Seven Wicked Nights (Turner #1.5)

“You are sure you are not angry with me?” he said between kisses.

“Angry? You were my lifeline.” She ran her fingers through his hair, loving that he was no mirage, but a true oasis. “I only wish you had told me sooner, so I didn’t have to spend so many nights, long after I became a widow, wondering what your lips felt like.”

His gaze dipped to her mouth. “Now you know.”

She traced his lips again. They were delectable to the touch—everything she had ever dreamed of and more. “Not well enough—never well enough.”





Chapter Four





CLARISSA DANCED. It was three o’clock in the morning, but she was still bursting with energy and euphoria. Thanks to Christian’s promise to look after her guests in her stead, she and her wonderful James had been able to spend eight solid hours together, making love, talking, making love some more, and talking some more. And once her lover stopped thinking of her as the Duchess of Lexington, but only as his dearest friend and correspondent, he didn’t even have that much trouble speaking.

Now she had to wait until morning to see him again—morning could not come soon enough.

She was twirling past the fireplace for the third time when a light knock came, followed by an envelope from under the door.

When she opened the unsealed envelope, she was greeted by a most familiar and beloved hand.

My dear Duchess,

I know I have said it in your presence, but permit me to also set it down in writing: This has been the most marvelous day of my life. I am filled with such a sense of well-being and invincibility that I just might attempt giving a speech in public. Perhaps I’d even commandeer the nearest piano, pound its keys, and sing at the top of my lungs.

I am drunk without having touched a drop of spirits.

Will you make me permanently intoxicated with life and all its beauty by consenting to become my wife? I am already the happiest man alive. But as your husband, I would also be the proudest.

Yours devotedly,

J.M.K.

She pressed the note against her heart, but only for a moment, as she rushed to open the door and pull him inside. Before he could speak, she placed a finger over his lips and led him to her sitting room, and with him leaning over her shoulder, penned her reply.

My dear Mr. Kingston,

Why, yes, of course I will marry you. I did say that I would choose a gentleman from among those at my house party for my future spouse, did I not? I am a woman of my word.

If it is agreeable to you, let us marry as soon as we can obtain a special license. Where should we go for our honeymoon? We need not return until the Eton and Harrow game in July.

Yours impatiently,

Clarissa

Her dear James solemnly read the note after she handed it to him, even though he already knew exactly what it said. He then kissed it, folded it carefully, and put it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“When your party disperses, will you come with me to my house and see my hydrangea garden?” he asked.

In other words, would she like to come and see his heart held out before him and the hope that had sustained him all these years?

She rose and wrapped her arms around him. “Yes, I will, darling. There is nothing I’d like to see more—except you, every day of my life.”





About Sherry



Thank you for reading Claiming the Duchess. Claiming the Duchess is followed by Beguiling the Beauty, which tells Christian’s story. For your copy of Beguiling the Beauty, click here.

Want to know when the next Sherry Thomas novel will be released? Sign up for her newsletter at www.sherrythomas.com. You can also follow her on twitter at @sherrythomas and like her Facebook page at http://facebook.com/authorsherrythomas.





Other Books by Sherry





The Heart of Blade Series


The Hidden Blade



My Beautiful Enemy





The London Trilogy


The Luckiest Lady in London



Private Arrangements



His at Night





The Fitzhugh Series


Claiming the Duchess



Beguiling the Beauty



Ravishing the Heiress



A Dance in Moonlight



Tempting the Bride



The Bride of Larkspear





The Marsden Brothers Series


Delicious



Not Quite a Husband





The Elemental Trilogy (Young Adult Fantasy)



The Burning Sky



The Perilous Sea



The Immortal Heights — 2015





Not in any series


The One in My Heart — spring 2015 (Contemporary Romance)





Chapter One





Nottinghamshire, 1821

HE WAS SIMPLY a boot at first. A scuffed boot propped on her newly upholstered ottoman. Catherine Meredith Carthwick Raybourne, the Marchioness of Forster, paused on her way down the hall. Quiet settled as quiet does on a tame Wednesday afternoon. The butler had not announced any guests, and her brother was not to return to Nottinghamshire for five days yet. The boot gave way to a long leg. Cat leaned forward and peered around the corner of the library door.

And nearly fell over.