You May Kiss the Duke

His love had become such a fundamental truth, the admission didn’t even alarm him. It felt, in fact, more settling to simply acknowledge it.

She felt a little like she’d drawn a beautiful map to a magical location, and now it was in the hands of a traveler.

ou’re holding me captive in this bright room to interrogate me, and I feel threatened.”

Worse, his proximity to her was fleeting. He would not remain in her bedroom forever.

“Life will wallop us with tragedy whether we plan for it or not. It’s our duty to fight back by making fun when we can, prioritizing celebrations, reveling in the happy times.”

Her eyes were bright with excitement and desire, and his own body surged, his heart thudding in his throat. They stood in the misty courtyard, frozen for a charged moment. He looked into the eyes that he hoped to see every day for the rest of his life and saw forever staring back.

The problem with spending any time at all with a living, breathing person (rather than the idealized refuge built in your own mind) is that they thought for themselves.

Inside her, Sabine felt a low pressure flicker, pulse, and then begin to burn, rising like the simmer of water in a pot.

His baseness and his darkness and his raw, pounding need were his own cross to bear.

“Because if you continue on, if you instigate these provoking conversations and encourage the kisses and the proximity, I will, eventually, crumble. Your innocent curiosity will spark, catch fire, and flame into something not innocent at all.”