“Again.Apparently, three broken engagements weren't enough. It was her duty to marry, and marry she must.”

“Three weeks was apparently time enough to fall in love, but not long enough to fall out of love. Meg had this unfortunate truth drummed into her head each morning when she woke, hoping this would be the day that she forgot about Alex, this would be the day she could get on with her life and put Edinburgh behind her. She grimaced. Three weeks, three years, it didn’t make a difference. She would remember.Everything.”

“It seemed she would not be able to ignore her duty; it had just arrived.”

“He kissed her as if he couldn't get enough of her.”

“He gave her everything. Everything but the promise of a future. And she met his dark strokes with a plunder of her own, holding his gaze, raking his soul of its secrets. She knew just what she meant to him.”

“How could she have reacted like that? She didn’t understand what had come over her. She’d felt his passion and her own. It made her anxious. On edge. For something. Something that made her skin prickle whenever he was in the room with her. Indeed, she found it difficult to concentrate when he wasaround. He was big and strong and smelled incredible. She wanted to curl up against his chest and never leave. She’d never had such strong urges. But then again, she’d never met a man who made her feel so protected simply by his solid presence and his confident command of everything around him. His strength was strangely soothing. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d felt so…content.”

“And how do you propose we sort this out?" His voice was wonderfully hoarse.She smiled, a devilish glint in her eyes. "Oh, I'm sure we can figure something out." Her gaze dropped to the hefty bulge in his pants.Dear God.Her mouth suddenly went dry. Her bravado faltered. She wasn't nearlyas confident as she pretended.Unconsciously, she licked her bottom lip. If possible, the prodigiousbulge seemed to grow a little bigger. He appeared to be in a great deal ofpain, but Elizabeth was discovering that she had a rather ruthless streakwhen it came to this man.She approached him slowly,”