The Return of the Duke - Grace Callaway Page 0,115
back to look at her but did not loosen his hold.
“I should not have made love to you that night,” he said roughly. “In the mood that I was in, I should have stayed away. When you told me you loved me, I…panicked. And I don’t even know why. Because I love you, Fancy, I do.”
“I think I understand.” She touched his jaw, his tension trembling through her. “Love hasn’t been easy, has it? Maybe passion and lust felt safer.”
She saw recognition fork through his eyes like lightning.
“I have come to realize that I made that vow to Imogen not for her sake, but my own,” he said slowly. “Giving her that vow made me feel like I had left my past behind, and it shielded me from having to feel the darker side, the painful side of truly loving someone.”
“You told me from the start that love was risky,” she recalled.
“Yes, and you are worth any risk.” The awe in his expression clogged her throat. “You have been my helpmate at home and at work. You’ve listened to me, supported me, made me feel that I am not alone. Hell, you’ve somehow patched things up with my family, a feat I didn’t think was possible.”
“I love your family,” she said.
“Do you think you could love me again?” His tentativeness swelled her heart. “I swear to you that what I feel for Imogen is just friendship. Gratitude for the time when she was my only friend. And I swear also that I won’t disrespect you or treat you shoddily in—or out—of bed again.”
“It wasn’t all bad,” she admitted. “Just the part when you didn’t tell me you loved me back.”
“I love you, Fancy.” He cupped her face in his hands as if she were the last flame guarding him against the darkness of the night. “So much that it terrifies me. Losing you would destroy me, but I’m going to love you anyway because I cannot stop. You are everything I’ve ever wanted, and the only one I’ll want for the rest of my days.”
Well, that was an improvement from the last time.
“I can’t love you again...because I never stopped. I was afraid, too,” she said candidly. “Afraid to ask for what I want, to believe that I deserve a husband like you. But I’m not settling for dishes I hate.”
His brow furrowed. “What do dishes have to do with this?”
“I’ll explain later. Just know that I’m no longer afraid of loving you.”
He let out a shaky breath…and surprised her by getting down on one knee. Joy lifted her heart when he took out her ruby ring. He slid it onto her finger, saying huskily, “Fancy Sheridan Knight, will you be my love forever?”
“Yes.” With a wobbly smile, she used her free hand to pull the string from beneath her bodice, showing him the objects she’d kept close to her heart, even when they’d been apart. “I’ve always been yours, Knight.”
He rose, touching her dangling wedding band and the carved gold button beside it.
A notch between his brows, he said, “Is that one of my buttons?”
“I snipped it from your jacket. The one you lent me that day you found me fishing.” Blushing, she confessed, “I thought that it was all I would ever have of you, and I’ve kept it close ever since.”
“I am yours, Fancy. Heart, body, and soul,” he said with a fervor that vanquished the last of her doubts. “May I have the honor of kissing my bride?”
Smiling tremulously, she tipped her head back in answer, and he brought his lips to hers. The first touch of their mouths was gentle, the fit tender perfection. The feel of her husband, the taste of him, was everything. What she had waited a lifetime for. He courted her with velvet-soft pressure, his lips brushing against hers with drugging sweetness.
In his kiss, she felt his love for her, his devotion and care. Their connection transcended the physical, even the emotional, touching a place that made her spirit sing. Her heart overflowing, she kissed him back with all the love she no longer had to hold back.
Their kiss caught fire, becoming a tangle of lips, tongues, and panted breaths. They kissed until she was clutching him for support, and he was holding them both steady, his chest heaving. She thought that she knew the power of their passion, yet with love as its tinder, their desire blazed to new heights. She saw her wonder reflected in Knight’s gaze.