With This Kiss

you sound like gravel on the bottom of a wheel, and no one will know what to make of us.”
    James snorted. “Actually, that makes us Odysseus: didn’t Homer have it that no one recognized Odysseus but the family dog? I don’t give a damn what anyone makes of us. Christmas?” he repeated.
    If Griffin said yes, he would be declaring himself a duke’s intimate friend, going to a house party for the holiday, acknowledging a closeness to power that his father had always lusted after.
    He had thought becoming a pirate was the ultimate way to thwart his father’s ambitions.
    It seemed fate had something else in mind.
    “I wish you weren’t a duke,” he said, to fill the silence as much as anything.
    “So do I.” James’s eyes were clear. Honest.
    “Very well, Christmas,” Griffin said, giving in to the inevitable. “Likely you’ll still be trying to bed your wife, so I can give you a hint or two.”
    A rough embrace, and he walked out without another word, because there wasn’t need for one.
    Now he merely had to face his family: His father. His wife.
    Wife .

 
    Copyright
    “With This Kiss: Part Three” was originally published in As You Wish in April 2013 by Avon Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
    Excerpt from The Ugly Duchess copyright © 2012 by Eloisa James.
    Excerpt from “Seduced by a Pirate” copyright © 2012 by Eloisa James.
    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.
    WITH THIS KISS: PART THREE . 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 APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780062276957
    Version 03222013
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