Regency Rogues and Rakes: Silk is for Seduction / Scandal Wears Satin / Vixen in Velvet / Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed / A Rake's Midnight Kiss / What a Duke Dares. Loretta Chase

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      He collected his wits. ‘What I don’t understand,’ he said, ‘is how anyone could pay attention to the opera when you were in the place.’

      ‘They’re French,’ she said. ‘They take art seriously.’

      ‘And you’re not French?’

      She smiled. ‘That’s the question, it seems.’

      ‘French,’ he said. ‘You’re a brilliant mimic, but you’re French.’

      ‘You’re so sure,’ she said.

      ‘I’m merely a thickheaded Englishman, I know,’ he said. ‘But even I can tell French and English women apart. One might dress an Englishwoman in French fashion from head to toe and she’ll still look English. You…’

      He trailed off, letting his gaze skim over her. Only consider her hair. It was as stylish as the precise coifs of other French-women…yet, no, not the same. She was…different.

      ‘You’re French, through and through,’ he said. ‘If I’m wrong, the stickpin is yours.’

      ‘And if you’re right?’ she said.

      He thought quickly. ‘If I’m right, you’ll do me the honour of riding with me in the Bois de Boulogne tomorrow,’ he said.

      ‘That’s all?’ she said, in French this time.

      ‘It’s a great deal to me.’

      She rose abruptly in a rustle of silk. Surprised—again—he was slow coming to his feet.

      ‘I need air,’ she said. ‘It grows warm in here.’

      He opened the door to the corridor and she swept past him. He followed her out, his pulse racing.