Desire

Charlotte’s one desire comes in the extremely attractive form of William the Marquess of Chester.

He has been the object of Charlotte’s affection for so long to the point that she is now quite prepared to do everything in her power to secure his attention and attachment to her in turn. 

Even if it means submitting to the Marquess’s very demanding ways! For William wishes to possess Charlotte completely if they are to be bonded together for life, a price that Charlotte seems more than willing to pay!

• Language: English
• Publisher: LB Books
• Release date: Oct 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519974198

Elizabeth Reed

As long as I can remember I have always loved everything and anything to do with the romance genre. Enjoying writing, reading and watching a wide range of love stories. I am a true romantic at heart! So after studying for a philosophy degree and then going on to work in a corporate job in advertising, I decided to reconnect with my passion again! I now write mainly romance short stories, with the aim to share all of my ideas with others who also have an interest in romantic fiction. I write in a range of romance subgenres including erotic romance, contemporary, sweet, paranormal/fantasy fiction and historical. I hope to continue writing as long as my ideas keep flowing out from my mind. In early 2014 I experienced my own personal love story, when I married my one true love. I now live together with my husband in London.

Book preview

The Viscount’s Test of Love

Chapter 1

Sophia did not need to turn around to confirm the identity of the man who stood quietly behind her, as she looked out from the hilltop to view the raging sea below. She knew that if she turned around her eyes would immediately fall upon a tall, dark blonde haired powerfully built male with the most striking of blue eyes.

‘Why did you run away like that?’ Joseph questioned her at last as he cut short the silence that had lingered between them.

‘You left me no choice, I had not expected that you would kiss me, you took me by surprise,’ Sophia spoke in confusion as she continued to look out into the distance. ‘Why do you continue to taunt and play your cruel games with me?’  She tried to erase the images from her memory of Joseph trapping her against a wall before bending his head down to claim her lips passionately with a wicked smile marked on his face.

‘Sophia I believe that you may have a great talent for acting, you may have fooled my father into thinking that you are all sweet and innocent, but I know better!’ Joseph spoke sarcastically. ‘I haven’t forgotten the way you reacted in my arms, you enjoyed the kiss just as much as I, and you were hot and ready for more. I dare say that if we hadn’t been disturbed by the noise down the hallway you would have begged me to take you then and there.’

‘How dare you!’ Sophia finally spoke as she turned to him in her anger. Her annoyance increased even further as she noted the calm and collected expression on his ruggedly handsome face. ‘You insult me so easily! I do not know why I still feel so surprised or hurt by your behaviour towards me. I should have resigned myself to the fact a long time ago that you will always hate me, because of my mother and who she is to your father.’

‘It is true that I wasn’t entirely thrilled when my father made the decision to make your mother, his mistress back then of three years his new housekeeper before then moving both of you into the very home I grew up in with my own mother when she was alive.’

Sophia tried to retain her composure and control as he spoke not sparing any of her feelings.

‘But I have long accepted my father’s past decision I do not begrudge him anymore, so you are wrong, I do have the ability to forgive and forget...and I would certainly not term what I feel for you as hatred,’ Joseph looked at her intensely with his striking looking blue eyes.

‘If what you say is true, then why treat me the way you do?’

‘Enlighten me, Sophia, in terms of the appalling way I have been behaving towards you. It will be interesting for me to hear your grievances against my person?

‘Who is acting now, as if you don’t know,’ Sophia spoke with frustration, ‘I never know where I stand with you! Last week when we both attended the country ball I thought that perhaps things were changing between us. I had not expected you to ask me to dance, you actually seemed both friendly and genuine when you took my hand, but you were just pretending, giving me a false sense of security.

‘For as we danced I could see your mood gradually changing, I saw your expression become more solemn and serious....and the look you cast my way unsettled me. To the point that I wondered if I had offended you in any way as we sat together for the carriage ride home in deep silence, it seemed as if you could barely stand to look at me! And now just days later you kiss me. It is not fair that you should taunt me like this, I would prefer it if you just left me alone to myself.’

‘Sophia are you really that naive? You are a woman of eighteen years now, but you still cannot tell when a man desires you?’

‘You desire me?’ she looked at him with surprise.

‘Yes let me be clear to you, so you will no longer misunderstand my behaviour towards you, I want you, Sophia, and I intend to have you at some point, have no doubt about it! Just count yourself lucky I restrained myself at the ball, that I was able to control my emotions even as I felt my loins stir as we danced, or it would have been a much different and noisier carriage ride home.’

‘Please Joseph, do not say anymore, it’s wrong of you to speak to me in this way,’ Sophia tried to blank out his words as she felt her cheeks go all hot.

‘Why is it so wrong, when we both feel strong attraction for the other, do not try to deny it I have now held you in my arms, I know you are not as detached from me as you would like me to believe?’

‘Don’t you see we cannot have such feelings for each other, your father took me in kindly, he has treated me at times as if I were his own daughter. I would not want to betray his trust just so you can use me as you would do a common whore,’ Sophia spat out.

‘That’s ironic because isn’t my dear father currently treating your mother in exactly the same way that you seem to have judged to be so distasteful, their relationship being based on a mutual benefit to each of them so to speak,’ he spoke mockingly, leaving Sophia with no choice but to fly at him.

‘How dare you insult my mother, she has done nothing to you....remember it is your father who kept on requesting that she live with him by his side, and he wanted to even go on to marry her, but it was my mother who said no, not wanting to create a scandal in society for the benefit of your father as well as yourself!’

‘Calm down Sophia,’ Joseph continued to hold on to her wrists, ‘I was merely trying to suggest that there is nothing wrong with feeling attraction for someone and then going on to act upon your desires, and that despite you seeing it as whoring our glorious parents are involved in such an arrangement.’

‘But they love each other, it is different entirely....it’s not just a meeting of bodies as you are suggesting, and that my mother