you hear me—I told no one about the madness in my family. I didn’t keep it from you for a laugh, I kept it from you because I thought it would send you screaming in the other direction!”
“I don’t even think she’s mad! You should have told me about her, if nothing else!”
“I couldn’t bear to lose you,” he fired back. “I wanted to put it off until you cared for me, and could overlook it. More fool me!”
“Yes!” She smacked his arm. “Because you’re too big an idiot to see that I do love you, even after you took a piece of my factory and had cleverer ideas for it than I did and risked your life to save Greta and made forty-five in the cricket and told me I’m beautiful when I’m not—”
Max threw up his hands. “I don’t know why I bothered! You’re clearly just as mad as I am! It is the only earthly explanation for why I would allow you to provoke me into this ridiculous screaming argument over how desperately in love with you I am, and always will be, and if you think you’re going to invalidate our marriage, you’re mad, and I’ll fight it ’til the end of my days because we belong together!”
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said tonight!” She seized his head and pulled him down for a fierce kiss.
Recklessly he kissed her back. With two steps he pushed her to the wall, clawing up her skirts. She yanked at his breeches, sending a button flying before taking him in her hand, so firmly he gasped.
“Mine,” he growled, hooking her leg around his waist and pulling her higher.
“Mine,” she retorted, pulling the tie from his hair and taking hold of a handful.
He bared his teeth and thrust into her. Bianca curled her legs around his waist and arched her back, and he needed no more encouragement.
Having been wrought to a fever pitch of arousal and passion, both were on the brink. Max felt her come within moments, hot and tight around him, and he reached his own climax instantly, so violent and sudden his vision dimmed.
“I told you,” Bianca panted, shaking in his arms. “Someday we would shout at each other . . .”
Max gave a wheezy laugh. “Our servants must be huddling under the table in abject fear.”
“Oh goodness, let them.” Eyes glowing, she kissed him. “I love you,” she said softly. “I love you, Max, I do. Cathy caught me off guard—”
“I know.” He kissed her back.
“I should have told you sooner,” she went on as his mouth drifted over her eyebrows and temple. “I was so hurt you didn’t tell me about Greta, and I was so frightened those two days you were gone—”
“I was entirely at fault. I will never do that again.”
She pulled his face level with hers. “I was wrong to be so cold to you in the beginning. I agreed to the marriage on impulse, but once it was accomplished, I ought to have made the best of things. Instead—”
“I do not hold anything against you,” he said, laying a fingertip on her lips. “Nothing. I have no stones to cast, having kept a large secret of my own.”
She smiled hesitantly. “Then we shall start anew?”
“Anew?” Max quirked a brow. “And lose all the ground we’ve gained? No, I think we should continue on from this moment, mindful of our own faults and considerate of the other’s sensibilities. What do you say, love? Will you carry on with me, in spite of our faulty marriage license?”
A slow, enchanting smile curved her lips. “I will. This time pledging my whole heart to you in true love and honesty.”
“And I do pledge my whole heart and honesty to you.” He rested his forehead against hers. “’Til the end of time.”
She kissed him. “That’s a fine start.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Five weeks later
Carlyle Castle
They saw the castle long before they reached it.
Bianca alternated between hanging out the window in astonishment and stealing amazed glances at him. Max, who had seen it before, was content to enjoy her awe.
“And you’re really heir to all this?” she finally asked, settling into the seat beside him. They had been on Carlyle property for almost the last hour, and the castle itself still loomed ahead of them.
“Second,” he said. “A distant cousin, an army man, outranks me. The chances of my ever sniffing a dukedom are vanishingly small, love.”
“This is a vast deal closer than I ever thought to come to one.”