Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3)

by Lisa Kleypas

“I’m afraid I never ruin more than one young woman a night.” His tone was a mockery of politeness. “A man has to draw the line somewhere.”

The duke regarded his son dubiously. “If you’re trying to be charming,” he said, “I should tell you that it’s not going well.”

She was beautiful. Complex. Frustrating. He’d never met a woman who was so wholly and resolutely herself.

He was charmed out of all reason as he watched her, this sandy, disheveled, storytelling mermaid, who seemed already to belong to him and yet wanted nothing to do with him. His heart worked in strange rhythms, as if it were struggling to adjust to a brand new metronome.

Good God, she really did walk in circles. A pang of tenderness centered in Gabriel’s chest like an ache. He wanted all her circles to lead back to him.

“No, don’t be romantic in the middle of the toy department.” “It’s not working?” “It is, that’s the problem.”