An Affair With a Spare
By Shana Galen
The Survivors - Book 3
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: July 3, 2018
Reviewed by PJ
He's turned seduction into an art form...
Rafe Beaumont, fifth son of an earl, uses his irresistible charm with the ladies to glean dangerous war secrets. Now he's putting those skills to the ultimate test: capturing an elusive assassin by seducing his daughter. The problem? She's entirely immune to Rafe's flattery.
Never before has Collette Fortier met a man as attractive as Rafe. But her father's life is at stake, and succumbing to Rafe would be disastrous. But when Rafe turns the tables on her, offering support and friendship instead of a fleeting affair, Collette finds herself tempted in ways she never could have imagined...
Suspense, romance, spies, and hedgehogs. That's right, I said hedgehogs. They all play significant roles in this third book of Shana Galen's popular The Survivors historical romance series that follows the post-war journeys to love of a small group of younger sons who were part of a secret military regiment during the war with France. Rafe, the youngest of eight children of an earl, put his good looks and charm to good use behind enemy lines to ferret out secrets for England. When his former commander asks him to take on a new mission, Rafe is ready to put his skills to work but the woman from whom he must obtain information, inexplicably to Rafe, is the first woman in his entire life who seems immune to both his looks and his charm!
Frenchwoman Collette Fortier has traveled to London under a false name and false pretense. Collette's father, a feared assassin for Napoleon, is being held prisoner by the new regime and she fears for his life. Only if she obtains a set of codes from England's Foreign Office, will her father's captors release him. Collette loves her father and remembers what their peaceful country life was like before he was forced to carry out Napoleon's demands. She will do anything to save him but she can't be distracted by the charming man who seems suddenly interested in her. She can't imagine why he would be anyway. He flusters her. And when Collette gets flustered, embarrassing things happen, such as blurting out everything she knows about the mating habits of hedgehogs. It's hilarious, endearing, and, ultimately, irresistible to Rafe.
As the two dance around one another while each pursuing their own individual mission they begin to move from adversaries into friendship. And when the friendship begins to evolve so do deeper feelings but obstacles abound. Rafe was deeply affected by events in his childhood and believes himself unable to love which hinders him from recognizing what he's feeling. Also, he must succeed in his mission to find Collette's father and bring him to justice and that is the straw that will break whatever hope they have of being together. Unless they can find another way...
I've really enjoyed this series and An Affair With a Spare is another winner. Galen has created two multi-layered, engaging characters with complex backgrounds and placed them in a situation that seems impossible to resolve. The story flows smoothly with a nice balance of both suspense and romance along with action, humor, and heartfelt emotion. As Rafe's background is unveiled it's easy to see why he's become the man his comrades call "The Seducer." As more of the man beneath that facade emerges, I found myself falling for him just as hard as Collette does. As for Collette, I admired her loyalty to her father and her determination to save him, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. I also found her simply charming and couldn't help but smile each time bits of hedgehog mating trivia burst from her mouth. I so wanted these two to find a way to a happy ending. Galen didn't make it easy on them and, I admit, I had no idea how she was going to resolve the issues between them. How she accomplished it was a surprise I didn't see coming (I always enjoy that) but one that I could thoroughly embrace.
As usual, the secondary characters are vibrantly portrayed and contribute much to the story. We see more of the horribly scarred Jasper, who hides his burns behind a mask, in this book and that's only ramped up my excitement for his story. It will be next in Unmask Me if You Can, due out on November 6.
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In this excerpt from An
Affair With a Spare,
former soldier and charmer Rafe Beaumont and
spy
Collette Fortier remove their figurative masks.
“Will you bring me here again?” she
asked.
“Not if you object. I don’t enjoy
standing about in cold gardens in the middle of the night, but it won’t be the
worst hardship I’ve had to endure.”
She glanced about his flat, her
eyes lingering on paintings and a few of the pieces he’d collected—vases,
lamps, and other accoutrement. “It’s dangerous coming here,” she said.
“Because you think I will try to
take you to bed?”
“Because I think you won’t.”
Rafe stared at her. Women did this
sometimes. As well as he understood them, at times, they still managed to say
something that flummoxed him. “I’m at sea here,” he finally admitted. “We are
friends, nothing more.”
“Correct.”
“And when I proposed something
more, you were not interested.”
“I was interested. I simply did not
think becoming your lover a good idea.”
“And now it is?”
“Oh, definitely not.”
He gave her a long look. “My ship
is sinking.”
“That’s why you’re dangerous.
Because you make me want what I cannot have.”
“Oh, you can have me,” he said,
rather too quickly. “What I mean is—”
She laughed. “I thought you didn’t
want me anymore.”
Where the devil had she acquired
that notion? She was the only woman he did want. “How could I not want you?
That has never changed. If you want to change your position on the matter…”
“No. I meant only to say you tempt
me. Coming here tempts me.”
“Good. I like to know I’m not the
only one tempted.”
She rose, and he did the same. She
linked her fingers, looking nervously about.
“What would we do were we
hedgehogs, Miss Fortier?”
Her eyes widened. “I don’t—”
“Would you approach me? Would I
approach you?”
“The, uh, boar pursues the sow,
attempting to mount her.”
“I see. And what does the sow do?”
“She will persistently reject his
advances. A high percentage of observed hedgehog courtships do not result in
cop-cop—”
“Copulation?”
She nodded.
“I do wonder what tempts a
hedgehog.” Before she could answer, he moved closer and placed a finger lightly
over her lips. “That was a rhetorical question.”
“I wonder what tempts you,” she
said shyly. “Do I tempt you now?”
Washed in the golden firelight, she
was lovelier than words. And Rafe knew a lot of words to describe women. With
her glossy hair piled on her head and her cheeks tinged pink by the wine and
the firelight, she looked young but regal. He dared not allow his gaze to dip
lower than her chin. “Immeasurably,” he murmured.
She stepped closer, and he took her
hand. It felt warm and soft in his, and he lifted it to his lips and kissed her
knuckles. Then, turning it over, he placed a lingering kiss on her palm. Her
dark eyes turned even darker when his mouth skated up her flesh to brush
against the skin at the inside of her wrist. She must have dabbed scent here
because, above the clean smell of her skin, he also detected the fragrance of
juniper.
His mouth explored her sensitive
flesh until he found her pulse, which fluttered rapidly. She might have pulled
her hand away at any time. He held it with the lightest touch, but when he slid
his lips higher to the tender skin at the inside of her elbow, she trembled.
Rafe’s gaze never left hers when he flicked his tongue out and tasted her
flesh.
She inhaled sharply. “You are very
good at this, aren’t you?” she whispered.
“If my imaginings count, I’ve had
extensive experience touching you.”
“Did you ever imagine kissing my
lips?”
He grinned. “Once. Or twice.”
Her free hand wrapped around his
neck, sliding into his hair. He straightened and she pulled him close.
When he released her hand to wrap
his arms around her, she twined her arms about his neck and looked up at him.
Rafe had never wanted to kiss a woman so badly. And he’d never feared doing so
before. The last time he’d tried to kiss her, she had pushed him away. What if
he kissed her now and frightened her? What if the kiss ruined the friendship,
and she wouldn’t see him any longer? Draven would kill him, but even worse,
Rafe would lose Collette.
“Kiss me,” she said when he
hesitated.
“Are you certain this is a good
idea? I don’t generally kiss my friends.”
“Surely you can make an exception
for me.”
“Surely.” He bent closer, then
pulled back again. “But should I? This might change everything, and I do value
our friendship.”
“As do I.” She pressed closer to
him, and the air caught in his lungs when her breasts pushed against his chest.
“Then we stay friends,” he said,
voice choked.
“Friends who have shared a kiss.”
“Yes.” He brushed his lips over
hers, then jerked back again. “That’s actually a new category of friendship for
me. Should we discuss its parameters before we go on?”
She sighed, sounding suspiciously
frustrated. “No. Just kiss me, Rafe.” But she didn’t wait for him to comply.
Instead, she rose on tiptoe and took his mouth with hers. Her lips were soft
and gentle but insistent. He couldn’t have refrained from kissing her back if
he’d wanted. Kissing her was as necessary in that moment as breathing. And when
her mouth became more insistent, he met her demands, kissing her deeper,
holding her tighter, teasing her with his mouth until he felt her tremble. He
trembled as well. He’d never reacted this way to kissing a woman before. He’d
always enjoyed kissing women—some more than others—but he’d never
been so moved, never felt as though he needed a woman like
he needed Collette.
“I think this is enough for now,”
he said, pulling back.
She blinked up at him, her brown
eyes almost black. “Really?”
He ran his thumb across the satin
of her cheek, marveling at the silky flesh. “I think it’s for the best.”
“And I thought it best if we
continue.”
That was a rather appealing idea as
well. Who the devil cared about restraint and all the rest of that rot? She was
in his arms and he wanted her and she wanted him…and if he took her, he might
just ruin everything. Because he was not who she thought he was.
