all her underpinnings were drooping fast as the rains continued to lash them. Another twirl, and her sodden hems tripped her. Decker caught her with ease when she would have pitched into the rosebushes, hauling her into his arms.
She was deuced small, but all her layers were damned heavy when wet.
“You do not need to carry me,” she objected. “I am perfectly capable of walking myself.”
“Of course you are capable, but what manner of man would I be if I allowed my new wife to go toppling into the daisies on our wedding day?” he asked her, feeling an alarming surge of tenderness rushing inside him.
“They are roses,” she corrected, sounding breathless.
Of course he knew what the damned flowers were.
But he liked that she was breathless.
He wanted to make her more breathless.
“I stand corrected.” He carried her through the rain, making his way back to the doors with as much haste as he could manage. “You have a choice to make, darling. Cream ice or kisses first?”
“Decker!” Her soft exclamation did naughty things to the state of his cock. “Kisses, of course.”
So, too, did her response.
Stifling a groan, he managed to elbow and shoulder his way back into the house, where they made a dripping, saturated mess all over the carpets. Perhaps ruining them. He did not give a damn.
“You can put me down now,” she said.
“I can,” he agreed pleasantly, “but I am not going to.”
“But surely I am too heavy! I insist you stop carrying me about as if I am a doll,” Jo carried on with her protesting.
He was a man on a mission now. She wanted kisses first, and he intended to give them to her. “I have been waiting three bloody weeks to make you my wife, and now I find myself deuced reluctant to have you anywhere but in my arms.”
Which was where she belonged.
There and in his bed, of course.
And anywhere else he could have her. Oh, the delicious possibilities. At long last, he could dispense with fucking his fist.
He told himself that was the reason for the sense of rightness deep within him, that new, unexpected sensation of…what the hell was it? Contentment? Egad. That could not be it. He was simply so randy, he could not think straight.
Decker increased his pace. The quicker he could get her to his chamber, the better.
His servants were accustomed to his antics. If dinner parties in which foodstuffs were served upon naked women did not make the footmen blink an eye, their master carrying his new wife—the two of them soaked to the skin—was not cause for a second look. They passed a handful of domestics as he took them up the stairs two at a time. All lowered their gazes and pretended as if they had seen nothing amiss.
“What will the staff think?” she asked, pressing her face into his sodden waistcoat as they passed a chamber maid who busied herself with righting a picture on the wall as they passed.
“Who gives a damn?” he asked as he shouldered his way into his chamber at last and kicked the door closed at his back. “Believe me, they have seen far worse.”
Wrong thing to say on your wedding day, you fucking arse.
Jo stiffened in his arms, and as he gently lowered her to the carpets, her gaze was downcast. “Of course. How foolish of me to forget your reputation.”
“Josie.” He caught her chin in his thumb and forefinger, gently forcing her to meet his eyes. “Look at me. I am far from a saint, as you know. I will not lie about who I am, who I have always been. I have never brought a lover here to my home, however. You need not fear that. This home is yours as much as it is mine, and no other woman has ever belonged here as you do.”
He meant those words, to his core.
His parties had been wild, but they had been mere diversion. Something to quell his boredom. His home was his haven, however. He did not bring women here to bed them, because he had no wish for the complication which would inevitably follow suit. Unlike most wealthy gentlemen, he did not seek lasting situations with the women he fucked. His affaires had always been discreet and short-lived—one night only had been his codicil ever since Nora.
But Jo appeared unimpressed by his explanation. She remained unsmiling. “You do not have to justify yourself to me, Decker. I am more than aware of who you