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From the #1 Kindle Bestselling Time Travel and Victorian Romance Author and Winner of the HOLT Medallion.
Galveston, Texas, at the end of World War II can be a dangerous place . . . Gangsters and gambling. Prostitutes and vice. Lovely Mandy Maitland has tried her best to hang on to a respectable life while her fiancé Lesley was away fighting for freedom in Europe. Then a powerful Galveston mobster decides to victimize Mandy. With Lesley about to return, Mandy faces despair. Can Lesley help her? Will he forgive her?
But instead of her beloved Lesley, a dark, handsome stranger arrives, bringing tragic news. Vic Fontana promised his best friend Lesley that he would find Mandy, that he would help and protect her. Now he learns she is in mortal danger. Vic is determined to save Mandy from the corrupt hoodlum who would exploit her. The only problem is, Vic has secretly loved Mandy for years now, just by seeing her through his best friend’s eyes. Can he help Mandy and still protect her from himself?
Mandy too feels the powerful attraction between herself and Vic Fontana. But how can she love him without dishonoring Lesley’s memory? Can love find a way out of a desperate situation? And can Vic defeat an evil adversary who threatens Mandy’s very life?
Galveston Nights is a poignant and captivating love story set in Galveston’s dramatic and dangerous “open era.” It is a short novel of approximately 34,000 words. Eugenia Riley is the bestselling author of numerous historical, contemporary, and time-travel romances, including the classics A Tryst in Time and Bushwhacked Bride.
Excerpt:
Can love find a way out of a desperate situation?
“What were you planning to do about Lesley—if he had come back?” Vic asked.
Mandy turned away, her features fraught with anguish.
He stepped around to face her. “Tell me what you were going to do, Mandy.”
She hung her head. “I can’t. I’m too ashamed.”
He grasped her by the shoulders, felt her flesh shivering through the soft fabric of her evening gown. “You’ll tell me. You’ve admitted the rest—now I want to know it all.”
At last she glanced up, hot tears welling in her eyes. “I was going to break it off.”
“No!”
“I couldn’t subject Lesley to this,” she admitted miserably. “You know what he was like—high-minded, idealistic. A dreamer. It would have destroyed him to know I’d sunk this low. If I’d told him the truth, that alone might have killed him.”
“No,” Vic denied vehemently. The look in Mandy’s eyes was tearing him apart. “You mustn’t ever say that.”
“But don’t you see? I’ve made a terrible mess of everything. There’s no way out of this.”
“Yes, Mandy, there is a way. We’ll find it together.”
“No, Vic, we can’t.”
“I tell you, we can. And we will.”
Seeing Mandy’s pain, Vic was overcome by an urge to protect her, no matter the cost, with his body and soul. He shocked them both then, by pulling Mandy close and tenderly kissing her. Although at first she stiffened in his embrace, she didn’t resist. Then he tasted the sweetness of her lips, their softness and warmth, and his own restraint was shattered. He clutched her body tightly, glorying in the feel of her soft curves against him. He wanted to hold her, to protect and cherish her, forever. He wanted desperately to assuage her pain. He ran his hands up and down her spine to comfort and warm her.
Something changed in her then, for she moaned, parted her lips slightly, and nestled herself into his embrace. The trusting gesture made desire rush through Vic with staggering force. His arms trembled as he clutched her closer.
Mandy felt that same bright burst of passion surging through her veins, and she was left reeling. Distantly she realized she was clinging to a stranger, letting a man she barely knew kiss her and hold her intimately close. But for a moment rationality took a back seat to need. It just felt divine to be held and comforted, to be kissed and caressed, to be shielded from the overwhelming pain that had become her world.
They clung together, seeking consolation. Then Vic remembered who Mandy was. Just as quickly as he had kissed her, he broke away, stunned by his own impetuousness.
“I—I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Mandy, too, was jolted back to her senses. “It’s okay. Actually, I’m not surprised you kissed me. Lord only knows what you must think of me.”
Shame and outrage rose in Vic. “Listen to me, Mandy. That isn’t what happened. I think no less of you because a powerful man has tried to victimize you.”
“Then why?” she asked.
He gently stroked her cheek, brushing away a tear. “You seemed so desperate, so ready to give up all hope. I couldn’t allow that.”
Hushing her protests, Vic escorted Mandy back to his car . . .
Copyright © 2000 by Eugenia Riley Essenmacher
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