businessman, you would have excellent work as a lady’s maid.”
Jo could not help teasing him. But she loved the attention he lavished upon her.
“Only yours, my love,” he said, kissing her crown. “Only ever yours.”
She studied his countenance then, taking in the stark angles and planes, the tense manner in which he held his jaw. Today had been an emotional one for him, even if he did not often wear his heart upon his sleeve. The ceremony at the children’s hospital he had endowed had been lovely. Of course, the most emotional moment had been the dedication of the cot in his mother’s name. Both Decker and Lila had been overwhelmed, Lila’s nose going red in her effort to quell her tears.
“Your mother would have been proud of you and Lila today, Decker.” She sought his gaze in the glass. “The Children’s Hospital is a wonderful and worthy endeavor, and to have her name forever upon it…”
A surge of emotion prevented her from finishing her sentence. The day had been filled with tears enough. She had no wish to once more descend into sobs and sadness.
“She would have been pleased, I think,” he said, still brushing her hair. “She always loved children.”
“Is that why you patronize so many orphanages?” she asked. “Why you endowed the Children’s Hospital?”
“In part.” He ran the bristles through her locks once more. “I also feel for those who find themselves in situations that were not of their own making. For the littlest ones. The urchins, the beggars, the helpless. If I can aid them somehow…make them feel less helpless, I will.”
Of course he would, as the bastard son of an earl, who was ineligible to claim his title or his lands. Yet another way he proved he was a man worthy of her admiration, her loyalty, her love.
“I was proud of you today too,” she murmured. “Proud to stand at your side. Proud to be your wife.”
He stilled, his gaze searching hers, his expression pained. “I will never have a title, Josie. I can never make you a countess.”
“That is not what I want.” She shook her head. “You know that, Decker. All I have ever wanted is you, from the moment I truly learned what sort of man you are.”
“And what sort of man is that?” He swept her hair over her left shoulder, baring her skin before nuzzling her nape. “Hmm? Tell me.”
“The best sort.” She reached behind her, sinking her fingers into his thick, wavy hair. “The sort who is honorable and handsome and thoughtful and kind and witty and wonderful.”
He kissed the side of her throat, and she felt his smile on her skin. “I like the sound of that. It is fitting, then, that all I have ever wanted is you, my love. The sort of woman who is also honorable and beautiful and compassionate and intelligent and fierce and just a little bit wicked and altogether wonderful, too. A goddess, in fact.”
“Oh.” Her gasp of pleasure turned into a moan as he sucked on her flesh. She raked his scalp with her nails. “I like the sound of that, too.”
“Good.” He nibbled on her neck some more, kneading her shoulders with his big hands as he did so, working out all the tension she had not realized she carried in her muscles. “I received word today that the Athena is finally repaired and ready to sail again. What do you think of you, myself, and Lila all taking a trip to Dover? It is not the honeymoon I wanted, but I hesitate to leave her here alone.”
He was such a good brother. Such a good husband. A good man.
Was it any wonder she loved him desperately?
“Of course Lila must come,” she said. “And I should so love to see Dover. I have heard a great deal about the white cliffs, but I have never witnessed them firsthand. Nor have I been to a regatta.”
“Truly?” He nipped her ear with his teeth, continuing to massage her. “Never?”
“I spent my formative years moldering in the country with my aunt Lydia because my brother did not have the funds or the reputation to support two younger, unattached females,” she reminded him.
“Much to my great fortune.” He kissed her cheek. “Imagine if you had not moldered. I hardly think you would have penned your list, and then how would I have known you were destined to be my wife?”
“I think the fates would have intervened in another way,” she said. “If not the