The Trouble With Being Wicked (49 page)

Darcy Burke, Erica Ridley and Janice Goodfellow have my undying devotion, and my heart. We may live hundreds of miles apart, but I only feel the distance when I long to drink wine with you. Thank you for your friendship, your emergency plotting help, and most of all, your occasional, “Not this.” I’d be a mess without you.
 

Máire Claremont: I will never forget making eyes at you and Delilah Marvelle across the bar. You are beautiful, and I’m so glad we became friends. May
The Dark Lady
sell gazillions of copies and your days be filled with margaritas and sunshine. Thank you for all your help with this series!

To the amazing women I am honored to know, and who graciously provided their time and advice for Wicked: Courtney Milan, Leigh LaValle, Tessa Dare, Carey Baldwin, and Elyssa Patrick. I admire you all, and seeing you at National makes the ungodly expense totally worth it.

My Plot Sisters Dona Sarkar, Kelli Estes and Lillian Fogg: You come up with some of the ballsiest story concepts I’ve ever heard. Thank you for never being afraid to shout out pure craziness. I hope I do your ideas justice.

Special thanks to Jessica Alvarez at BookEnds. We didn’t end up together, but no other stranger has put more effort into this story than you did. I appreciate your insight.

For my cover designer Carrie Devine at Seductive Designs, a great big YOU GO, GIRL. I think your talent speaks for itself, but just in case there is any question, she is awesome and you should totally hire her.

Martha Trachtenburg, your copy edits cracked me up. Sorry I made you line edit a blow job.
 

Amy Atwell formatted my book. I love anyone with a contract as thorough as hers.

I can’t possibly convey the amount of support I receive from my amazing boyfriend. Chris walks the dog, makes dinner, brings me beer and generally prevents me from turning into a total recluse. He also makes me laugh like crazy. If your heart ever melts at something one of my heroes does, I probably modeled it on him.

My family has been incredible. My brothers must be some of the most well-versed guys when it comes to romance novel structure. My parents warned me about trying to live on an artist’s salary, but they never discouraged me from writing. Papi, you especially always wanted to co-author a book with me, ever since I was a little girl writing fanfic for The Baby Sitters Club. This isn’t that co-authored book, thank goodness. But I love your enthusiasm for my writing and I love you.

Hey, Domonick at The Rock WFP (that I will always read as WTF), thanks for keeping my spot open next to the electrical outlet. You are the best bartender ever.

Thank you, Sara Kinsey. You were the first to read my writing and you haven’t stopped encouraging me since. I still feel bad about dropping your motorcycle. And Morgan Sneed, you’re the sweetest beta reader ever. Now go write a book of your own!

To the managers who asked for status updates as if my day job depended on it: JZ and Shawhan. I hope this makes you blush. Thanks, Lori, for reading my books. Everyone deserves a boss as cool as you.

And lastly, to Josh: Thank you for teaching me how to write with emotion. Thank you for giving me this story idea. My instinct is to tell you to go fall off a cliff now. But really, I hope you get your HEA, too.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

THE TROUBLE WITH BEING WICKED

Copyright © 2012 by Emma Locke

Excerpt from
The Problem with Seduction
copyright © 2012 by Emma Locke.

Cover design © Seductive Designs

Cover photo © Alena Ozerova

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author. Please do not support piracy. Obtain an electronic version of this book through an approved vendor.

Intrepid Reads

ISBN 13: 978-0-9854558-4-2

ISBN 10: 0-9854558-4-5

Other Intrepid Reads Authors

Darcy Burke

Secrets and Scandals Series

Her Wicked Ways

His Wicked Heart

To Seduce a Scoundrel

To Love a Thief

Never Love a Scoundrel (winter 2013)

Scoundrel Ever After (spring 2013)

To learn more about Darcy, her books, or sign up for her mailing list to hear about new releases, visit
http://www.darcyburke.com
.

Darcy Burke’s

Secrets and Scandals
Series

Her Wicked Ways

To save his orphanage from collapse, Montgomery “Fox” Foxcroft leads a double life as a highwayman. Banished debutante Lady Miranda Sinclair is his salvation—until she rejects him. Out of options and falling for the heiress, Fox must risk what principles he has left and take advantage of her wicked ways—even if it ruins them both.

His Wicked Heart

Jasper Sinclair, Earl of Saxton, made a bargain with his devil of a father to marry a proper deb. Instead, he becomes entangled with a sometimes actress, Olivia West, who is determined to improve her situation. Destitute and desperate, she agrees to one night with Jasper, hatching a scheme to take his money and keep her virtue. However, Jasper uncovers her deception and vows to claim what he’s owed.

To Seduce a Scoundrel

When debutante Lady Philippa finds herself in a potentially compromising situation, she’s “rescued” by England’s most notorious scoundrel, Lord Ambrose Sevrin. Despite his scandalous past, Ambrose vows to preserve Philippa’s reputation, but instead launches them both on a path to public and personal ruin.

To Love a Thief

Former constable Lord Daniel Carlyle thinks he’s met the girl of his dreams, Jocelyn Renwick, until he catches her stealing from his mentor. Jocelyn vows to stop at nothing to recover her stolen treasures, but does that include risking a chance at love?

Other Intrepid Reads Authors

Erica Ridley

Historical Romance Novels
 

(Kensington Publishing)

Too Wicked To Kiss

Too Sinful To Deny

Born To Bite

Contemporary Romantic Comedy

Love, Lust & Pixie Dust

Wands, Wishes & Genie Kisses

Fate, Fire & Demon Desire

To learn more about Erica, her books, or to sign up for her mailing list for contests, freebies, and new releases, visit
http://www.ericaridley.com
.

Erica Ridley’s

Contemporary Romantic Comedy

Love, Lust
&
Pixie Dust

Daisy le Fey isn’t staying a wannabe pixie forever. As soon as she’s a licensed Tooth Fairy, she’ll finally be on the Nether-Netherland ladder of success. All she has to do in order to trade in her homemade glitter wings for the real deal is complete her first solo assignment. Only that’s no sweet child asleep on the pillow. It’s a sexy man who refuses to hand over the tooth. Desperate to save her would-be career, she fights for possession. So what if her wand misses and turns the man’s assistant into a pumpkin. It could happen to the best of fairies!

Anthropologist Trevor Masterson needs his latest find to save his job from impending budget cuts. But then a blonde bombshell wearing glitter wings sneaks into his tent at midnight, claims to be some sort of magical being, and tries to fly off with his discovery. When Trevor chases after the tooth—and the girl—no amount of science can explain their attraction, or the chaos unraveling his carefully laid plans. But there’s no such thing as magic… right?

Emma Locke

Emma Locke is a writer and engineer living in the Pacific Northwest, where she loves hiking with her dog, hot yoga and every one of the annual 330 days of rain. Hiking and yoga give her time to plot, the lack of sun makes for perfect writing weather, and as for her day job, the dichotomy seems to work: her analytic side ensures her passionate, satisfying love stories don’t mulch under her bed, and her author side forces her to keep writing more.
 

You can Like Emma on Facebook at
Facebook.com/AuthorEmmaLocke
, follow her on Twitter
@EmmaLockeAuthor
or check out her books and appearances at
www.emmalocke.com
.