Author: admin

“It was half a wagon load, Nicholas.” He grinned. “Your generosity is admirable,” Claire commented. “Don’t let this fool you,” Milos said. “He’s as tightfisted as they come. Nobody wrests an extra penny from him in business dealings. He’ll haggle over the price on a pound of steel until his suppliers give up from exhaustion.”…

He carried her swiftly to her bed and lowered her to the edge. As he pulled away, she yelped, and it relieved him to find only a loose strand of her hair caught on a button on his vest. Nicholas lowered himself to sit beside her, and studied the wild tangle. “I’m sorry,” she said…

It had been months seen she’d been to the theater, since she’d been anywhere, and she planned to enjoy herself. Nicholas Halliday and his tests and his kisses be hanged. She gathered her skirts and stepped past him. “Not in the least.” The production was one she’d seen done with more skill, but that didn’t…

His expression denoted he’d been taken aback by her vehemence. “Do you think I wanted Stephen dead?” she asked, her voice louder and more shrill than she’d intended. She took a deliberate calming breath. He tossed the cigar into the flames and moved from the fire. Alessia’s pulse pounded in her veins. She had no…

And, oh Lord, he’d be naked. And wet. She reached the door and tested the knob, hand trembling. It opened. She inched her way into the hall and stealthily closed the door, her frantic gaze darting up and down the corridor. She was blessedly alone. For the time being. Grateful for the carpet that muffled…

She disappeared again, and he turned his gaze back to Claire. “You must have learned to favor honey in your tea from Stephen,” he said. “I’ve always taken my tea with honey.” Noncommittal. Safe. Neither admitting or denying she knew of Stephen’s preferences. “What were the qualities you appreciated most about Stephen?” he asked, leaving…

It had been a bad idea to come to his office. She turned her attention to the fire. Nicholas watched her expressions with equal amounts of rancor, frustration and desire burning hotter than the brandy in his belly. The things she’d said drew on emotions he didn’t know how to deal with. “I have no…

“I suggest you seek assistance on the stairs. We wouldn’t want you to take a tumble and break anything else.” The following morning Alessia discovered her bottom worked quite well to make her way down the stairs. Sliding her crutches ahead, she slowly, determinedly, made her way to Nicholas’s office. She had only William’s nap…

And screamed silently on the inside. Stephen. Stephen. His free-spirited brother with the unflappable zest for life and laughter. With so much yet to do and discover, his life had ended…leaving so many things between them unsettled. Would this gaping void of pain and loss ever heal? The time had arrived for the mourners to…

Mrs. Trent finished her task perfunctorily, rewrapped William and gave Nicholas a questioning glance. “Give him to his mother,” he said. She carried the child to Claire. Claire looked up at Nicholas, and embarrassment gave her cheeks the first color he’d seen on her face that day. Feeling very much like an intruder, he excused…