A Duchess a Day (Awakened by a Kiss #1) - Charis Michaels Page 0,108
the door. Your original plan brought to bear—to bolt. I thought we could go to Italy. Or America.”
“Yes.” She leaned back so they were shoulder to shoulder. Their legs swung from the edge of the bench. “It was nothing short of phenomenal. We could not have planned it more beautifully if we had plotted for a hundred years. If we had every girl in England from which to choose. My mother actually came to my room after the party to comfort me in my loss. She was appalled by the duke’s behavior and thought I’d be suffering some humiliation or heartbreak.” A sigh. “They really do not know me at all.”
“I know you,” he said. “And I love you.” He rested his face against her ear, breathing her in.
“I love you too,” she said softly, wistfully. With no warning, tears threatened. They’d done it, they’d actually done it. They’d found a way to free her of Lusk and be together. They’d saved the forest.
“What did you tell your mother?” he mumbled into her hair.
A heavy sigh. “I simply said, ‘I want to go home. To Castle Wood. To my house and my apples and the crofters.’ ”
“Staying as close to the truth as possible,” he said. He kissed her neck and she shivered.
“It is entirely the truth. It leaves out only one thing, which is you. I reckon . . .” She pulled away, trying to see him in the dim light. “I reckon that after several weeks, you can seek me out, and we can tell them? There will be outrage, histrionics, gnashing of teeth. But it will be too late.” She grinned at him. “I love that we’ve made it too late.”
He nodded. “I’ll make certain it’s legally binding before we tell them.”
“When the dust settles, you may relocate your family to Castle Wood.”
He gazed at her. “You are certain? About my father and the girls?”
She laughed. “When have I ever seemed uncertain to you? It was our arrangement. I would never renege on our arrangement.”
He kissed her. A kiss of gratitude and possession and love.
Helena put her hand on his thigh, and it occurred to her, I have my hand on his thigh.
I can touch him.
I can touch all of him.
He is mine.
She could touch both thighs, and then she could slide her hands up his thighs and touch the bulge that had so intrigued her in his tight yellow livery.
Casually, as a little test, she squeezed his leg.
Declan leaned farther back. He was splayed out beside her, and he looked to her with an expression of And what will we do now?
Her heart began to pound.
“Just one question,” she asked, holding her hand still. “Did the colorful and clever Miss Knightly Snow ever lure you in?”
She slid from the bench and pivoted over his knee, facing him. She landed squarely between his thighs, her belly flush with the edge of the table.
“What do you mean?” His face was playfully thoughtful.
“I mean . . .” she began, returning her hand to his thigh, squeezing, “. . . that the two of you seemed very familiar. Clearly she is fond of you. Unless I misunderstood, she’s been stalking not me but you these last weeks.”
“Ah, sweetheart,” he drawled, “she’s not the sort of girl I fancy.”
“She appears to be the sort of girl that everyone fancies. You should have seen the men up and down the table, my own father included, watching her.”
“I only fancy one sort of girl,” he said, closing his legs around her, squeezing her, “and I married that girl, which is a bloody miracle.”
Helena rose on her toes to kiss him, and when he leaned down to reach her lips, he hooked his hands beneath her arms and pulled, sliding her off the floor. Helena leapt, tucking her knees on either side of his hips. He plopped her down on his lap in a rustle of silk. She’d not changed out of the dress from dinner.
Their mouths met, and he traced her shoulder and back, her waist and bottom, with palms flat and fingers wide. When he reached the tangle of her skirts, he dug beneath, searching for her legs. Helena held her breath, waiting for the moment when his hands slid against bare skin.
When he moved his hands up her calves, he rasped, “No stockings?”
“Nothing but the dress,” she said between kisses.
“Nothing?” he said, his voice cracking. He reached between them and undid his breeches.
She sucked in a little breath. “Nothing,” she sighed.