Authors: With This Kiss

Eloisa James (18 page)

BOOK: Eloisa James

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“I don’t like house parties. I can never find the time to practice.”

“Your father said he expects you to behave like a proper lady now that you’ve made your debut, Edie. That means very little practicing when you’re not at home.”

Edie made a rude noise. She hadn’t been able to play her cello yesterday owing to her fever, not to mention preparations for the ball. She rarely practiced fewer than five hours in a given day, and she had no intention of altering her habits. “What if my marriage ends up like yours?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my marriage,” Layla said. Edie could hear her blowing a smoke ring out the window.

“You sleep in separate rooms.”

“Everyone in polite society sleeps in separate rooms.”

“You didn’t when you were first married,” Edie persisted. “I often saw Father kissing you, and once I saw him pick you up and throw you over his shoulder and practically run up the stairs.”

A silence ensued. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”

“Why not? I was a beast to you, but inside I was glad to see Father so happy. Giddy, almost.”

“Well, that’s marriage for you,” Layla said. “Giddy one moment, indifferent the next.”

“I can’t imagine Kinross being giddy, can you?”

“Could you have imagined your father giddy, if you hadn’t seen the evidence with your own eyes?”

“No.”

“Temporary madness,” Layla said sadly. “Jonas came to his senses and realized that I’m a light-headed fool, and that was that.”

“You are
not
a light-headed fool!”

“I had it from the horse’s mouth, just last night.”

“Father said that?” Edie pulled off the cloth, pushed herself up against the pillows, and squinted blearily at Layla. Her head was throbbing, but there was no mistaking the downcast expression on her stepmother’s face.

Layla stubbed out her cheroot and returned her pink glass holder to its tin box. “I shall ring for Mary so you can take off that corset and crawl into bed. Would you like a cool bath?”

“Yes,” Edie said. “But are you truly miserable, Layla?”

“It’s only a fit of the dismals,” she replied, coming over to perch on the side of the bed. “I shall miss you, and the thought makes me fidgety. Here, let me feel your head.”

“Now that I’m almost a married woman, will you tell me exactly where Father goes at night? What I’m getting at is, does he have a mistress?”

“I haven’t actually asked him.” Layla bit her bottom lip, and then she said: “I don’t want to know. Goodness, but your head is warm. We have to cool you down.” She reached over to pull the cord that summoned Mary.

Edie couldn’t seem to keep her mind focused on any particular subject. “What does Kinross look like—up close, I mean?”

“Ferociously masculine. Beautiful in that male way. Shoulders as broad as a plow horse’s, with muscled thighs. I’d like to see him in a kilt. Do you suppose he’ll wear one at your wedding?”

“Do you think he has a sense of humor?” And then Edie held her breath because, to her mind, that was the most important feature one could possess. Having been called beautiful all her life, she knew just how meaningless that attribute could be.

Silence.

“Oh no,” she moaned.

“It was a very formal occasion,” Layla offered. “I could scarcely tell him a joke about a Welshman and wait for his reaction.”

“I’m to marry a Scotsman the size of a bloody tree, with no sense of humor and an impulsive bent.”

Layla shrugged. “You’ll have to stop swearing, at least in his presence, darling.”

“Why?”

“He seemed a bit formal.”

Edie groaned. “I’m marrying my bloody father.”

“That makes two of us.”

About the Author

A
New York Times
bestselling author, ELOISA JAMES is a professor of English literature who lives with her family in New York but who can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. (Her husband is a honest-to-goodness Italian knight!) Eloisa’s website offers short stories, extra chapters, and even a guide to shopping in Florence. Please visit her at
www.eloisajames.com
.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

By Eloisa James

W
ITH
T
HIS
K
ISS
: T
HE
C
OMPLETE
C
OLLECTION

O
NCE
U
PON A
T
OWER

A
S
Y
OU
W
ISH

S
EDUCED BY A
P
IRAT
E
(a novella)

T
HE
U
GLY
D
UCHESS

T
HE
D
UKE
I
S
M
INE

W
INNIN
G THE
W
ALLFLOWER
(a novella)

A
F
OOL
A
GAIN
(a novella)

W
HEN
B
EAUTY
T
AMED THE
B
EAS
T

S
TORMING THE
C
ASTL
E
(a novella)

A K
ISS AT
M
IDNIG
HT

A
D
UKE OF HER
O
WN

T
HIS
D
UCHESS OF
M
IN
E

W
HEN THE
D
UKE
R
ETU
RNS

D
UCHESS
B
Y
N
IGHT

A
N
A
FFAIR
B
EFORE
C
H
RISTMAS

D
ESPERATE
D
UCHESSES

P
LEASUR
E FOR
P
LEASURE

T
HE
T
AMING OF THE
D
UKE

K
I
SS
M
E,
A
NNABEL

M
UCH
A
DO
A
BOUT
Y
OU

“With This Kiss: Part One” was originally published as an e-book novella in March 2013 by Avon Impulse, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

“With This Kiss: Part Two” was originally published as an e-book novella in March 2013 by Avon Impulse, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

“With This Kiss: Part Three” was originally published as an e-book novella in April 2013 by Avon Impulse, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

This book was originally published in mass market, in a slightly altered form, entitled
As You Wish
, in April 2013 by Avon Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

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.

Excerpt from
Once Upon a Tower
copyright © 2013 by Eloisa James.

WITH THIS KISS: THE
COMPLETE COLLECTION
. Copyright © 2013 by Eloisa James. 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 JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780062293350

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Australia

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