To Sir Phillip, With Love

You will always be a Bridgerton, and we behave with honor and honesty, not because it is expected of us, but because that is what we are

“What did you say to Francesca?” Eloise asked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Francesca,” Eloise repeated, referring to her younger sister who had married six years earlier—and was tragically widowed two years after that. “What did you say to her when she married? You mentioned Daphne, but not Francesca.”

Violet Bridgerton had never wanted for anything, but her true wealth lay in her wisdom and her love, and it occurred to Eloise, as she watched Violet turn back to the door, that she was more than just her mother—she was everything that Eloise aspired to be.

It was hard to imagine how he had been so lucky, but he resolved not to wonder at his good fortune, just to enjoy it

I’m glad. You’d never have been mine if you’d tugged out your hairpins. Someone else would have snatched you up years ago

“No one who saw this could resist you,” he said, winding a length of her silky hair around his fingers

She didn’t even realize. She’d just looked at him with that blissful smile, too caught in her own passion to notice that he was ready to explode

He needed a wedding. Fast

But now his fantasy had a face, and he feared he was going to find himself walking around with a constant erection if he didn’t learn how to control his thoughts

He’d needed Eloise.

He wanted to sink himself into her and never come out.

He wanted to own her, to possess her, and then to lay back and let her torture him until he screamed