ONCE UPON A DUKE BY SANDRA MASTERS

Setting: Regency England 1817
Serena, an artist and widow, has no desire for another husband. When she meets His Grace, Duke of Sutton, attraction sizzles to a scorch. Stolen days and nights ignite forbidden passion. On a first name basis now, Geoffrey asks Serena to be his mistress, but she wants commitment, love and marriage, not an affair with a notorious rake.
Geoffrey realizes Serena might be the one woman who can care for his tortured soul, and maybe release his demons. The magic they shared is shattered when he learns she has been forced into an engagement with another. He vows to save her even at the cost of his own life.
Will Geoffrey’s gallantry prove he truly loves Serena? If he survives, will Serena surrender all to him?

Author: I thought to have His Grace answer the questions from his viewpoint. Here goes.

Author: What is your main fear, my lord?
His Grace: Getting leg shackled by a woman. I feared commitment and what love can do to a man. My interaction with Lady Serena started out as just another notch on my bedpost, but somehow it grew into something profound when I saw the scars inflicted on Serena’s back by her sadistic husband. My heart melted at the sight and I found a need to show her tenderness. I demonstrated to her the gentleness of a man and woman who share a real relationship. In a caring gesture, I gifted her with a puppy, who she named Adonis, after me and the mythical God of Love.

Author: What is the main conflict?
His Grace: She wanted a commitment of marriage. I offered the position of mistress. She refused. I left without saying Goodbye. It was not a manly thing to do.

Author: What has messed up your life?
His Grace: When I arrived in sooty-air defiled London, I found everything a bore. My thoughts were consumed with Serena whom I left behind. I did return and visited her surreptitiously one night at the lakeside manor and it was comfortable. Her maid prepared a warm meal for me. Adonis, the pup I gave her, wagged merrily and tried to bite my shoe as usual. Serena said, “WE missed you.” I wondered how along the way I had acquired a family: woman, a maid and a puppy. Our lovemaking was unbelievable and this time I woke her up before I left.

Author: Did the thought of family scare you?
His Grace: Yes. I returned to London and all I could do with think of her. The concept of a future relationship started to intrigue me. I returned to visit her the next week, but she was gone. I met with her brother and he told me she was engaged to another man and that she only toyed with me to make him jealous enough to propose marriage. He did. She accepted. Her brother approved. They were to be married in three weeks. Her brother informed me she ordered the puppy drowned and my portrait burned because it only reminded her of how foolish she had been.

Author: What was your reaction to this horrendous news?

His Grace: You can imagine how outraged I was. I did not care about the portrait she burned, but to order Adonis killed—how could I have misjudged her? I drank myself into a stupor with a good friend and while I tried to find any woman who might ease the pain of her loss, they all were found lacking. And just when I thought there was no other choice than to forget her, all she said, all she did, and all she represented to me, visitors came to my London townhouse. It was Serena’s maid and the groomsmen who had returned the puppy to me, unharmed, the week before. Her maid handed me a personal letter written hastily by her mistress. Serena advised she was being held prisoner in an armed fortress and that the marriage was forced upon her, without her knowledge or consent. She reaffirmed her love for me and indicated she would throw herself from a parapet into the ocean rather than marry the monster of a man who was to become her husband.
It was then I realized, when I was shown a picture she had drawn of the three of us, as a family, Serena, myself and the pup, that her brother lied to me—about everything. To add to this, the maid brought the portrait she had painted of me, the one that was purportedly burned, and I knew that her brother lied for his own selfish purposes. Serena’s letter ended with the words that she would love me forever, in this world or the next.

Author: Did you have plans to save her?His Grace: What else could a rake do but reply that Emma, the maid, should return to her mistress and tell her that she would either attend our wedding—or my funeral.
I leave you to come to your own conclusion on how the ending of the novel came about.

Author: For our readers, what is the name of this debut novel?
His Grace: ONCE UPON A DUKE. I think it’s a racy title and I like the double entendre meaning. I also like the way YOU tormented me with longing and desire to obtain the unobtainable.

Answer: You can visit the author’s website where there is an excerpt at sandramastersauthor.com and you are invited to leave a comment on the Guest Page.
http://amzn.to/2aOacuc US
http://bit.ly/2fwzqfi Wild Rose
$2.99
http://www.authorsandramasters.com
Once Upon A Duke
My Divinely Decadent Duke
Thorn, Son of a Duke
The Duke's Magnificent Bastard
One Night With A Duke (Release Date June 2017)
The Blue-Eyed Black-Hearted Duke (Release Date End 2017)
Amazon | Kobo | BN | Apple iBookstore | The Wild Rose Press
Follow Sandra Masters on Facebook
Follow Sandra Masters on Twitter

Once in a while
In the middle of ordinary life
LOVE gives us a FAIRY TALE.