Spotlight & Giveaway: Road Trip With a Rogue by Kate Bateman

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Kate Bateman’s new release: Road Trip With a Rogue: Her Majesty’s Rebels #3

Mistakenly holding up the coach of the man who broke her heart is bad enough, but having to endure his sinfully alluring company all the way to Scotland is Daisy Hamilton’s worst nightmare . . . and her most secret desire.

A midnight mishap.

Daisy Hamilton’s new mission for King & Co., London’s premier private investigation firm, is simple: stop heiress Violetta Brand from eloping. But her case is derailed when she mistakenly holds up the carriage of Lucien Vaughan, Duke of Cranford—cynical war hero, infamous libertine, and the very man who broke her heart five years ago.

A reluctant road trip.

Lucien’s determined to see his lovestruck nephew married to Miss Brand, but the unexpected appearance of Daisy— the one woman he’s never been able to forget—could ruin his plans. As they follow the runaway couple together, Lucien decides that delaying the headstrong Daisy by any means possible—including seduction—will be his absolute pleasure . . . and hers.

A dangerous desire.

After Daisy’s reputation is threatened, Lucien makes a scandalous claim, but when an unexpected enemy threatens her life, he realizes she’s the only woman for him. Their past encounters have made Daisy almost as jaded about love as Lucien himself, and it’s going to take action, not words, to convince this knife-wielding hellion to risk her heart on him again…

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Road Trip With a Rogue: Her Majesty’s Rebels #3 

From Road Trip With a Rogue by Kate Bateman. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Chapter Two
Lucien William Devereaux Vaughan, the twelfth Duke of Cranford, glanced down at the unconscious woman in the road, then back up at his faithful—if somewhat overenthusiastic—valet.
“You didn’t need to strangle her, Finch,” he said coolly. “You could have just held her arms to restrain her.”
Lucien frowned as he crouched down beside her and tried to still the uncharacteristic pounding of his heart. Few things managed to increase his heart rate anymore, but the female before him had always managed it, even against his will.
Daisy Hamilton. He’d recognized her the moment he’d heard her voice.
She was still breathing; she’d come round in a moment or two. He’d seen Finch use that same move countless times to incapacitate an enemy, and he knew precisely the amount of pressure to employ, but that knowledge didn’t seem to prevent Lucien from worrying, apparently.
Finch gave an unapologetic shrug and dipped his chin to indicate the lethal-looking knife that had fallen from her hand.
“You saw what she did to that bastard before you put a hole in ‘im.” He gestured toward the body lying in the road, with her knife embedded in its arm. “I didn’t think it wise to underestimate her.”
Lucien grunted in reluctant agreement, even as his gaze roamed over her features as if he’d been starved of the sight of her. Her wild mop of curly brown hair was the same as ever, unsuccessfully restrained by a black ribbon at the back of her neck. Her skin was pale in the moonlight, her eyebrows dark, but he could see the sprinkle of freckles that peppered her nose, and the lush perfection of her lips.
His body heated. He’d kissed those lips. Five years ago, now. And God, if it hadn’t been one of the best and worst nights of his life.
He was glad her eyes were closed. Something strange always happened to him whenever their eyes met: he experienced a tightening in his chest, an instant rush of desire that turned his cock to iron. It was infuriating. No other woman had ever had the same effect.
She’d been pretty at eighteen, before he’d left for war. An impetuous wide-eyed beauty just shimmering on the edge of womanhood. Now, at twenty-three, she was enough to stop a man’s heart.
He’d glimpsed her a few times, briefly, at various social functions since he’d been back in England, but he’d never allowed himself to approach her. Like an alcoholic who knew he couldn’t be trusted to look at a tumbler of whisky without needing a sip—and then the whole bottle—he’d stayed far away from her. He simply hadn’t needed the aggravation.
Had he occasionally imagined her beneath him while he was fucking a dark-haired courtesan? Yes. Had he once accidentally breathed her name while debauching his mistress? Yes again.
But those were perfectly acceptable substitutions. The only safe scenarios in which he would allow himself to think of Daisy Hamilton.
She was not for him. Not back then, and certainly not now.
Thanks to her brothers, he knew she worked as some sort of private investigator, but he’d resisted the urge to learn more. She was his curse, not his salvation, and he’d been right to let her go. It had been for the best. Noble, even. But regret still scorched his veins as he remembered his deliberately cruel rejection of her.
If the horrified look she’d given him just before she lost consciousness was any indication, she’d neither forgotten, nor forgiven, that particular episode either.
Bloody Hell.
What in God’s name was she doing here?
Cursing himself for a fool, he gave in to the temptation to touch her. At least he was wearing gloves. His leather-covered thumb stroked her cheek as he cupped the back of her head, gently cradling her skull, while his other hand tugged impatiently at the handkerchief tied at her throat to allow her to breathe.
He suppressed a dark laugh. Daisy being unconscious was the only way he’d ever get the chance to undress her.
His heart gave a relieved thump as she stirred. He released her and leaned back on his haunches, trying not to loom, as her eyelids fluttered and she took a deep gulp of air. Her eyes opened, and for a brief minute the world fell away as she stared up at him in complete incomprehension. She looked dreamy, delightfully confused.
He knew the exact moment she recognized him: her lips parted in a gasp and she reached for her knife.
Finch, thankfully, had removed it, because Lucien was certain she would have stabbed him in the heart without a second thought.
“You!” Her voice was a croak, but full of loathing. “What are you doing here?”
Lucien schooled his face into the expression of bored indifference he’d perfected over the years. “I could ask you the same thing, Dorothea.”
She scowled at his deliberate use of her full name—she’d always despised it—and he bit back a smile. God, he’d forgotten how much he loved teasing her. It had always been his favorite guilty pleasure.
“It’s Daisy,” she said, pushing herself to a seated position. “And I asked first.”
He rose and stepped back, not trusting himself near her now that she was fully conscious.
“A man can travel in his own carriage, can’t he? What are you up to, dressed like that, and interrupting a highway robbery? Are you mad? Does your father know the danger you’re getting yourself into?”
“I don’t suppose he’d care.”
“He certainly would, if his only daughter turns up dead by the roadside dressed as a stable boy,” he said. “And what about your brothers? I can’t imagine they’d approve of such idiocy. God, I ought to spank you for being such a fool.”
A splash of red stained her cheeks as she glared up at him. “Don’t you touch me. What I do is none of your business.”
She started to stand. He put his hand down automatically to help her, but she batted it away. “Get off. I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” he retorted. “And you became my business when you showed up here, ruining my night.”
“I just saved your life, you ungrateful beast!” She glanced behind her at the bodies lying in the road and shuddered. “If I hadn’t stepped in you would have been shot.”
He raised his brows. “You think so?”
She frowned, clearly realizing that her help might have been unnecessary. Despite the fact that Geordie, his coachman, had been wounded, he and Finch had been more than capable of dealing with the interruption.
“Why did you intervene?” he pressed. “You certainly didn’t know it was me in there.”
“Of course not,” she said bitterly. “If I’d known it was you, I’d have ridden in the opposite direction.

From Road Trip With a Rogue by Kate Bateman. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Excerpt. ©Kate Bateman. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

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Meet the Author:

KATE BATEMAN (also writing as K. C. Bateman) is a bestselling author of historical romances, including her RITA®-nominated Renaissance romp, The Devil to Pay, the Ruthless Rivals series A Reckless Match, A Daring Pursuit, and A Wicked Game, 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 social media to learn more.

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