To Sir Phillip, With Love

You will always be a Bridgerton, and we behave with honor and honesty, not because it is expected of us, but because that is what we are

It was hard to imagine how he had been so lucky, but he resolved not to wonder at his good fortune, just to enjoy it

I’m glad. You’d never have been mine if you’d tugged out your hairpins. Someone else would have snatched you up years ago

“No one who saw this could resist you,” he said, winding a length of her silky hair around his fingers

She didn’t even realize. She’d just looked at him with that blissful smile, too caught in her own passion to notice that he was ready to explode

He needed a wedding. Fast

But now his fantasy had a face, and he feared he was going to find himself walking around with a constant erection if he didn’t learn how to control his thoughts

He’d needed Eloise.

He wanted to sink himself into her and never come out.

He wanted to own her, to possess her, and then to lay back and let her torture him until he screamed

her throat, for the scent of her skin, for the way his body seemed to fit perfectly in the crook of hers. Even though he’d had to finish off himself, he’d still felt more, and more intensely, than he’d ever thought possible.

He’d thought almost any female body would do, but it was now quite clear to him that there was a reason he’d never availed himself of the services of the whores and barmaids who’d expressed their willingness. There was a reason he’d never found himself a discreet widow.

He’d been mad for her. For her.

For the sounds that escaped