The Historical Collection

seems impossible that you could love me. But then it once seemed impossible that I could love anyone, and now I love you with a ferocity I can’t describe. Not because I need a poet, but because I don’t want to frighten you away. You’re the kindest soul I’ll ever meet, and we’re astounding together in bed. I don’t think I could live without you. Well, I don’t know. Perhaps I could. In the past, I learned to survive without a great many things. But I don’t want to live without you. I realize you might not forgive me yet for being a shameless, presumptuous prick, but—”

The Duke of Ruin, they said. Penny didn’t know if the man lived up to his scandal-sheet moniker, but he was certainly the Duke of Ruining Her Afternoon.