“You’re giving up your painting, then?” the duke asked, his keen gaze no doubt taking in her every expression.
She squared her shoulders, secretly grateful for Zachary’s hand in hers. Standing up to the Duke of Melbourne wasn’t easy even for his own family members—one of which she was apparently about to become. Good heavens. “No, I’m not.”
“She may set up a studio here. We haven’t decided yet.”
Melbourne nodded. “I came here to tell Zachary that I’ve decided to step back from this. Apparently I didn’t need to make the effort.”
“You could make the effort of apologizing for interfering in the first place,” Zachary suggested.
“If I do so, will you spend the winter at Melbourne?”
Caroline remembered what Zachary had told her, about how badly the duke had taken his wife’s death, and how important it had become to him to have his family close by. “You may be inviting my entire family, you realize,” she said with a slight smile. “I think you should know all the details before you issue an invitation.”
“Your entire family,” the duke repeated, humor touching his voice. “Well, I suppose if the Griffins can withstand having a professional portraitist in the family, we can survive Christmas with the Witfelds.” He offered his hand to Zachary. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have meddled. I didn’t want to see you unhappy, and being without Miss Witfeld obviously made you so.”
Zachary shook his oldest brother’s hand. “I accept.”
“And bring Miss Witfeld along for dinner. I’ve met her family, and now she needs to meet the rest of yours.”
With a nod, the duke left. Still holding Caroline’s hand, Zachary led the way toward the stairs. “Hogarty, have a bath brought up to my bedchamber,” he said over his shoulder.
“Right away, my lord.”
Caroline blushed, though with all the colors on her, Zachary probably couldn’t tell. “Zachary, everyone will know…you know…what we’ve been doing.”
“And they won’t if you leave the house covered in paint?”
She sighed, leaning into his shoulder. “Which rest of your family is here?”
“My sister Eleanor and her husband Valentine, and Peep. Sebastian’s daughter. She’s six. And don’t worry, she’ll be ecstatic that your joining the family will help balance the ratio of females to males.” He looked at her as they topped the stairs, then leaned down to kiss her, slow and deep. “I’ve been thinking,” he murmured, brushing a stray hair behind her ear, “that I’d like to take you to Paris for our honeymoon.”
“Paris,” she repeated shakily. The Louvre was in Paris. The Mona Lisa was in Paris.
“And then Greece. And anywhere else you’d care to see. Then maybe my family will finally realize that my interest in art is very,” and he kissed her again, “very,” another kiss, “serious.”
“Art and cows, you mean.”
He laughed. “The cows are staying in Wiltshire. And you, my living work of art, are coming with me to take a bath.” Zachary lifted her in his arms and carried her, laughing, into his bedchamber.
About the Author
A native and current resident of Southern California, SUZANNE ENOCH loves movies almost as much as she loves books. She once appeared on an E! special, Star Wars Is Back, as an expert on the romance in the Star Wars movies. Other highlights include winning her third grade spelling bee, receiving an E.T. poster and T-shirt in an alien-inspired poetry contest, and submitting a script for The A-Team (which was not why the series was cancelled).
When she is not busily working on her next novel, Suzanne likes to contemplate interesting phenomenon, like how the three guppies in her aquarium became 161 guppies in five months. Suzanne loves to hear from her readers, and may be reached at:
c/o Lowenstein-Yost Associates
121 W. 27th St., Suite 601
New York, NY 10001
Or send her an e-mail at [email protected].
Visit her website at www.suzanneenoch.com.
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By Suzanne Enoch
AN INVITATION TO SIN
FLIRTING WITH DANGER
SIN AND SENSIBILITY
ENGLAND’S PERFECT HERO
LONDON’S PERFECT SCOUNDREL
THE RAKE
A MATTER OF SCANDAL
MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT
REFORMING A RAKE
TAMING RAFE
BY LOVE UNDONE
STOLEN KISSES
LADY ROGUE
Coming in January 2006
The Exciting Contemporary Romance
DON’T LOOK DOWN
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AN INVITATION TO SIN. Copyright © 2005 by Suzanne Enoch. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition April 2006 ISBN 9780061745263
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Avon Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
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