To Enchant a Wicked Duke by Christi Caldwell

Author:Christi Caldwell [Caldwell, Christi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Historical, Victorian, Regency, Historical Romance, SM
Amazon: B01N4MP3Y8
Publisher: Christi Caldwell Ink
Published: 2017-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

This was the last night that he’d see Miss Justina Barrett. Oh, granted, given their statuses in the ton, they’d move through the same Social spheres. Yet, there was no need for their paths to cross with anything more meaningful.

Searching for her in the crowd, Nick sought to determine why that truth left him oddly…bereft. Hollow inside. His gaze landed on the pale-haired and brown-haired misses, so often with her, and he cursed himself for looking for Justina even now.

By God, he wanted to leave this infernal affair. Wanted to go to his home or his club, or ideally both, and get himself well and truly soused. The whole reason he was in attendance at Chilton’s ball even now, was because it was at Nick’s bequest that the formal affair had been thrown together, with the intentions of trapping Rutland’s sister-in-law and ultimately forcing her hand. As such, he’d an obligation to at least suffer through the event.

But as he continued his systematic work seizing the Viscount Waters’ debt and the debt of that man’s son, Justina had retained a tentacle-like hold on Nick’s thoughts. Having convinced himself that poetry and any other piece of literature was nothing but rot, and that he’d not picked up a book of poetry in thirteen years—until her.

Nick stared over his glass of champagne at the tops of the heads of Chilton’s guests and took care to avoid anyone’s eyes. He didn’t want bloody company. He didn’t want to don the roguish smile the peerage had come to expect from the always affable Duke of Huntly, who inside had a soul as rotted as the scoundrel who’d been the scourge of London.

And he most certainly didn’t wish to see Justina Barrett and all the gentlemen eyeing her with covetous stares, the way they might hunger for those shining gems that couldn’t hold a flicker of actual light to the young lady’s spirit.

With a sound of disgust, he downed his drink.

Chilton sidled next to him, a glass in his own fingers. “I’ll have you remember this was entirely for your benefit,” he pointed out with far too much relish.

“I recall,” he bit out. And the misery of this affair was to be his punishment for embroiling Justina in his plans for Rutland.

The mirth faded from his friend’s grin and the harsh planes of Chilton’s face settled into a somber mask. “Other than the furtive glances you’ve been casting in the young lady’s direction, you’ve made otherwise little move toward her.”

Given the hushed quiet of that observation, Nick could very well pretend to fail to hear the words and question there. Yet, this man had been his friend since he’d been a youthful lad with a love of poetry to the then transformed boy who’d cut his father’s dangling body from a rope. “I, of course, thought on your…advice,” he said, stiffly. Chilton had always been remarkably clear in logic when Nick had been hotheaded with emotion. It was, no doubt, the reason for the baron’s brilliant success upon the battlefields of Europe.

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