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  She caught her lip in her teeth. She began thrusting on him, and he moaned with pleasure. And relief. He was ready to explode, and he was fighting for control.

  Hoarsely, he went on, “Now my dream is to be married to you and start on our enormous brood of children. I want Maryanne to live with us too. She adores you, and I know together we can put her past behind her and give her happiness.”

  “Yes, we can.”

  “I hope your brother will accept me, Helena. I forgive him for those stories in the news sheets. It was not his fault. What of your sisters—will they forgive me for my shouting and threats? I will take care of them all, if they will let me. If you will.”

  “Oh, Grey, they will be so happy. You’ve made me so very happy.” She frowned, but he could see the teasing in it. “How enormous a family are you speaking of?”

  “Maybe a dozen children?” Grey lifted his hips, thrusting into her hopefully. “I was thinking of funding schools and homes for blind children, children less fortunate. We could use our position and your wonderful skills with children—” He broke off, then said, “I am so deeply in love with you.”

  “And so deeply in me,” Helena whispered, giggling with joy.

  She gazed down at him. She never knew she could be so happy. He’d said she’d taught him how to love. He had taught her that dreams did come true.

  “After,” she whispered, “If we can be alone, I’d like you to tie me up.”

  “I didn’t think you would want that,” he said softly.

  “It’s something erotic and fun that we share. Something wicked and special. I rather like submitting to your erotic will.”

  His green eyes blazed. “I’m glad you enjoy it. I love sharing it with you. That’s what I want, Helena. To share happiness and pleasure with you.”

  He thrust wildly into her, rubbed her clit with his thumb, and gave her an orgasm that turned the hot, drumming rain into bursting fireworks.

  “I love you,” he cried, then he arched up and came too.

  And her most wonderful, perfect fantasy of passion and happiness with the Duke of Greybrooke was coming true.

  Bells rang from the village church in the village of Winter’s Bough, the village near Winterleigh. The entire village had been invited to attend the marriage of Damian Caldwell, the fifth Duke of Greybrooke, and Miss Helena Winsome.

  Helena knew the real reason for the excitement brewing among her sisters and the other unmarried females in attendance. Two unmarried dukes were among the guests: the Duke of Caradon and the Duke of Saxonby.

  Caradon had insisted she call him Cary, as Grey did. He was the best man. Helena had all her sisters and Maryanne acting as her bridesmaids. To make that possible, Elise and Maryanne walked arm in arm. Both looked breathtaking in their ivory satin gowns.

  Helena followed her bridesmaids down the aisle. Will was giving her away.

  Grey stood at the altar with the reverend, and the look on his face as she approached almost made her toss her bouquet and run into his arms.

  He looked so happy.

  Next thing she knew, she was repeating her vows to Grey. She stumbled over his full name: Damian George Arthur Richard David, but Grey only smiled at her.

  Then it was time for those two simple words that promised happiness and told Grey how very much she loved him. “I do.” Goodness, she thought she saw a glint of a tear in Grey’s eyes.

  He gazed deeply in her eyes as he repeated his vows. “I do,” he said, huskily. “I do. I do. I do,” he mouthed to her.

  “By the power vested in me,” intoned the reverend in his clear, deep voice, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

  They were married! Grey clasped her hand and hurried her down the aisle and through the church doors. They burst out into the warmth and sunshine of a glorious June day. A breeze sent fragrant petals scattering over them.

  “I planned that,” Grey teased.

  “Of course you did,” she answered, loving the happy smile on his lips.

  He stopped on the steps of the church and drew her into his arms. A hush settled.

  “We’re wed,” Grey said softly. “It seems like a miracle.”

  Then he leaned in that last inch, and his lips claimed hers. Holding her bouquet, she hooked her arms around his neck, savoring all the complexity of the kiss. There was sweetness, a hint of naughty passion as he teased her with his tongue, and something intoxicating and precious and lasting, that she knew was love. She could feel all of it in his kiss, and she tried to bestow it on him in return.

  Cheers sounded, along with laughter, and suggestions that were just a little ribald.

  Breathless, Helena drew back. Dizzy from his kiss, she tossed the bouquet. It soared through the air toward Elise and Maryanne. Then it kept arcing, and the Duke of Caradon had to grab it so it didn’t hit his face.

  Applause and cheers exploded. And more ribald suggestions.

  Grey was taking her toward their carriage that would whisk them away. Her family was to stay as guests of the Winterhavens, then to join them at Grey’s estate, which Jacinta—Lady Winterhaven had insisted Helena use her Christian name—said was even more grand than Winterleigh, but also lovely. The sort of home that deserved to be loved.

  “And it can be loved now,” Jacinta had said firmly. “I feel as if the past has weighed on us for years, but you have shown us all that we must cast it off and be happy.”

  Now Helena hugged her sisters-in-law.

  Grey embraced Elise. “Soon it will be your turn, my dear, brand-new sister,” he said. Helena had to put her gloved finger to the corner of her eye. A tear threatened to spill. Grey had been so wonderful with Elise, Jane, and Louisa. They were to all live with him. He had settled a stunning dowry on Elise, enough to ensure she and her husband-to-be would have a secure future. Elise’s fiancé, a studious, gentle young man named Anthony Styles, was training to be a surgeon. Jane and Louisa would be starting at the best school for girls in England.

  Will stepped forward, and Helena’s heart soared as Will and Grey clasped hands, then Grey gave her brother a brief, masculine embrace.

  She had been so worried about what would happen between Grey and Will. How could Grey, who found it so hard to trust, forgive him? Will had printed a retraction in the newssheet, had insisted the stories were false, and revealed he had been forced by a villain to print the lies. He had printed an apology to Greybrooke and his family and an apology to the readers of the newspaper.

  Will had told her he believed he should close down the newspaper, since he had tarnished its integrity. He apologized in person to Grey. And he had apologized to her for having been irresponsible. To Helena’s surprise, Grey had accepted the apology and had become a financial investor for the newspaper, insisting Will continue at the helm.

  Grey helped her into the open carriage. Caradon came forward with the bouquet. “And who did you think should have this?” he asked her.

  Helena shared a wicked look with Grey, who said, “It’s yours, Caradon. Beware: My new bride and my sister are plotting to fell the Wicked Dukes with matrimony.” Then his voice caught and he added, “I hope they do. There is no greater joy than love.”

  The carriage lurched forward. And Grey drew her into another kiss.

  A glorious kiss to herald their future.

  New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Sharon Page has written more than twenty novels and novellas. Her books have won many awards, including two RT Bookreviews Reviewers Choice Awards, two National Readers Choice Awards, the Colorado Award of Romance, and the Golden Quill. Sharon was nominated by RT Bookreviews in 2013 for Career Achievement in Erotic Romance.

  Married, with two children, Sharon holds an industrial design degree and worked in the structural engineering field for many years. Sharon Page’s style is “sharp, sexy, and will seduce you from the first page” (Just Erotic Romance Reviews). She can be reached at www.sharonpage.com.

  Want more wickedly sensual reads from Sharon Page?

>   Keep reading to find out about Sharon’s books . . .

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  SIN

  Venetia Hamilton is no stranger to erotic art—her father’s lush paintings are one of society’s secret pleasures. But Venetia has never experienced true desire. Not until she meets Michael Wyndham, the Earl of Trent—a powerful man who holds her future in his hands and awakens her curiosity with one searing kiss. His expert touch is only the beginning of her carnal education, but something more dangerous than submission may be the price she pays for such unimaginable delight....

  HOT SILK

  Two years ago, with her reputation already in jeopardy, Miss Grace Hamilton gave herself to a powerful, compelling stranger in one night of delicious, quivering ecstasy. Wild, bold, and wickedly sensual, Devlin Sharpe is a highwayman and pirate—a scoundrel whose world is ruled solely by pleasure. And now he has returned to claim Grace again, vowing to make up for the time they’ve lost, to take her to the heights of carnal abandon and show her the exquisite bliss of exploring her darkest, most decadent fantasies....

  BLACK SILK

  Maryanne Hamilton had expected to be shocked, but the wanton orgy she finds in Mrs. Master’s salon makes her wonder if she has walked into hell. Desperate to escape, she comes upon the master of sin himself—Lord Swansborough. Fascinated by his nakedness, she longs to touch every inch of his long, hard body. And when he bids her come near, she quickly surrenders to his wicked promises of carnal pleasure and sensual ecstasy . . . .

  BLOOD ROSE

  Serena Lark’s erotic dreams of vampires are so vivid, so intense . . . could she be one? Drake Swift and Lord Sommersby, two daring vampire hunters, might know the truth about her past—and her future. The trio searches the dark streets of London for answers. She cannot say no when Sommersby and Drake introduce her to another existence entirely, one in which only extraordinary sensual pleasure matters—and Serena opens herself up to compelling desire....

  BLOOD RED

  Althea Yates is a vampire hunter, skilled with the crossbow and the stake. But she knows nothing of a man’s touch—or how to control the unladylike dreams that haunt her sleep. That is when they come, two men of unearthly beauty who ravish her in sweet carnal games, taking her to the precipice of exquisite desire and unimaginable erotic pleasure. It is scandalous. Forbidden. Unholy. For her lovers are not men, but vampires—the very beasts she and her father have sworn to destroy.

  It is only a dream . . . until the elegant carriage arrives at the inn, drawn by four black horses. Until Yannick de Wynter, Earl of Brookshire, alights, silver-eyed, determined, and hungry for something she cannot name. And suddenly, Althea is no longer certain whether she has had a dream . . . or a dangerously erotic premonition....

  BLOOD DEEP

  Going to her lover, Miranda Bond speeds through the night, heedless of danger. Then her carriage is captured by two daring and mysterious highwaymen—two devastatingly handsome men determined to share her in fantastic games of erotic titillation. . . .

  Miranda’s captors are deadly and dangerous vampires who have escaped from a hellish prison to seek revenge. She cannot resist as Zayan and Lukos take her to the precipice of surrender—for it may be her innocence that brings them all release....

  BLOOD WICKED

  Vivienne knows the dark secrets of London’s desires. She fulfills them, twisting men’s lust for her into the power and status of a courtesan. But she understands little about her own pleasure and the mysteries it commands. Until, that is, she meets Heath, a vampire capable of giving her profound ecstasy—but sworn to let her taste its release only once....

  Heath’s cravings for Vivienne sharpen into sweet torture as he guides her through erotic lessons, watching her abandon herself to ever-higher peaks of pleasure. As temptation melts away the bonds of his control, how long can either hope to survive?

  BLOOD SECRET

  Lucy Drake is prepared to do all she must to save her family, even if that means giving herself as a sexual plaything to the Duke of Greystone. Desperate to keep her ability to shape-shift into dragon form a secret, she willingly enters an unfamiliar world of carnal ecstasy with the one man who is sworn to destroy all of her kind....

  The Duke of Greystone will do whatever he must to discover the Drake family secret and uncover the whereabouts of his missing nephew. A vampire highly skilled in the ways of erotic pleasure and adept with games of dark seduction, he will prevail upon his sexual expertise to ensure Lucy’s complete surrender. . . .

  BLOOD FIRE

  It was a night of exquisite rapture that changed Lady Octavia Grenville’s life forever. Not only did she long for sexual pleasure—but as a succubus, she needed it to survive. Now she is intent upon learning to control her powers and searching for the child she was forced to give up, a quest that takes her into the arms of the rake who ruined her. . . .

  Matthew, the Earl of Sutcliffe, is not the man Octavia once knew. He is now a vampire, but one doomed to die in a fortnight unless he can win a woman’s love. The only one he desires is Octavia, but she wants him merely as a sexual plaything, a source of erotic delight. Somehow he must expose his own heart in order to find hers....

  BLOOD CURSE

  Lady Ophelia Black lives a cursed life. Unable to touch a person without killing them, she has never felt a lover’s caress or a tender kiss. After years of hiding, she finally escapes only to be kidnapped and held prisoner by the enigmatic Mr. Ravenhunt . . .

  Once the Marquis of Ravenhunt, Raven is now a vampire. With his sister’s life in peril unless he can capture Ophelia’s mysterious power, he embarks on a course of sensual seduction to achieve his goal. Yet as he enjoys watching Ophelia slowly succumb to the blissful sensations of carnal pleasure, Raven knows that every time he touches her his own demise grows ever closer . . .

  APHRODISIA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2014 by Edith E. Bruce

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Aphrodisia and the A logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-6177-3092-4

  First Kensington Electronic Edition: July 2014

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-092-4

  ISBN-10: 1-61773-092-0

  First Kensington Trade Paperback Printing: July 2014