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“A duke wants what any man wants. A woman who is a saint in society and a wild wanton in the bedchamber.”
He was as dangerous as that viper, perhaps more so, because he made her question the value of things she’d clung to for so long: her purity, her reputation, her respectability. None of them had ever brought her as much joy as these few hours of doing what she ought not with a man she shouldn’t—sneaking
“My dreams aren’t appropriate for a lady’s ears.”
“Life is seldom fair, dear. It’s best to learn that while you’re young. Allows for fewer disappointments.”
“A man doesn’t always know what he wants until he acquires it,”
Christ, he’d known her for years. How had he failed to notice that the proper Lady Kathryn could turn into a feral cat when let loose? When there was no one to see. When it was only the two of them. When they were doing things they ought not, but neither would tell.
Then Lord Griffith Stanwick, second son, who had never denied himself anything he wanted, strode away, denying himself the only thing he’d ever truly desired.
More. She always wanted more, indulged her desires.
She wasn’t going to slink about as though ashamed of her behavior when she wasn’t.
She’d not achieved the end on her own, and she didn’t like the notion that she needed others to assist her in reaching her goals.
“The most pleasurable aspects of life require preparation.”
Cowards who shield themselves with women never win.”
She wasn’t the only one who wanted—needed—an affirmation that life, precious and dear, shouldn’t be wasted with regrets for moments lost. They had here, they had now, when they might have had nothing else at all.
She wanted this moment to wipe out the other memory, to give her moments to savor, to reflect on, to carry with her into slumber so she would dream of passion and desire. And when she awoke, it would be because her body yearned and craved.
While she admired his independence, it also frustrated her. He was alone, so alone.
“When did you become such a termagant?” “About the same time you became such an idiot.
“I thought I was all right. And then suddenly I wasn’t. All the emotions of last night just hit before I could prepare for them.”
He looked to the water, to the sea, wondering if he waded into it, if it would wash away his sins and regrets.
She was discovering she preferred the kiss of a scoundrel.
After the awfulness they’d endured by the Thames, she’d been in desperate need of a sanctuary and had thought perhaps he’d been as well. Someplace to heal not only the physical wound but any emotional ones as well.
As his laughter circled her, she’d never treasured any sound more and feared she might never have another moment such as this, when she felt so loved and loved so much in return.
While she chastised herself regarding what she had allowed, she couldn’t seem to regret it. Not when she cared for him so deeply. Perhaps
“No man is perfection, darling. If you believe that of him, then you don’t know him well enough.”
“Kathryn, the choices you make are absolutely none of my business. People marry for myriad reasons. Wants, needs, gains. I find fault with none of them because I do not walk in another lady’s slippers. I walk only in my own. But the one thing I do know is that sometimes in life, we have a chance for something more—perhaps for only a night or an hour or a minute. But if we don’t take it, it can fill us with an eternity of regrets.”
One night with a man who makes me feel like a queen is better than no night at all.”
“You shouldn’t be out here,” he said quietly, without even looking at her, without confirming it was her. But then, perhaps he was as attuned to her presence as she was to his.
“That’s what this place is, isn’t it? Someplace to escape to, for a bit. Not to be who you are, but for a while to be who you want to be or who you wished you were.”
She shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be doing this, but the way he’d looked at her as though he’d never seen anything he wanted more made it so that for now shouldn’ts no longer mattered.
“Take all of me tonight,”
Second thoughts and guilt might come later, and she would deal with them then. But she would never regret her brazen move or his groans of pleasure, of want.
She didn’t know why she was disappointed, why she wanted more.
“How long have you loved me?” He closed his eyes, and she watched the muscles at his throat work as he swallowed. His sigh was carried off by the breeze. Finally, he opened his eyes and captured her gaze. “Forever.”
I want to spend my life proving it to you, showing you that you aren’t an afterthought, a spare, or being held in reserve. That nothing you’ve ever done makes you unworthy of anything. To me, you’ll always come first, my first love, my only love. And I promise I won’t be quiet while proving it, nor require that you be quiet, either.
