Sexy spies and bodyguards collide in Erica Ridley's historical romance Nobody's Princess
Valentine's Day has come and gone, but that doesn't cool our ardor for great romance novels.
Erica Ridley returns to her Wild Wynchesters series with Nobody's Princess, coming to shelves July 26. EW has your exclusive first look at the hot pink cover below, as well as an exclusive excerpt from the novel
This time Ridley focuses on Graham Wynchester, whose massive collection of intelligence is essential to his family's work helping those in need. After deciphering a series of coded messages in London's scandal sheets, he becomes convinced he must come to a royal's rescue. But his target isn't royal, nor is she a damsel in distress. Kunigunde de Heusch is instead a Royal Guardswoman, the first ever woman to hold the post in her country. She's in London on a mission to prove she needs no help from a man. Graham supports her in that entirely, which makes it even harder for the two of them to resist each other.
EW named the previous novel in the series, The Perks of Loving a Wallflower, to our top ten romances of 2021 list, saying "It's the novel's deeper themes of identity and being able to live (and be loved) wholeheartedly as oneself that set it apart."
Check out the cover and read the excerpt below.
While the Wynchester family prepared for their trip, Kuni returned to her guest chamber to stay out of their way. Pausing only to whip the sleep bonnet from her hair and smooth a bit of cream into her dry skin, she cleared a large space for wide movements and began her morning standing stretches before launching into her more intense strengthening routine.
It didn't take long to feel energy coursing through her blood. Practicing the movements she had learned with the Royal Guardsmen was difficult when limited to a bedchamber — even one as spacious and well appointed as this — but the morning was brisk and cloudless. Perhaps opening the window for a bit of sun and fresh air would let her close her eyes and imagine she was training with the Balcovian soldiers, not as a hanger-on but as a fellow guard. The men tolerated her training with them in the mornings when she could slip away, but they did not miss her when she was gone.
When she moved the curtain aside, movement caught her eye below. Sun filtered through the spring-green leaves to reveal Graham Wynchester emerging below, between the house and a stone wall dividing the Wynchester property from their neighbors.
Her breath caught.
He was performing stretches similar to the Royal Guards' routine, but he did not look like a soldier. Nor did he look like a gentleman. His black curls were rumpled as though he had freshly risen from bed. His legs were clad in formfitting buckskins, and his strong shoulders and muscled arms were hidden only by the thin cambric of a white shirt, tucked loosely into his waistband. No coat. No waistcoat. No cravat. Just delicious, decadent dishabille.
He glanced up and caught her staring at him with hunger.
Kuni's face flamed with heat in mortification.
He smiled as though he'd been hoping to catch her spying on him and motioned for her to come down and join him.
Her pulse skipped. She forgot all about her embarrassment and tapped her chest with eagerness instead.
"Me?" she mouthed.
Graham scooped his arm through the air in an even larger come-hither motion, then began bending and twisting in much the same way Kuni had just done beside her bed.
He was going to train! And he wanted her to join him!
She dropped the curtain and hurried to her trunk. All her clothes were still folded neatly inside. She would not be placing them in the provided wardrobe. If a guard needed to leave quickly, there was no time to waste packing up luggage. Besides, she knew exactly where everything was.
She reached for her outdoor training dress. It had a Balcovian amaranth bodice with several hidden compartments, and a billowy, overlarge skirt she had sliced up the center and sewn into two pantaloon legs, both of which were equipped with easy access to the daggers strapped to her thighs.
When standing still, it would look like she was wearing an ordinary gown, but the split legs allowed her to ride astride a steed like a man — or perform a complex series of jumps and kicks to and fro across a battlefield, just like the soldiers in their sharp military uniforms.
She raced through the silent house and out the servants' entrance to the rear garden where she had glimpsed Graham.
He was next to a row of brightly covered tulips, his body parallel to the ground as he pushed up with his arms and slowly lowered himself back down. Upon sight of her, he started to rise to his feet.
Kuni motioned for him to continue. She was more than familiar with press-up exercises. She sprinted lightly over to him and dropped into position at his side, lowering herself down and pressing back up, keeping time to his rhythm.
His eyes widened in obvious surprise.
"What? You thought the English were the only ones who know how to exercise their muscles in this way?" she asked archly.
"Knowing how to do a thing and actually doing the thing are not at all the same thing," he answered. "Every person in my household has seen me do this. You're the first to do it with me."
She pressed up in silence, inordinately proud of her years of training and the strength of her body. Even before she'd been anywhere near the battlefield practice sessions, her brothers would tease her at the drop of a feather to stop whatever she was doing and show them five of these maneuvers with perfect posture. Or ten. Or twenty. She could do over a hundred now without a respite.
Before she was even halfway there, however, Graham sprang to his feet and held out his palm to her.
Ah! She knew what came next in Balcovia. After strength-building was hand-to-hand combat.
She placed her hand in his, gripping tight, then yanked her elbow backward. Graham's body jerked toward her in surprise, which was all Kuni needed. She used his forward momentum to tumble him past her and onto the ground on his back. Even as the breath whooshed out of him, she was already dropping atop, her palms flat against his, pinning him beneath her and covering his body with hers.
"Wh-what?" he managed hoarsely.
"Was hand-to-hand combat not the next step in your routine?" she asked innocently. "That's how we do it in Balcovia."
His eyes shone. "I adore Balcovia."
Graham's lips were close enough to kiss, not that she would do any such thing. It was enough that her body pressed its full weight scandalously against him. Her bosom to his waistcoat-less chest, her hips to his, their thighs mashed together.
She should probably roll off and set him free.
Soon.
Any moment now.
Or not. Her limbs were frozen in place. All right, all right, her limbs were anything but frozen. Molten. Her limbs were molten. Her body had melted against him, molded itself to him, melded them into one.
She wasn't even conscious of the weight of her limbs anymore. He was the life raft supporting her amidst an ocean of green grass and frothy flowers. Despite the danger inherent in pressing one's curves against a man's hard body, she felt oddly safe with him.
Perhaps it was more that she wanted to taste a little of this danger. Swordplay and combat practice with the other soldiers had never felt life or death, but this…this felt viscerally real. Graham had invited her onto the battlefield, where she had promptly engaged him in battle. What happened next could determine whether they —
He flipped her so swiftly and so easily she did not even register his movement until she found herself pinned beneath him, her spine against the soft grass, her breath vanishing from her lungs in a whoosh powerful enough to rustle the curly black tendrils tumbling over his forehead.
Now it was his body pressing into hers. Wide shoulders, slender hips, muscular thighs — and perhaps a hint of mutual interest pulsing between them.
A proper miss would be shocked right into a swoon.
It was a good thing Kuni wasn't the least bit proper. She had not only started this, she intended to savor every second of it.
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