Twice Upon Time

Twice Upon Time
Nina Beaumont

A Long-Ago And Forbidden LoveThough Sarah Longford's days were marked by the sorrow of an ancient curse, her nights were filled with dreams of a life of privilege and passion. A life she had known in another time… and another body.Yet fate had allowed her to live again as the tempestuous Bianca, a woman who had sold herself in marriage, only to discover she had made a terrible mistake. And now it was up to her to prevent the bloodshed, and save the life of her beloved Alessio. Don't miss this fascinating tale!

Bewitched. (#u475ff0dd-97bb-5cf5-b94a-506de52640b3)Letter to Reader (#uda8425bb-d817-564b-8f33-cf7355c77d13)Title Page (#uc42d5084-6be6-5e76-a540-9317480f8d51)About the Author (#u9be3654e-dd90-53e5-aa93-e2975498ce38)Dedication (#ua52bf878-5304-5bf8-b683-15c3eaccb37b)Prologue (#udf3e5f8e-2f36-5eb0-bf26-0b8260b80f0e)Chapter One (#ufd1b4413-2e4a-5682-8475-9e29a51370f9)Chapter Two (#u28c80fa8-95e0-5e0c-be42-a163731cbdcd)Chapter Three (#u570d7dc5-9821-5c2d-9e7f-4987b6aaab5c)Chapter Four (#u16cb94ad-7f4f-5771-8272-49272f71907f)Chapter Five (#ub7bd6f7a-e43f-5bd0-b465-f27a71031971)Chapter Six (#u36df7afd-236d-57e2-ab8b-55bc9d14b3bd)Chapter Seven (#ue99fd417-1af4-5cf3-ab81-a4d4011c01be)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Author Note (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Bewitched.

For the hundredth time, the word filled Bianca’s brain to the exclusion of all else. She was bewitched. She had to be. Otherwise she would not feel this overwhelming need to give Alessio what he wanted. What they both wanted.

“You wanted to besiege me, Alessio. Wasn’t that what you wanted? Just like one of your fortresses.” She felt the anger rising from the pit of her stomach and welcomed it. “To besiege me until I became weak. Until I surrendered.”

Her eyebrows rose with annoyance when he laughed.

“Ah, Bianca. When you and I become lovers, it will have nothing to do with surrender.”

She knew she should say something now. Something caustic, something clever, but she seemed to have lost the power of speech....

Dear Reader,

With Twice Upon Time, her second Harlequin Historical time-travel novel, author Nina Beaumont skillfully places her characters in a dangerous world of wealth and power as they struggle to balance the future with the past and prevent a sibling rivalry from turning into the curse that has haunted generations of their descendants. Don’t miss this exciting tale of a passion too strong to be denied.

In the third book of Suzanne Barclay’s Lion Trilogy, Lion’s Legacy, a Scottish warrior is hired to protect a castle from English raiders, but discovers that his benefactor has nothing to give him in return but the hand of his unwilling granddaughter. And in Emily French’s Illusion, the growing love between an ex-soldier and an heiress who have been drawn into a marriage of convenience is threatened by embezzlement and extortion.

Diamond, the fourth title for the month, is the first in Ruth Langan’s new Western series. The Jewels of Texas, which features four sisters who think they are only children until the death of their father brings them all together at his ranch in Texas.

Whatever your taste in reading, we hope that Harlequin Historical novels will keep you coming back for more. Please look for them wherever books are sold.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Harlequin Reader Service

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Twice Upon Time

Nina Beaumont

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

NINA BEAUMONT

is of Russian parentage and has a family tree that includes the Counts Stroganoff and a Mongolian khan. A real cosmopolitan, she was born in Salzburg and grew up in Massachusetts before moving to Austria, where she lived for twenty-five years.

Although she has relocated to the Seattle area, her European ties are still strong, so she plans to stick with the exotic settings she has had the opportunity to get to know firsthand.

Books and music are her first loves, but she also enjoys painting watercolors and making pottery.

To Mutti, Brigitte, Heinz, Markus (who looks like the

hero of this book), Martha, Matthias and Lukas, my

family-in-law, who will always be family.

Prologue

Sarah Longford lay dreaming.

The sea, so calm, so azure that it seemed like a painting, stretched alongside the flat, sandy beach. The two riders emerged from the forest of umbrella pines at a wild gallop that sent a spray of pale sand up behind them.

Bianca, her unbound black curls streaming behind her like a banner, her scarlet dress a dazzling contrast to her mount’s white coat, turned slightly, a smile on her lips. A smile perfectly calculated to provoke, to arouse. Her gaze swept over Alessio with approval. His black clothing blended with the glossy black hide of his stallion so that the man and his mount looked like one fabulously pagan, virile animal.

Alessio, his face dark with annoyance and the promise of passion, spurred his horse forward.

Bianca saw Alessio’s mount move closer, and her hands tightened on the reins as she urged her mare onward. With a whinny, her horse reared up, and the reins slipped through her fingers. With a cry she tumbled off the saddle onto the sand.

Disoriented, she lay still for a moment, both arms flung outward. The black stallion thundered to a halt a few feet away. As Alessio, his face dark with rage, leapt off his mount, she struggled up. Stumbling to a nearby rocky outcrop, she turned to face him, bracing her palms against the rocks behind her.

Alessio’s hands were rough as they closed on her shoulders.

“What were you trying to do, damn you?” He shook her so violently that her teeth clacked together. “Break your neck?”

“No.” She was still breathless. “I just wanted to see how fast Sultana could go. And I was racing you,” she added with a taunting smile. “And I would have won, too, if you hadn’t startled me.”

“So it’s my fault, then?”

She met Alessio’s eyes. They were the same color as the sunlit sea, which stretched out behind him. The remains of his anger were there. And the desire she recognized because she had seen it often enough in other men’s eyes.

“Isn’t it always?”

“Damn you”

Bianca curved her lips upward in a mocking smile, then parted them as if in invitation. She felt his hands tighten and a low laugh rose in her throat. “Now I suggest you let me go, Messere Alessio. Or do you wish to mark my skin?”

“By God, if you keep playing your role of Circe, I will do more than mark your skin.” But even as he said the words, his hands eased and began to stroke where they had gripped before.

The linen of her shirt, the velvet of her gown lay between Alessio’s hands and her skin, and yet Bianca could feel his touch as if she were naked beneath it.

The heat his hands generated spread over her skin and spiraled down to her belly. Her young, ripe body grew hungry. So hungry that she could imagine giving in to its demands. Now. Here. Her body swayed toward him, until she could feel his hard body against hers.

“Strega. You are a witch, Bianca.” His hands slid up from her shoulders and into her hair. As they fisted in the wind-tossed strands to hold her, he lowered his mouth to hers.

“No.” She turned her face aside, as much to hide the satisfaction she knew would be in her eyes as to toy with him.