An Offer From a Gentleman

“I can live with you hating me,” he said to the closed door. “I just can’t live without you.”

she could remember standing on the doorstep in the rain,

Sophie knew she was a bastard.

Sophie Beckett was a bastard.

“She’ll marry a duke . . . or a Bridgerton.”

Nothing is ever as complicated as it is in one's mind."

But one of the things I love best," he continued, "is the fact that you know yourself. You know who you are, and what you value. You have principles, Sophie, and you stick by them." He took her hand and brought it to his lips. "That is so rare."

I had nowhere to go," she said, not sure why she was telling him that.

"You had me"

"I searched for you," he said, his low, intense voice cutting into her thoughts.

Her eyes widened, grew wet. "You did?" she whispered.

"For six bloody months," he cursed. "It was as if you fell right off the face of the earth."

nd so

instead of questions, he gave her kisses, returning his lips to hers in a searing, barely controlled dance of desire.