The Return of the Duke - Grace Callaway Page 0,124
one you gave me.”
Knight’s eyes smoldered with emotion. “Tinker’s daughter or king’s daughter, I love you, Fancy. Now and forever.”
He kissed her, and her heart sang with the sweetness of their happily ever after.
Epilogue
A few months later
“Knight,” his wife gasped. “That’s so deep.”
Severin dug his fingers into her silky-smooth bottom as he drove his hips harder.
“You can take it, love,” he grunted. “Keep playing with your pearl. I want to feel you come around my cock.”
Fancy moaned, her fingers rubbing her love-knot as he plowed her pretty pink furrow from behind. Her hips were draped over a pillow, her cheek pressed against the mattress, her lips parted. She was wanton and real, everything he wanted, and she was his.
Sometimes he couldn’t believe it. Sometimes he feared how much he loved her, how losing her would destroy his reason for living. Mostly, though, he just thanked the lucky stars that had given him his Fancy.
She closed her eyes, biting her lip, tell-tale signs that she was close. His duchess liked being tupped this way despite that one despicable time he’d used this position to avoid confronting his feelings. Now it was a regular pose in their bedchamber rotation, and he always made sure to end it the same way.
“Look at me, chérie,” he panted.
Her lashes lifted, and she gifted him with her beautiful brown eyes. In them, he saw his own devotion reflected, and that was enough to put him over the edge. Luckily, she flew over too, and they came together, their gazes connected, shuddering in the throes of love.
Afterward, he cuddled her in the firelight.
“We should get some rest,” he murmured. “We’re leaving early in the morning.”
Tomorrow they would be embarking on their journey to Hessenstein. Fancy had been corresponding with King Ernst, who desperately wanted to meet his daughter. His sister had confessed to her crimes and would spend the rest of her life in prison. King Ernst had struck her son from the line of succession, declaring his intention to officially recognize Fancy as the Crown Princess of Hessenstein.
“I don’t know if I can sleep,” Fancy admitted. “I’m too excited.”
Severin stroked her hair. “About meeting your father?”
“That too.” She tipped her head to look at him. “I asked the physician to come by this morning.”
His fingers stilled, tangling in her silky tresses. “And?”
“I’m increasing.” Her eyes shone with exuberance. “We are going to have a baby.”
“Fancy, my love.” He rolled her onto her back and ran an unsteady hand over her flat belly. “How are you feeling? Should you be going on a ship tomorrow? Christ, was I too rough—”
She took his face between her hands. “Knight, stop fretting. The physician said I am perfectly healthy and fine to travel. And marital activities will not hurt the babe.”
He looked into Fancy’s smiling face, and his chest clenched with joy. With the recognition of all she had given him. With the knowledge that, whatever the future held, their love would see them through.
He leaned down and kissed her with all that he felt.
After a while, his wife giggled. “I thought you were tired?”
“We can sleep on the ship,” he decided and took her lips once more.
The Principality of Hessenstein, a few years later
“Your Royal Majesty.” Bea’s lavender eyes sparkled as she curtsied. “May I congratulate you on your coronation?”
“Thank you for coming, Bea.” Abandoning protocol, Fancy hugged her best friend. “I am just glad I made it through the ceremony.”
They were in the castle’s grand receiving room, and Fancy had just come from the coronation ceremony, which had taken the entire day. The Royal Abbey had been sweltering. If her husband hadn’t had the foresight to have a flask of iced water on hand, she might have fainted in her fur-lined robes and jewel-studded crown. Somehow she had muddled through and managed to give a speech in Hessensteinish, her first as Queen Fancy I.
Her fears that she would not live up to her new responsibilities had been drowned out by the cheering crowds that lined the streets from the Abbey to the castle. It seemed Hessenstein’s citizens welcomed having a queen with commoner’s roots. The people also adored Knight, who had spearheaded technological advancements that brought new jobs and wealth to the principality. King Ernst had been so impressed by his son-in-law’s work that he had made Knight a prince.
With a bittersweet pang, Fancy thought Ernst must be smiling proudly down at her from Heaven. Although they had lost so many years, she and her father had made