How much is your son worth?

You've all heard the story: A child goes missing and a ransom note is found...but what happens when the child in question is kidnapped by his mother's ex-boyfriend?

Nickolas and Hanna Lancaster are leaders of a team of superheros known as The Knight's Watch. When their boy goes missing, all crime fighting is put on hold in order to bring little Michael home.

Ricky Luckett (the ex-superhero/current kidnapper) is on the run. He has a child worth millions and the perfect plan to settle an old score, but slowly things begin to fall apart.

Will Nicolas and Hanna find Ricky before it is too late?

“Evanovich…with a dash of CSI.” – Publishers Weekly (review of Lucky Stiff)

A TWO-BOOK LUCKY STARTER SET!

Book One: Wanna Get Lucky?
AND
Book Two: Lucky Stiff

Haven’t met Lucky yet? Here’s your chance!

Everyone Has a Hidden Talent

For Lucky O’Toole it’s murder…solving it.

Surviving in Sin City takes cunning, a pair of five-inch heel, and a wiseass attitude. Lucky has mastered them all and has a pair of legs she uses to kick butt and turn heads.

As the Chief Problem Solver for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s most over-the-top destination, mischief is in her job description.

She’s good at her job.

She’s less good at life. But who has time for a life when there’s a killer on the lose?


READING ORDER

Wanna Get Lucky? (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 1)
Lucky Stiff (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 2)
Lucky in Love (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 1)
So Damn Lucky (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 3)
Lucky Bang (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 2)
Lucky Now and Then: Parts One and Two (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 3-4)
Lucky Bastard (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 4)
Lucky Catch (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 5)
Lucky Flash (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 5)
Lucky Break (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 6)
Lucky the Hard Way (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 7)
Lucky Ride (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 8)
 

*** Updated & Expanded Third Edition! ***

Learn how to publish your work like a pro and start building your audience with the most comprehensive and up-to-date self-publishing guide on the market today. Packed with practical, actionable advice, Let's Get Digital delivers the very latest best practices on publishing your work and finding readers.

· Boost your writing career with marketing strategies that are proven to sell more books.
· Get expert tips on platform building, blogging and social media.
· Discover which approaches are best for selling fiction vs. non-fiction.
· Implement powerful ways to make your ebooks more discoverable.
· Increase your visibility by optimizing keywords and categories.
· Weigh the pros and cons of Kindle Unlimited, and find out exactly how to tweak your promotional plans depending on whether you stay exclusive to Amazon or opt for wider distribution.

And that's just for starters...

Praise for Let's Get Digital:

"Let's Get Digital is a must read for anyone considering self-publishing." -- JA Konrath, bestselling author of Trapped, Origin, and Whiskey Sour.

"Even with my background as an indie writer, I picked up several valuable tips...this is simply the best book about the ebook revolution that I have read." -- Michael Wallace, bestselling author of the Righteous series.

"Credible and comprehensive. I'd recommend it to any writer who is considering self-publishing or anyone interested in the current state of publishing." -- Big Al's Books and Pals - 5 stars.

"It should be THE starting point for anyone considering self-publishing today. This book is a Pixel Pick, and should be considered required reading for any Indie author." -- Pixel of Ink.

PART ONE: HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK
1. Writing to Market
2. Finding a Proper Editor
3. Covers, Blurbs, Taglines
4. Building Your Book
5. Pricing to Sell
6. Optimizing Metadata--Keywords & Categories
7. Distribution: Wide or Exclusive?
8. Your First Readers
9. Platform Building & Related Terrors
10. Planning for Success

PART TWO: THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION
11. Birth of the Kindle
12. Pirates!
13. The Lure of Self-Publishing
14. Myths, Shibboleths, Zombie Memes
15. Scammers & Weasels
16. The Age of the Algorithm
17. How the Kindle Store Works
18. Paperbacks, Short Stories. Reviews, Practicalities
19. Starting from Zero
20. Resources

PART THREE: SUCCESS STORIES

Your date with Bachelor #3 includes champagne and chocolate in the limo that collects you, a helicopter tour or Marietta and the surrounding mountains and valleys, and dinner at a five star restaurant in Great Falls. While oil baron Linc Brady wines and dines you, a maid service will completely clean your home.

Who could resist this tempting offer, but Meg Canon plans to do just that. She is only home to clean out her childhood bedroom for her brother’s new step-daughter and then she’s outta her childhood small town and back to her life in Chicago, but when she meets the sexy, renegade millionaire while she’s stuck in the snow, sparks fly and Meg is tempted to maybe stay a little longer.

Linc Brady is new in town and happy to help a kid in need, but this? Technically he doesn’t owe Meg a damned thing after she bids on him, after setting him up for the Marietta bachelor auction in the first place, but her high-class city polish is his fatal weakness and makes her impossible to forget. When she agrees to come home with him, he makes it clear he’s a confirmed bachelor. This is a one-night thing. One night that turns into nine months and maybe a lifetime...?

Love in Montana
Book 1: Hometown Hero
Book 2: Blame the Mistletoe
Book 3: The Bachelor's Baby
Book 4: His Blushing Bride

Bachelor Auction Series
Book 1: Bound to the Bachelor
Book 2: Bachelor at her Bidding
Book 3: What a Bachelor Needs
Book 4: In Bed with the Bachelor

The Knights of de Ware...From a long line of legendary warriors come three brothers to carry on the rich and powerful de Ware legacy:  Duncan the Champion...Holden the Warrior...Garth the Hero...

MY CHAMPION: Book 1

Sir Duncan de Ware is a sworn champion of the common man and a master of disguise. So when he finds plucky maiden-in-distress Linet de Montfort facing off against a notorious pirate, noble Duncan goes undercover to come to her rescue, despite her insistence that she can take care of herself. When the pirate abducts her, Duncan and Linet are caught up in a breathless adventure of danger and romance on the high seas. And soon Linet realizes her only hope is to trust her mysterious hero—with her life and her heart.

Book Details

• A full-length novel originally published by Penguin-Putnam
• Revised by the author in 2012
• R-rated for sensual passages

Afterlife management is a tricky business, especially for a living soul broker.

Juggling normal life with her otherworldly responsibilities—like helping departed souls cross to the other side while collecting grief from the living through her empathetic connection—just got a whole lot more complicated for Vivian Bedford. Her guardian spirit bosses, who make the mafia look tame, don’t like the side jobs she’s been taking to help living souls in peril.

But they don’t know the half of it.

She’s been working in secret with Lazarus Darkmore, a grim reaper and unlikely ally against the guardians’ hold on her. When a rogue guardian sends an ominous message that threatens to expose the alliance unless she stops, she has no choice but to put her trust in the reaper. But can a creature as dark and terrifying as Darkmore keep her safe, or will his appetite for cruelty and terror be her undoing?

With a spirit world energy crisis looming and guardian spirits closing in, Vivian must choose—toe the line with the guardians, plunge into darkness with the reaper, or join a rebellion that could unleash hell on earth.

Terra is shiftless --- a werewolf uncomfortable in her own animal skin.

A decade after learning to squash her wolf and flee the repressive village where she grew up, the packless ache still gnaws at Terra's insides. But despite her yearnings, she struggles against being reeled back into her old life.

To Terra's dismay, her father and half a dozen of his henchmen finally ambush her and demand her return. Yet they do offer one way out --- hunt down her nephew Keith, teach him to shift, and bring the youngster back into the fold in her place.

Problem upon problem piles up as Terra strives to do her father's bidding. The female shifter has hidden from her wolf for so long that she finds herself unable to change back into canine form, and she also realizes that her nephew is too good-natured to survive for a minute walking in his grandfather's footsteps. Plus, there's an alpha standing in her way who's equal parts enticing and terrifying.

Will Terra be able to relearn her werewolf abilities --- and overcome her morals --- before her father steals away her hard-earned independence? And as that tantalizing alpha reels her in closer and closer, the question becomes --- does she really want to stay away?

Don't miss the first book in a series that has been described as a "good choice for Patricia Briggs fans."

Wolf Rampant trilogy:
1. Shiftless
2. Pack Princess
3. Alpha Ascendant

What if gravity could be controlled?

Dale Adams has worked hard to leave his troubled past behind for a brighter future at Emory University. But when he makes a discovery that will change humanity forever, avoiding the spotlight becomes the least of his concerns.

Early experiments have attracted big attention. And not all who notice want Dale to be successful. Or even alive.

As Dale's world collapses around him, his fate intertwines with that of a girl he hardly knows. Their only hope for survival is to disappear into Atlanta's seedy underbelly, the very place Dale has tried so hard to leave behind. Time is running out, but if they can survive long enough science will be rewritten by the most unlikely of authors.

+++
It was just a hoverboard. Nobody was supposed to die.
+++

PHOEBE’S HERON, the story of 12-year-old Phoebe Greer, is set in Colorado in 1900. Her first-person narrative begins when Phoebe, her family, and Nurse Daisy arrive at their new cliff-top cabin in the foothills of the Rockies. They have moved from Denver hoping that the fresh air will heal Phoebe’s mother’s tuberculosis.

While Phoebe wants nothing more than for her mother to get well, she misses city life in Denver and her best friend Lisbeth, whose parents own Denver’s finest millinery store, where the two girls have spent hours in front of the looking-glass parading with fancy feathered hats on their heads.

Phoebe loves to draw. Her father gives her a sketchbook, and she soon meets Jed, a local boy. However, young Jed is a plume hunter, a commercial hunter of birds. He desperately wants to find a great blue heron, whose feathers were in great demand for women’s hats.

Gradually, the two youngsters become friends. Jed shows Phoebe the delights of the natural world in the Colorado Rockies, and their friendship deepens.
On her own one day, Phoebe sees a magnificent great blue heron in the creek, which she sketches in her book. But she does not tell Jed about seeing this bird. Then, Phoebe’s mother grows worse, and soon, all will change.

This is a lovely, lyrical story about discovery and friendship, and ultimately the courage to take a stand for something greater than oneself.

WINNIE ANDERSON holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and has had stories published in 
various children’s magazines. This is her first novel. She lives in Baltimore, MD, and Evergreen, CO. Her website is WinnieAndersonBooks.com.

This omnibus includes the first three books of the Mortis Vampire Series.

Death Beckons - Working late one night, Natalie Pierce is kidnapped by a creature that looks like a harmless old man, but is something far more terrifying. Waking up in a creepy mausoleum, she is forced to endure three nights of indescribable agony. Her life is forever altered when she is transformed into a monster of myth and legend; a vampire.

Lonely and full of despair, she comes face to face with the irresistible and enigmatic Lord Lucentio. Justice bringer for the European Vampire Council, Luc has been sent to Australia to kill Natalie's maker, but someone has already beaten him to it. He quickly discovers that Nat is far from an ordinary fledgling. He suspects that she is Mortis, a figure of both hope and dread among their kind.

Natalie is propelled into a dark and mysterious underworld that takes her far away from her hometown of Brisbane. Her arrival was foretold long ago and her fate is already sealed. Nat's entire species is in danger and it is her job to save them. She desperately wants to escape from the burden that has been thrust upon her, but she is inextricably linked to a two thousand year old prophecy. An unknown enemy has begun to whittle down their already limited numbers. If Nat fails to accept her destiny, all vampires will soon cease to exist.

Death Embraces - Natalie Pierce awakens to find herself buried in a box that strongly resembles a coffin. After some initial confusion she remembers that she has become a member of a very exclusive club; the living dead.

Natalie has three important tasks ahead of her. One: escape from her underground prison. Two: hunt down the creature responsible for imprisoning her. Three: discover who or what is behind the cause of the sentient shadows that only she can see.

As the long awaited and highly unanticipated Mortis, Nat has abilities that no other vampire has ever before possessed. She must utilize the strangeness that sets her apart from her new kin to fulfill a prophecy that was written over two thousand years ago. The ancient text predicts that it is her destiny to wipe out the vast bulk of her own kind. Despite all of the weird and wacky powers that she has gained, not even Mortis can avoid her fate.

Death Deceives - From the moment she’d been turned into Mortis, Natalie Pierce had been fated to come face to face with the first vampire ever created. Hideously transformed over thousands of years by the diseased blood that runs through his veins, the First had created an army of grey skinned imps. His plan is to enslave humanity and to turn them into a vast herd of cattle to feed his offspring.

Nat and her friends are all that stands between the humans and the bat faced, orange eyed imps. Aside from the overwhelming odds against them, Natalie foresaw an even bigger danger. As vampires, they were all highly susceptible to becoming possessed by their shadows. Once that happened, they could then be turned into imps by the First. Luc, Geordie, Igor and Gregor would be doomed from the instant they set foot inside the First’s lair.

A recent prophecy had foretold that an army would come to Natalie’s aid. With many of her new kin already possessed by their shadows, Nat was uncertain where this mystery army would come from. She could only hope that the prophecy would come true. If it didn't, she would be facing the First and his growing army of ravenous offspring alone.

Real Men Eat Cupcakes

Annie McPherson has had it with all the blind dates her grandmother and auntie set her up with. She just wants to be left alone to run the Sweet Indulgence cupcake bakery – even if it means she’ll remain single forever.
Jack’s just been through a gut-wrenching break-up, and women are the last thing on his mind. Now he’s on a mission to pick up cupcakes for his niece’s birthday party—not a mission to fall in love. Pulled in by Annie’s good looks and witty charm, though, temptation proves too sweet.
But will Annie’s pesky grandmother and auntie welcome Jack as Annie’s choice or will they have him jumping through hoops to prove he’s the one?
Fans of Debbie Macomber, Sherryl Woods, and Susan Wiggs are sure to love Sweet Indulgence, the first sweet romance novel in the Charleston Harbor series.
This book is too sweet to pass up! Scroll up to one click and begin your indulgence today!

"Great book. Dark--yes. Grotesque--certainly. Sexually explicit--without a doubt.
And the writing is excellent. Character development & dialogue, is as real as it gets.
A terrifying, non-putdownable horror."
Jeff Bennington, Kindle Book Awards

From a secret duo of USA Today Bestselling Authors, comes the first COMPLETE STANDALONE in the Modern Love Series.

Who knew sleeping with the enemy could be this fun?

Was the one night stand a good idea?

Well, no. Probably not in retrospect.

In my defense I had just moved back into my grandparent's house, I'd lost my dream job, and a guy on Tinder had stood me up. It was like life had suddenly stamped 'LOSER' on my forehead.

So when the guy behind the bar started giving me THE look...you know, the one that promised I'd be screaming his name into the wee hours of the morning? When that guy also has the perfect amount of scruff on his chiseled chin, biceps bulging out of his t-shirt, and a cocky grin you knew he'd earned in the sack...when he gives you that look, you don't bother to figure out what your six degrees of separation are. You jump on that horse and ride it!

Pun fully and completely intended. And accurate by the way.

I fully admit to feeling sorry for myself and acting impulsively, but by the time I'd figured out WHO the bartender was, I was already falling for him.

** Note: This book was previous titled "The Bartender". Same great story with a fresh new look.**

Fierce warriors. Savage barbarians. Powerful warlords.
All ready to claim their mates.

Alien Alphas is a collection of panty-melting sci-fi romances featuring dominant alien heroes, penned by New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling authors. This decadently naughty box set includes twenty-three ALL-NEW, stand-alone novellas full of hot alien alpha males, breathless passion, and reluctant surrender. Take an exhilarating trip beyond the stars with this limited time only bundle that's sure to leave you turning the pages late into the night.

Featured authors: Cari Silverwood, Cynthia Sax, Renee Rose, Lee Savino, Addison Cain, Kallista Dane, Maren Smith, Ava Sinclair, Sue Lyndon, Emily Tilton, Ashe Barker, Korey Mae Johnson, Grace Goodwin, Ivy Barrett, Jane Henry, Jaye Peaches, Katie Douglas, Lili Zander, Loki Renard, Maria Monroe, Megan Michaels, Myra Danvers, Sara Fields, and Sophie Kisker

Publisher's Note: The stories featured in this collection involve MF and MFM pairings. They include spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don't buy this box set.

From New York Times bestselling author Angie Fox, the first book in the new Southern Ghost Hunter mysteries

One simple mistake…
For a girl who is about to lose her family home,
Releases the ghost of a long-dead gangster,
And opens Verity Long’s eyes to a whole new world.

When out of work graphic designer Verity Long accidentally traps a ghost on her property, she’s saddled with more than a supernatural sidekick—she gains the ability see spirits. It leads to an offer she can’t refuse from the town’s bad boy, the brother of her ex and the last man she should ever partner with.

Ellis Wydell is in possession of a stunning historic property haunted by some of Sugarland Tennessee’s finest former citizens. Only some of them are growing restless—and destructive. He hires Verity to put an end to the disturbances. But soon, Verity learns there’s more to the mysterious estate than floating specters, secret passageways, and hidden rooms.

There’s a modern day mystery afoot, one that hinges on a decades-old murder. Verity isn't above questioning the living, or the dead. But can she discover the truth before the killer finds her?

Fans of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton Series and Johanna Lindsey’s Malory Series will love the passionate romances and gripping adventures of the League of Rogues.

A LORD WITH LEGENDARY CONTROL…

Merciless and powerful, Ashton Lennox is a wealthy man because he puts business before everything else, especially love. As a member of the infamous League of Rogues, he’s no stranger to scandal. His bedroom conquests are as legendary as his fortune. As he searches for a way to bring down an old enemy bent on destroying the lives of his friends, the last thing he needs is a Scottish widow getting in his way.

A FIERY WOMAN WHO WON’T BACK DOWN…

The daughter of a Scottish lord with a dark and treacherous past, Rosalind Melbourne has spent years distancing from her past. After escaping her tyrannical father and marrying an aging English lord, she has become a powerful widow with a business empire at her command. Her business dealings are everything to her, leaving her no time for love. Especially not with her business rival Ashton, a man with a scandalous reputation as striking as his blue eyes.

A GAME OF WITS TURNS TO A GAME OF SEDUCTION…

Ashton is fascinated by the strong-willed, intelligent and sensual lady who, up until now, had outsmarted him at every turn. Rosalind wishes she could deny she is falling for the brooding, handsome baron. How can she possibly trust him when doing so could cost her what she values most—her freedom? When Ashton discovers Rosalind might hold the key to saving the League of Rogues, he knows he will do anything to woo his wicked lass. As their pasts return to haunt them and dark forces rise to keep them from exposing a deadly spymaster, their game of love turns to a game of survival…

Warning: This book includes a brooding baron who’s wild in bed, a crafty Scottish lass who never knows when to quit, a wicked game of strip chess, and a merry band of rogues whose first instinct is to run they hear wedding bells ring.

She’s the jilted bridezilla. He’s the commitment-phobe best man. Can they work together for the sake of their businesses? Or should they avoid each other for the sake of their sanity?

Chloe Cassidy has fallen out of love with love. Which, for a wedding planner, is a highly inconvenient turn of events. When her longtime sweetheart jilts her at the altar for a honeymoon with her best friend Chloe's belief in happy-ever-after disappears along with her groom. But this attitude has her business suffering as much as she is. In a final attempt to save 'Something Borrowed', Chloe is forced to swallow her pride and work with the enemy--infuriatingly hot, best man, award-winning chef Vaughn.

Vaughn's own attitude--he calls it spontaneous, his staff call him temperamental--has him in a spot of trouble. Chloe's soothing touch is just what his restaurant needs. But as they spend time together, they soon find the flames that ignite between them have nothing to do with their past, and everything to do with something new… romance.

Don't miss this first in series, laugh out loud, sexy romance featuring one sizzling chef, one spicy heroine and a whole lot of tasty trouble--get your copy of Something Borrowed today!

**WINNER of the Single title category of the Holt Medallion Contest 2017**

Reviews for Something Borrowed:
'You'll be seriously hooked into the laugh out loud antics of the endearing heroine Chloe and swoon over the solid, deliciousness of the hero...'

"This story was wonderfully written. The author had my attention with every word.. I couldn't put it down. I laughed, I cried and I laughed some more..."

Can Farrah and Darren find their way through past heartache to achieve happily-ever-after?

Darren Buttars is cool, collected, and quiet--and utterly devastated when his girlfriend of nine months, Farrah Irvine, breaks up with him because he wanted her to ride her horse in a parade.

But Farrah doesn't ride anymore, a fact she made very clear to Darren. When they run into each other again in small-town Island Park, the spark between them is as hot as ever. But they can't seem to agree on anything and end up arguing as much as they kiss.

Farrah returned to her childhood home with so much baggage, she doesn't know where to start with the unpacking. Darren's the only Buttars brother who isn't married, and he wants to make Island Park his permanent home--with Farrah. Can they find their way through the heartache to achieve a happily-ever-after together?

This is a collection of the first three titles in The Girl in the Box Series, which are about a teenage girl who develops powers far beyond those of a normal human, and her battles against those who would use her against her will. (Approx. 185,000 words total.)

Books included:

1. Alone

2. Untouched

3. Soulless

Alone

Sienna Nealon was a 17 year-old girl who had been held prisoner in her own house by her mother for twelve years. Then one day her mother vanished, and Sienna woke up to find two strange men in her home. On the run, unsure of who to turn to and discovering she possesses mysterious powers, Sienna finds herself pursued by a shadowy agency known as the Directorate and hunted by a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath named Wolfe, each of which is determined to capture her for their own purposes...

Untouched

Still haunted by her last encounter with Wolfe and searching for her mother, Sienna Nealon must put aside her personal struggles when a new threat emerges – Aleksandr Gavrikov, a metahuman so powerful, he could destroy entire cities – and he's focused on bringing the Directorate to its knees.

Soulless

After six months of intense training with the Directorate, Sienna Nealon finds herself on her first assignment - tracking a dangerous meta across the upper midwest. With Scott Byerly and Kat Forrest at her side, she'll face new enemies and receive help from unlikely allies as she stumbles across the truth behind the shadowy organization known only as Omega.

Additional books not included in set:

4. Family

5. Omega

6. Broken

7. Enemies

8. Legacy

9. Destiny

10. Power

Nature's a fickle thing. When four days of rain occur earlier in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice to trap Jane and Elizabeth Bennet at Netherfield Park, new romances, misunderstandings, and alignments are made. Volatile tempers never did well cooped up together. Not even when there's a chessboard to help pass the time.

Fall in love with the romance of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet all over again in this new variation by author Elizabeth Ann West. A stand-alone novel of over 300 pages in paperback, this story is sure to make you sigh and swoon many times over!


***** EXCERPT *****

Elizabeth Bennet slipped into the library at Netherfield Park for her sixth time in three days. With her sister Jane on the mend, she could not cease her curiosity for the chessboard. As soon as Jane fell asleep, she left her sickbed to check the progression of the game with her unknown opponent.

Beneath the expansive double set of windows, looking out on the south side of the property, sat the rosewood carved chess set. Elizabeth spied the board on her first afternoon in the grandest estate in all of Hertfordshire. She had not meant to start a game, with anyone, but resisting the urge to move a single white pawn proved to be too great a temptation. Returning a few hours later to replace the novel she had finished by Jane's side as her sister lay suffering with fever, Elizabeth stood stunned to find someone had responded in kind. Black's corresponding pawn rested two squares away from the starting line to face hers. Soon Elizabeth found herself eager to return to the library every few hours to continue the clandestine game.

The board stood deep in the throes of a true battle with black's knight decimating her numbers. The most clever Bennet daughter carefully read the positions of her pieces and considered her options. Her mysterious opponent was of the aggressive sort, but not blinded by the taking of just any piece. She had offered up both a pawn and a knight and the opponent did not fall distracted by the easy kill. Therefore, the only way to beat him or her was to lay a trap of the wickedest kind; Elizabeth would sacrifice her queen in four moves.

Smiling to herself, she chose her move and a calling voice from outside the library made her hastily select another novel. Perhaps a servant was looking for her and Jane had not slept long? Either way, her bishop sat ready to take the opponent's offending knight and she would have to wait to see the next move of her anonymous enemy.

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Derbyshire frowned when he noticed Elizabeth Bennet leaning over his chess game with Bingley. She had not noticed him sitting solitarily in the far corner with his book and brandy. Being a master at averting the attentions of Miss Bingley granted him an ability to turn into proverbial wallpaper when he willed it so. A swirl of the amber liquid kept him occupied as he sat astounded the woman would dare to move the pieces of a game she was not a party to!

He had meant to say something, but too quickly she moved a piece and then scurried out of the library, leaving him once more to his own company. Groaning, he finished his drink and supposed he could set the board back to the last position. One gift he held included memorizing even the slightest glimpse of a picture. Darcy felt confident he could reset the piece she dared touch, but when he reached the board, he paused. She had not moved a piece randomly. She had made a very cunning move forcing him to choose between sacrificing his knight or his rook!

A knot of understanding twisted tighter in his gut. That he was already in very grave danger of more than a passing fancy with this dark-haired, bright-eyed creature was a foregone conclusion, but now he was in the thralls of a very thrilling chess match with a worthy opponent. And the worthy opponent was none other than that dark-haired, bright-eyed creature Elizabeth Bennet.

***