“Towards what, darling?” he asked, letting his hands trail along her back.
“Towards my love for you,” she said honestly.
His eyes widened. “Youloveme?” he said and then his lips parted in a great smile.
“I cannot account for anything else,” she said gently. Then she gave him a silly grin. “Either that, or I’m extremely hungry, or I need to go outside for a long walk.”
He laughed and pulled her to him, tickling her side. “We could go for a long walk or have breakfast,” he said, “but there is no questioning the fact that you love me. You adore me, don’t you, my love?”
She pursed her lips and tickled him back fiercely.
He let out a guffaw of laughter, gasping, pulling away.
She delighted in the fact that he was indeed so ticklish, so sensitive, so strong as he held her to him.
“That is not the proper reply,” she pointed out.
“Of course it is. A husband must not let his wife go hungry. It is his duty to ensure that she is well taken care of...andloved.”
“And loved?” she queried, her teasing banter dimming as she waited to hear what she so longed to hear.
He rolled on top of her, bracing his arms on either side of her head as he looked down upon her. “The truth is, Ophelia, I think I have loved you for years. I think I have always loved you, and I never allowed myself to have you because I was so afraid that I might make a muck of it. And then that book of yours…. It made certain that we had to be together.”
She savored the feel of his hard body pressing gently into hers. How she loved the feel of their skin brushing with nothing between them. No barriers now. None. Of any kind.
“Yes, that book has a great deal to answer for,” she teased, sliding her hands up to his shoulders then into his dark, curling hair. “It is a very lucky thing I discovered it, given how hidden it was.”
She nibbled her lower lip. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking that I should put it back at Hatchards.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked. “If it brought us together?”
“Precisely because of that,” she pointed out, hooking her leg up around his long, hard thigh. “I want it to bring other couples together. We are so lucky. Have you truly loved me so long? I find it hard to—”
“I can still remember when you were a girl,” he cut in intensely, “and I little more than a boy myself. I remember your kindness. To your siblings. To me. The way you danced through the oak leaves, crunching them as you sang, carrying your books under your arm as you sought the perfect spot to sit and escape into your worlds of words.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I can remember the way you sat underneath the trees, the oak leaves falling about you as you read.” He pressed a kiss to one cheek and then the other. “And I knew then what a wonder you were. But I saw the way my mother and father were together, and I was certain that I would make a muck of that for you. That I might hurt you and take away that beautiful open nature you had. That freedom. But now I see—”
“That you can be a part of it,” she breathed.
He softly kissed her neck, the curve of it, and whispered back, “Yes. Just as you are with me and my music. I see now that we were always similar,” he said, kissing his way up her throat to her jaw. “That we were always seeking something higher, something more than society, and that we would only be able to achieve it together. I wasted so much time clinging to my fears.”
He kissed her softly. “But no more.”
“Do you truly mean it?” she asked as her heart filled with joy.
“I could not mean anything more,” he said against her mouth. He gazed down into her eyes, rolled to his side, and pulled her against him. “How could I mean anything else? It’s a very good thing that your brother caught us. Otherwise, I might’ve gone on for months acting like a fool. I might’ve actually almost gotten you married to someone else while practicing the rules in your book.”
“Oh dear,” she said, horrified. “That sounds terrible. Would you truly have taught me how to use the book in such a way?”
“Oh yes,” he said, “because I told you I would, and I am a man of my word. I would have taught you how to flirt.” He shuddered. “What a terrible mistake that would have been. You would have London at your feet once it saw you as I do.”
“It is good thing that I do not need to know how to flirt now that I’m an old married lady,” she said, laughing.
“Oh, but you do know how to flirt, Ophelia,” he assured before he kissed her softly, then pressed kisses along her breastbone over her heart. “You know how to flirt with me. You know how to tease me with a new piece of music, to lure me into my music chamber, to sit at the piano, seducing me to caress you as I caress the keys.”
“And you know how to seduce me,” she all but purred, “with a new book for my library that you convince me to read aloud to you as you do the most delicious things to me.”
He wound his hands into her long hair and met her gaze. “We haveknowneach other forever, and we shall know each other until we are old and gray. And we shall ensure each other’s happiness because we make effort towards it. Can you believe that we almost did not have it, but for a rainy day in London?”