Married By Morning (The Hathaways, #4)

by Lisa Kleypas

Was this some new level of depravity? Had he developed a spinster fetish?

“Damn it,” he said raggedly, “I’ll do it. Even knowing I’ll be annihilated afterward.” “You’ll do what?” Marks asked, her eyes huge. “This.” And his mouth descended to hers.

“My mistakes are usually so enjoyable that I tend to repeat them.”

But I will never dance with you.” Which, of course, made it the goal of Leo’s life.

Somewhere amid the ordeal, Leo decided hazily that he would never underestimate Catherine Marks again. Ounce for ounce, she was the most insanely obstinate person he had ever known, dragging rocks and debris while half blind and hampered by long skirts, diligently crossing back and forth across his vision like an industrious mole.

“And you still love her.” Catherine’s voice was bleak. “That’s why you’ll never marry.” “No. I have an extraordinary fondness for her memory. But it was a lifetime ago. And I can’t ever go through that again. I love like a madman.” “It might not be like that again.” “No, it would be worse. Because I was only a boy then. And now who I am, what I need … it’s too damned much for anyone to manage.” A sardonic laugh rustled in his throat. “I overwhelm even myself, Marks.”

at times like this, she had all the cuddlesome appeal of a feral hedgehog.

“What a naughty girl you are.”

“Oh, miss, you’re as pretty as the girls they paint on tins of sweets,” the housemaid exclaimed.

Points for historical detail!

“There’s nothing more annoying than someone trying to make one feel better when one wants to wallow.”

“I want you to marry me so that I don’t have my way all the time,” he said, which was the truth. “It’s not good for me to be indulged. And you tell me no quite frequently.”

“But I need someone to expect something from me,” he heard himself say.

“I beg your pardon, I did not ask to be husked like an ear of corn!”

“I want to make love to you.” Leo traced the inner structure of her ear with the tip of his tongue. “I want to go as deep as you can take me, and feel you tighten around me, and I want to come inside you.” A finger slid inside her, and another, and she whimpered softly. “You know how good it would feel,” he whispered, stroking her slowly. “Yield to me, and I’ll love you without stopping. I’ll stay in you all night.”

Oh my starrrsssssssss.

You don’t have to love me back. You don’t have to be mine. Just let me be yours.”