A Gentleman in Love
Arabella Sheen
A Christmas wedding and a growing passion. Will a political scandal destroy their love?
Desperate to exonerate her family name of any wrongdoing, Shelby Chesterfield gate-crashes the Foreign Office Christmas party to ask her father’s accuser for help. When Ambassador Samuel Hardwick refuses to cooperate, Shelby is determined to ruin his diplomatic career any way she can, and a chance to do so arrives sooner than she expected.
Caught in a passionate embrace, Shelby puts Sam on the spot and tells journalists they’re engaged. But her plan backfires when Sam turns the tables on her.
Sam wants no commitment to anything or anyone except his career. But when his best friends are killed in a violent terrorist attack, leaving their daughter orphaned and in his care, he has the daunting task of finding a wife and substitute mother, or he will risk losing his newly acquired ward into the foster care system. With time running out, when Shelby asks for help to clear her father’s name in a political scandal, Sam offers support in exchange for a Christmas wedding.
The trouble is…Shelby knows about his ongoing affair with Lady Donna Ruston.
Can Shelby and Sam work together to achieve their goals, or is their winter romance fated to fail before it’s begun?
Content Warning: contains sensual love scenes
Chapter 1
EXCERPT 2...
Sam was the
man who had ruined her life. In ruining her father’s career and shaming her family, he had
ultimately destroyed her very existence. Her engagement to Edgar Parker had been canceled, and any chance
of happiness she thought she might have had for the future had been spoilt by
Sam’s callous, cold-hearted actions.
She wanted revenge. Not just for herself, but
mostly for her family.
Time was of the essence. Sam was due to fly back to
America, and once there, Shelby knew he would be out of reach. As an ambassador to the
British Embassy, he would be off-limits to members of the public, and she knew
she wouldn’t be able to get to him. Red tape and office staff would make it impossible for them to
speak, so tonight was her only chance for a showdown.
Deciding now was the time to act,
Shelby glanced stealthily over her shoulder to see if the coast was clear, and
with no one to stop her, she set about putting her plan into action. Taking strong, confident
strides, she crossed the great expanse of the room, determined to reach Sam’s
side unhindered. And she did.
An immense sense of achievement came
over her, and then daringly, and with more nerve than she could have imagined,
she slipped her arm possessively through his. She was behaving as if it was the most natural thing in the world
for her to cling to him. But it wasn’t. She would rather be anywhere but where she was at that moment.
Trying to ignore Lady Donna, Shelby
smiled coolly up into Sam’s dark gray eyes, and said, “I’m so pleased I caught
you before you went into dinner. I thought I might have missed you.”
Shelby felt Sam stiffen. There was an instant glint of
recognition shining in his eyes, and it was a relief to know he wasn’t going to
create a scene. And then, with lightning speed, she saw him recover from her
unexpected appearance, and a mask of indifferent coolness came down, covering
his face as his guard went up.
Sam smiled, but it wasn’t exactly a
smile of welcome. It was more a smile of polite caution. She waited, expecting a verbal backlash to come, or the disdainful
flick of a finger to signal security to carry her off, but they didn’t.
Sam was obviously practiced in the
art of maintaining a poker face, and Shelby supposed he had to be. Attending diplomatic events,
he had to know what to do in dangerous situations when a stranger approached. As an ambassador, Sam always
had to be on the alert, and Shelby knew he could handle himself without any
problem, but she was surprised he hadn’t called for help.
She wasn’t supposed to be at the
party, yet Sam was acting as if it was the most natural thing for her to be
standing at his side.
“Oh…there could be no chance of us
ever missing one another. And I’m sure that at some point during the evening our paths would
have crossed.”
Shelby’s heart skipped another beat. The deep resonance in his
voice stirred her, yet she knew she had to stay calm. She had to remain composed, and she couldn’t allow herself to
succumb to his charm…that would be her undoing.
It was illogical, and even though
she was still lamenting the loss of what might have been with Edgar, she couldn’t help her physical reaction to Sam. She was sexually drawn to him
and always had been.
When she had
first met Sam, she’d been an innocent teenager with a secret crush. She’d felt an instant
attraction toward him and had admired him from afar. But any urges of desire she now felt were anything but innocent,
and she had to banish them from her thoughts. She couldn’t allow her emotions and impulses to get out of
control…especially tonight.
Sam Hardwick, at the age of
thirty-two, was one of the most handsome specimens of manhood she had ever
known. And
this evening, dressed in a full tuxedo that showed his superb muscular physique
to perfection, he could once again set her pulse rate soaring.
He radiated power and energy. The chiseled lines of his
strong jaw, and the way his dark gray, piercing eyes looked directly into her
very soul, commanded immediate attention and respect.
Even though Shelby had come to
resent Sam, against her will, she had to admire him for who he was, and for
what he had become. He had worked long and hard to get where he was, and she was in
awe of the diplomatic accomplishments he’d achieved in such a short but
eventful career.
Her father often spoke of Sam,
saying that as a young student, he had studied relentlessly, and worked even
harder to get where he was. She’d been told his education had been funded by scholarships and
grants, and that although he’d had a tough start in life, he’d made it through
the system with honors. Sam’s integrity and honesty had allowed him to reach heights in
the diplomatic world that others could only dream of.
And now, after having climbed the
social ladder, he was also accepted by society’s elite with open arms. The upper classes welcomed
him into their homes, and into their lives. Some women even welcomed him into their hearts, and into their beds. And at the moment, a rumor
was rife in the tabloids that it was Lady Donna Ruston who was his current
mistress and held his interest.
With money and connections, it was
possible to achieve anything and go anywhere, and Sam Hardwick had done those
things in abundance, and Shelby hated him for it.
Excusing himself, Sam stepped away
from Lady Donna and pulled Shelby to one side, and away from his group of
friends.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered.
Sam had leaned down toward her. He was so close that she
could smell the soft tang of his aftershave as his cheek brushed inadvertently
against hers.
“I’m gate-crashing the party of
course.” She
forced a bright smile. “How else am I supposed to find an opportunity to talk with you? These days you’re an impossible
man to reach. I’ve tried contacting you at your office, but your secretary keeps
fobbing me off with some excuse. And I won’t allow you to walk away from the situation you’ve
created. Not
after the devastation you’ve caused.”
Several people were looking
curiously in their direction, but they weren’t close enough to hear what she
had whispered through clenched teeth. Shelby merely smiled and tried to look serene as she ignored the
inquisitive stares.
Tonight, Shelby intended to demand
the help she thought she deserved. Somehow, she had to get Sam to clear her father’s name and right
an injustice that had been done before he left London and returned to the
States.
The tight, steely grip of Sam’s
fingers on her arm caught her unaware, and as he pulled her with dogged
determination to one side of the crowded room, she wanted to protest but
didn’t. His
rough touch burned her arm. Branding her. But she didn’t care. At least she had managed to gain his full attention. She’d become a thorn in his
flesh, and that was good, because now she couldn’t be ignored.
Sam was all of six-foot-two inches,
and he towered above her. He was staring down with controlled anger etched on his face, and
Shelby was aware that a feeling of unease was beginning to grow deep inside her. Perhaps she’d bitten off more
than she could chew.
With her heart thumping hard against
her ribcage, she was having second thoughts, wondering if this was the right
time or place to confront him. It was a social event, a Christmas party, and not the best place
to present her plan to him, but Shelby realized she had to at least make an
attempt. She
knew it was her only course of action if she were to save her father.
There was an inflexible, fiery glint
of steel burning in Sam’s eyes, and his temper was showing.
“Is this some sort of joke?” Sam practically spat the
words at her. “What’s this about? And why are you here…at the Foreign Office?”
Shelby could see the throb of his
pulse beating along his jaw. He was fuming.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“About what?”
“About my father.”
“No, we don’t,” he replied. “That business was dealt with
in the courts and judgement was passed. We sat in the courtroom and heard the verdict. Remember? The problem is over and done
with.”
But for Shelby, it wasn’t over.
A few months ago, her father had
worked as a senior official for the government, and his department, which he’d
been head of, had been accused of leaking secret documents. Sam had led the internal
investigation, and when the allegations were made official, and charges
brought, the public humiliation her father had endured had taken its toll.
Henry Chesterfield had become a
broken man.
Unable to cope with the dishonor and
shame, her father had crumpled, and he’d become a shell of the man he’d once
been. Over
time he’d lost the will to challenge his accusers and fight for his name. But Shelby hadn’t lost hope. She was determined to clear
her family’s name of the shame and scandal that had been wrongly inflicted upon
them.
In Shelby’s eyes, Sam Hardwick—a man she had once greatly admired—was the villain. He was the arch-enemy. And if Sam wouldn’t help her, she was going to destroy him any way she could. If he refused to help, she was going to cause such a scandal that not only would it ruin Sam socially, it would also obliterate his diplomatic career—forever.
Copyright © 2020, Arabella Sheen
ISBN: 9781949300642
Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Electronic Publication: September 2020
Editor: Pamela Tyner
Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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