How to Forget a Duke Page 35
Five years later
Crispin let his head fall back against the top of the sofa, completely spent as Jacinda sagged against him, her panting breaths rushing over his neck. “I enjoy this way of settling our disputes.”
“I agree. Especially . . . since I was the victor,” she purred, her fingertips coasting aimlessly over the swath of bare skin exposed beneath his open shirtfront and parted waistcoat.
“I beg to differ, darling. You cried out first—and second and third—if I recall.” He grinned when she gave the hair on his chest a playful, scolding tug, the warmth of her blushing cheek nestled into the curve of his shoulder. Aside from the absence of his cravat, they were both fully dressed, though their clothes were in a sublime state of disorder.
“Yes, but I was on top. Everyone knows that the person on top wins the dispute.”
“Is that so?” Beneath her skirts, he gripped the decadent fullness of her hips and rolled her against him, earning a breathy gasp and a responding clench around his flesh. Sweet heaven, but he loved this woman to distraction. “We can continue our . . . discussion in a few more minutes. However, I will tell you once and for all that we are not naming our son Knightley.”
She sat up, bearing her weight more fully onto him, her face flushed, lips swollen from his kiss, and an impish glimmer in her bright blue gaze. “I’m not afraid of a challenge, you know.”
“Indeed. You are even more tenacious than when we first met.” And she used every advantage over him, much to his constant delight. Even now, she taunted him with the lush swells of her breasts spilling over the edge of her bodice, their heavy ripeness and taut, velvety buds making his mouth water and his blood quicken in a thick, fervent rush.
Apparently, he wouldn’t need a few minutes after all.
“Mummy, why are you on Daddy’s lap?”
Jacinda went still as a statue—well, a pink statue, considering the color of her cheeks and ears—and peered past his shoulder, toward the door of the study. “Emma, dearest, what are you doing out of bed?”
Suppressing a laugh, Crispin worked in stealth. Under the cover of Jacinda’s skirts, he lifted her away, blotted the residual fluids with his handkerchief and set all matters down below to rights, while Jacinda arranged her sleeves and bodice.
“I couldn’t sleep without hearing one of Auntie Sybil’s stories,” their four-year-old answered, her voice growing closer as she padded into the room on tiny bare feet. “Daddy’s stories are too loud. I like whisper stories.”
Sybil had begun to speak shortly after Emma’s birth, deciding that communicating with pictures was something that a child would do.
“Daddy’s stories are too loud, hmm?” Jacinda’s brows arched in teasing reproach as she pressed a quick kiss to his lips before she stood and smoothed her skirts. “We’ll have to work on his softer voice until we follow Auntie Sybil and Great-Aunt Hortense to London. The Season is about to begin and we have many happy matches to make.”
“I want to make a match for E.E.,” Emma proclaimed with a sleepy yawn.
“Dearest, I asked you not to call your brother E.E. Every time you do it sounds as if you’ve spotted a spider,” Jacinda said earning a giggle as she gathered Emma into her arms. “Besides, at two years old, Edward Ernest is a bit young to be married.”
The bow of Emma’s bottom lip pulled into a frown and she looked close to tears. “Then I don’t know how else we’ll manage.”
Worried, Crispin reached out and brushed his hand over her wispy auburn hair. “What do you mean, sweetkin?”
“Well, the nursery is lopsided. There are four beds, but only two of us.”
Jacinda slid him a look, biting her bottom lip to keep from grinning. “It seems that someone takes after her father.”
Crispin felt a resplendent fullness inside his chest as he fought his own grin and then drew their daughter’s petite frame into his arms. “But if you marry off your brother, that will only be three places taken in the nursery, not four.”
“Not when I marry Henry Valentine.”
“Ah. I see,” he said with mock gravity. “Well, that leaves us with something of a problem, then. What will we do with the new baby your mother will have in autumn?”
Emma’s hazel eyes sparkled with drowsy delight, her cheek resting against his shoulder. “Oh, that’s much better. I didn’t think I could find anyone to marry E.E. anyway. He’s always sneaking out of the nursery and getting into mischief.”
This time, it was Crispin’s turn to lift his brows at Jacinda, who smiled back at him sheepishly. “It seems that someone takes after his mother.”
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Acknowledgments
Writing How to Forget a Duke has been a dream come true, which would not have been possible without a support team.
I want to thank my agent, Stefanie Lieberman, who agreed that maybe, just maybe, the concept of Emma meets The Bourne Identity wasn’t as crazy as it sounded. And to my editor, Nicole Fischer, who gave the idea a chance.
I also want to thank the Avon Art Department, Amy Halperin, and the incomparable Jon Paul Ferrara for the stunning cover, as well as everyone who worked behind the scenes to make this book shine.
Thank you, Cindy Clough, my favorite librarian for your never-ending enthusiasm, and for using your interlibrary loan power to help feed my addiction to reserved books.
Many thanks to Kim and to Mary for your generosity and kindness from the very beginning.
And special thanks to JuLee, Tracy, and Lena for our Saturday mornings over tea, lattes, and black reginas. Our laughs and random conversations keep me on the sane side of the chicken coop. I couldn’t have asked for better friends.
Ten Kisses to Scandal
When a spiteful debutante challenges the Bourne Matrimonial Agency to find a match for the most irredeemable rake in London, Briar Bourne accepts. But how will she find a wife for an earl who only wants to kiss her senseless?
TEN KISSES TO SCANDAL
The next Misadventures in Matchmaking novel coming early 2019!
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author VIVIENNE LORRET transforms copious amounts of tea into words. She is an Avon Books author of works including the Wallflower Wedding series, the Rakes of Fallow Hall series, the Season’s Original series, and the Misadventures in Matchmaking series. For more information on her books, sign up for her newsletter at www.vivlorret.net.
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By Vivienne Lorret
The Misadventures in Matchmaking Series
How to Forget a Duke
The Season’s Original Series
“The Duke’s Christmas Wish” (in All I Want for Christmas Is a Duke and A Christmas to Remember)
The Debutante Is Mine
This Earl is on Fire
When a Marquess Loves a Woman
Just Another Viscount in Love (novella)
The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series
The Elusive Lord Everhart
The Devilish Mr. Danvers
The Maddening Lord Montwood
The Wallflower Wedding Series
Tempting Mr. Weatherstone (novella)
Daring Miss Danvers
Winning Miss Wakefield
Finding Miss McFarland
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
how to forget a duke. Copyright © 2018 by Vivienne Lorret. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any in
formation storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition JUNE 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-268549-0
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-268548-3
Cover design by Amy Halperin
Cover illustration by Jon Paul Ferrara
Cover photograph by Media Photo LLC
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HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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