Spotlight & Giveaway: A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Kate Bateman’s new release: A Wicked Game: The Ruthless Rivals

A Wicked Game marks the third book in Kate Bateman’s popular regency romance series, Ruthless Rivals.

 
If there’s one thing impossible for a Davies to resist, it’s a challenge from a Montgomery. . .

A teasing bet.
 
Shipwrecked and imprisoned thanks to an incorrect map, Captain Morgan Davies has returned to London to exact sweet revenge on the cartographer responsible for his suffering. He’s also vowed to claim the winner’s prize—three kisses—in the bet he made with his long-time nemesis, the prickly, smart-mouthed Harriet Montgomery. His incarceration has clarified his feelings for her, but convincing the infuriating woman he wants to marry her is going to be his greatest challenge yet. When Harriet’s revealed to be the very mapmaker he seeks, Morgan decides to combine revenge and seduction into one delightful package. . .
 
A dangerous enemy.
 
Harriet’s always wanted witty scoundrel Morgan, and now he’s back; as handsome and as taunting as ever. She has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s failing eyesight and a rival mapmaker copying her work to play wicked games with a dastardly Davies—however tempting he might be. But when a threat from Morgan’s past puts them both in danger, Harry discovers that she and Morgan might not be enemies at all . . .

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from A Wicked Game: The Ruthless Rivals 

From A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman. Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Chapter Three
Morgan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This, surely, was some bizarre nightmare. He waited, willing himself to jerk awake, but Harriet and Melville remained stubbornly corporeal in front of him.
A clock ticked loudly on the mantelpiece. He cleared his throat and tried to ignore the thunderous beat of his own pulse in his ears.
“Explain. If you please.”
Harriet’s impish expression clearly showed how much she was enjoying his discomfiture.
“My father’s provided maps to the Admiralty for over thirty years, but his eyesight began to fail a couple of years ago.”
“That’s when Miss Montgomery took over.” Melville beamed, sending her an affectionate look. “She’s just as skilled as her father.”
A becoming pink stained Harriet’s cheekbones and Morgan quashed a flash of irritation at the admiring way Melville was looking at her. The man had a wife, for God’s sake.
Harriet shrugged, as if embarrassed by the praise.
“I’m just glad the Admiralty recognized the quality of my work and agreed to keep me on in his place.”
“We asked Miss Montgomery to provide falsified maps to annoy the French,” Melville continued, blissfully unaware of Morgan’s irritation.
“And issued them under the name of Crusoe to keep my identity a secret,” Harriet said. “Not merely because I’m a woman—and most men seem stubbornly inclined to disbelieve anything produced by a female, however competent it may be—”
Morgan hid a wince at her shamefully accurate observation.
“—but to also stop any disgruntled Frenchmen from tracking me down and exacting revenge. In precisely the same manner as you have done today.”
She lifted her brows in a way that reminded him of Nanny Maude, his old nursemaid in Wales, scolding him for some heinous infraction.
A sweep of dread chilled Morgan’s blood at the thought of anyone ever threatening Harriet. He shot an angry glare at Melville. “Did any French ships come to grief because of her charts?”
“Oh, yes indeed. Our sources suggest at least three floundered or wrecked.”
Harriet sucked in a breath. This, apparently, was news to her. The color leached from her cheeks. “Were any men killed? Or drowned?”
Melville shook his head. “Not that we’re aware of. One ship ran aground off Crete. Another got stuck on a reef while trying to dock in Mauritius. And the third hit rocks close to the Isle of Wight. All three crews surrendered without bloodshed.”
“Oh, good,” Harriet said faintly. “I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to die because of me.”
“That’s not counting your own ship either, Davies,” Melville added cheerfully. “I suppose we should add that to Miss Montgomery’s tally. Even if it was one of ours.”
But Morgan didn’t care about that. “So the French never realized the maps were fake?”
Harriet shrugged. “A few of them might have suspected, of course, when they ran aground. Just as you did. But even if they did realize they were duped, the war is over. Bonaparte’s about to be exiled for good. I can’t imagine anyone would bother coming all this way to track me down simply for revenge.”
Morgan sent her a simmering glance. “Oh, you’d be amazed, Miss Montgomery, at how obsessed a man can become. Thoughts of getting even, of winning, can consume his every waking moment.”
Harriet’s lips parted as she caught the double meaning of his words and he suppressed a triumphant grin. He wasn’t just talking about revenge for the map, but also about his promise to return and claim those kisses.
He dropped his gaze to her mouth, so she’d be in no doubt. The pink rushed back into her cheeks, and his mood lightened considerably.
He slapped his palms on his thighs and stood. Melville did the same.
“Well then, it seems there’s nothing more for me to discover here.” Morgan kept his tone amiable. “My dreams of exacting vengeance on Mister Crusoe lie in tatters. Miss Montgomery, you are a credit to our nation.”
He shot her a mocking look.
Melville sent her a kind, regretful smile. “Indeed. It’s a shame your involvement can never be made public. But we must think of your safety. And that of your father.”
Harriet gave a small laugh as she, too, rose to her feet. “Oh, I’m quite happy to remain anonymous, my lord. I’m just glad I had a chance to do my small bit for my country.” She sent Morgan a droll look of her own. “Especially since we women can’t show our patriotism by joining the navy and sailing about getting suntanned.”
“Getting shot at, shipwrecked, and unjustly imprisoned,” Morgan amended tersely. “It wasn’t
all sunshine and rum.”
Melville chuckled. “Quite so.”
Morgan placed his hat back on his head and offered his arm to Harriet, maintaining a polite façade for the benefit of their audience.
“Miss Montgomery, may I escort you out? I trust you have no other secret matters to discuss with Lord Melville this afternoon?”
Her eyes widened at the edge in his voice and Morgan cursed himself for showing the flash of jealousy. Harriet must have heard it too, because she sent him an amused glance.
“I do not have more business with His Lordship today. So yes, you may show me out.” She nodded in a familiar way to Melville. “Goodbye, sir. Please tell Anne that I’ll have finished the map she asked for in about a week. I shall send her a note when it’s done.”
“Thank you.”
Morgan sucked in a breath as Harriet placed her ungloved fingers on his forearm and allowed him to escort her from the room.
They hadn’t been this physically close for weeks, not since they’d danced together back at Trellech, and his blood surged as he caught a waft of her floral fragrance. She always smelled of roses and something deeper, something uniquely her that made his stomach twist into knots.
The moment the door to the briefing room closed behind them she dropped his arm as if it were made of burning coals and took a step away from him.
Morgan repressed a smile.

From A Wicked Game by Kate Bateman. Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
 
 

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Meet the Author:

Kate Bateman, (also writing as K. C. Bateman), is the #1 bestselling author of historical romances, including her RITA® nominated Renaissance romp, The Devil To Pay, the Bow Street Bachelors series (This Earl of Mine, To Catch an Earl, and The Princess and the Rogue), along with the novels in the Secrets & Spies series (To Steal a Heart, A Raven’s Heart, and A Counterfeit Heart). When not writing novels that feature feisty, intelligent heroines and sexy, snarky heroes you want to both strangle and kiss, Kate works as a fine art appraiser and on-screen antiques expert for several popular TV shows in the UK. She splits her time between Illinois and her native England. Follow her on Twitter to learn more.
 
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