Daring Widow by Cerise DeLand

Author:Cerise DeLand
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2017-11-30T18:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

The coach was cool. Valmont had opened one of the windows and the night air was a refreshing breeze upon her heated skin.

She closed her eyes, at peace with the decision that had been conceived in instinct and—after all these months and so many occasions—was borne in conviction. She adored Monsieur le duc de Remy, prince d’Aumale, Andre Claude Marceau. In that realization, she rested secure and happy.

The streets at this time of morning were quiet. Though the bon ton traversed the boulevards, to and from the theaters, the cafes or the boudoirs of their loved ones, their sounds were muffled, discreet. The clop of matched horses. The whisk of a coachman’s whip. The footfalls of pedestrians on their way home denoted that all was well.

Her journey would be short. A good thing since her heart was unable to beat a steady tattoo since she’d entered the brougham and sunk to the plush squabs. Inside the cozy cab, Valmont had strapped a silver ice bucket to the tiny drop-down table. He’d poured her a full measure of crisp champagne into the crystal flute upon the inlaid polished wood. She took one drink, unwilling to cloud her mind for the scintillating experience she welcomed with all her heart.

She alighted at an impressive home, two stories high. In milky Parisian limestone that gleamed in the lamplight, the house reflected Remy’s personality in its elaborately carved robin’s egg blue front door and the multitude of huge paned windows that marched along the first and second floors. She put out her hand to knock upon the varnished wood and it fell open.

A half bare mighty arm reached out into the night and drew her in.

She giggled.

Andre caught her up in his arms and whirled her about, laughing himself. In his foyer, the chandelier above blazed in tiny lights. She could see him. See him as she’d never seen him before.

Wildly happy. With the broadest grin on his chiseled lips. The merriest twinkle in his incomparable eyes.

“You must put me down,” she told him, her hand to his chest.

“Why?”

“You’ll get dizzy. I am.”

“I’ve been dizzy since I met you.” Panting, he stopped and fell back against the wall. “If I want to make you as lightheaded as I am, you cannot blame me for trying.”

She put her palm to his cheek. His strong jaw lay in her hand and she marveled at his perfection. “I’ll blame you for my joy. An exhilaration I haven’t had since I was a child.”

One side of his mouth hooked up in a rogue’s grin. “I’ll take that, ma chou.”

She winced. “I do not approve of being your cabbage.”

“Very well. My star. My moon. My sun.”

“Use them all. Why not? Now put me down before you injure your back. Show me the house.”

He set her to the floor and put his hands on his hips. “What would you like first?”

She pointed toward the road. “Actually, I could do with the rest of that fabulous champagne.”

He snapped his fingers. “I have more.

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