Harlequin Historical December 2018: Box Set 2 of 2 by Tatiana March

Author:Tatiana March
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

He couldn’t go on like this. It was blatherskite. Madness.

Malcolm threw down his pen and pushed the papers across his desk. The store was closed as darkness fell over the Parisian streets beyond the windows and everyone else had long gone home. It was usually the time he liked best, when quiet descended over the office and it was just him and the work. He usually lost himself in it, so absorbed that the world outside didn’t exist.

Not tonight. Tonight, Alexandra kept invading his inner sanctum, as real as if she had floated in and perched on the edge of the desk. She was there on the chaise, in his precious painting. He could almost smell her perfume, hear her laughter, her soft voice. The rules that governed his life, put into such careful place and always adhered to after the chaos of his youth, had been overturned.

He had to regain control over his life.

Malcolm gave up on work and sat back in his chair. Behind his closed eyes, he saw Alex at the Tower, the iron-dappled sun on her face as she sipped her champagne and laughed at the outrageous fashions around them. The light, fleeting fairy touch of her hand on his arm, the way she leaned into him as they danced at the Véfour. The shy way she peeked up at him through her lashes. The delight she took in the world around her. The way everything about her spoke of delicate refinement, but without a hint of snobbery or artifice. It was just—who she was.

And the way he wanted to know more and more about her. Wanted to know everything. Wanted to see her again so much she even invaded his work.

Who would have ever thought he could be so enchanted with the daughter of the Duke of Waverton? The man who had ruined Malcolm’s own father’s life?

Malcolm opened his eyes and stared out into the shadows of his office beyond the lamplit desk. With Alex, there had been none of that silence, those shadows.

He remembered what Miss Mersey said—he needed a wife. Someone to give him a home, help him in society. He had scoffed, but was she really right? And was Alexandra what he needed, what he had waited for so long without even knowing he was missing it?

The thought was startling. Since Mairie, he had been a solitary soul and he had found he liked the privacy of relying only on himself. He’d been certain it would be that way for the rest of his life. But now that didn’t feel as right as it once had.

Perhaps he did want a home, someone waiting for him after a day’s work. Alexandra’s smile at the door, her laughter at his dinner table, her beauty on his arm at parties. A real, true home, not rented lodgings. He was sure she would make a fine home, elegant, warm, welcoming, and the invitations to exclusive gatherings where a store owner had not previously been welcomed would pile up.

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