“The host in question, the chapel's owner, Grayston Boscastle, the fifth Marquess of Sedgecroft, sat thinking that the bride had the most appealing derriere he had seen in a long time. Not that he made a point of lusting after young women in wedding dresses, but he had been staring at the back of her for over two hours now. A normal man's curiosity could not help but be aroused. What else was he to look at? He wondered whether the rest of her was appealing.”

“A grin broke across Heath's hansome face. "The last time I saw such a collection of Boscastles in church was at Father's funeral. Who invited the mistresses?""I think I did, "Grayson said, suppressing a yawn."God knows I've been sitting here so long my brain's gone stiff.""You invited them to a wedding?""It's not my wedding thank God.""Well, it is your chapel.""Ergo I invite whom I please.""Someone might have thought to invite the groom.”

“He wasn’t stupid. He’d watched enough of his friends drop like flies when the fatal illness struck.Now he was himself stricken; he showed all the Six Deadly Symptoms of a Man in Love:1) Inability to think straight.2) An alarming propensity to smile at the oddest moments.3) Constant thoughts of the object of one’s desire.4) Absolutely no interest in other members of the opposite sex.5) A startling sense of goodwill toward the world in general.6) A perpetual state of sexual arousal.”

“Heath slid two fingers beneath Adrian’s white neckcloth to feel his pulse. “In that case, I can state with complete confidence that he shall be all right.”“Then why isn’t he moving?” she asked in a distraught voice.Heath smiled. “Ask him.”She looked down into a pair of hazel eyes smoldering with unholy mirth. Adrian’s lean cheek pressed into the curve of her breast.A wolf, indeed.”

“Lord Sedgecroft--""Ssh. It isn't polite to interrupt me when I'm kissing you.”

“You look even better than you did before," he added in a quiet voice. "I'm the one returning to the party with his rhubarb at full rise.”

“But then, Phillip reminded me of something that happened so long ago, I had completely forgotten it. He reminded of when we were ten, and he gave me my first kiss. We were on the swings out behind school, and right after he kissed me, he got up and ran away. Then all of a sudden, he stopped, turned around and yelled back, Will you marry me someday? And I yelled back to him, YES! And so he said that if people ask, I could tell them that we've been secretly engaged for the past twelve years. And so,.. you will probably all think I am very crazy, but I had to say YES again tonight!”