Escaping From Houdini (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #3)

by Kerri Maniscalco

“I love when you look at me that way.” I searched his eyes. “How?” “Like you might possibly love me in the same extraordinary way that I love you.”

“Miss Audrey Rose Wadsworth, conqueror of my soul—you are an absolute fiend. You’d like to flout tradition simply because of your need for my body.” He held a hand over his heart. “I swear I have never loved you more.”

When you look at me the way you are now, my virtue is perilously close to corruption. And I’ve never been a very pious man, Wadsworth.”

I don’t care what sort of illusion he tries casting. My heart is yours, no sleight of hand will steal it.”

“Normal is overrated.” Cassie nudged me toward the bar. “Extraordinary is unforgettable.”

“She’s the muscle. I’m clearly the charm.”

“If you wish to go, I’ll never make you stay. I might not do and say the proper thing all the time, but I do know that I love you enough to set you free.”

I’d fight a thousand battles and die a thousand ways before I allowed any harm to befall my love.

There was no world I wanted to live in where Thomas Cresswell wasn’t a part of it.

I love you, I thought, rallying against the blackness. More than all the stars in the universe. In this life and ever after. I love you.

“Our work will always be important to each of us. But you have my heart wholly, Wadsworth. No matter what. The only way that will be taken is in death. And even then I will fight with every piece of me to hold your love near. Now and forevermore.”