“But, as I have told you, already a man,” Dante sighed. “Certainly old enough to know that the woman who was married to the uncle of my school friend was also the one woman I would love for the rest of my life.”
“Dante?” Sophia gasped softly. Hopefully…
He smiled. “I love to hear you say my name almost as much as I love you.”
Dante loved her!
Sophia still could not believe he had said such a thing to her, not once, but several times. Dante loved her? “I was not in love with you back then.…”
“I am aware of that.” His smile became rueful. “As aware as I am that I fully intend spending the rest of my life persuading you to love me for the man I am now.”
“I was not in love with you back then,” Sophia repeated firmly. “But I do believe I have been in love with you for the past eight years or more.”
“Sophia?” Dante moved quickly to her side to grasp both her hands in his as he gazed down at her searchingly. “My God, Sophia…!” he breathed huskily as he saw the truth of that love shining in her glowing eyes. “I love you so much, my love. I will always love you. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife? What is it, my love?” he prompted concernedly as he saw the glow of happiness fade from her expression.
She gave a sad shake of her head. “Society would no more accept a marriage between the two of us now than they would have ten years ago—”
“There you are wrong—”
“No, I am not wrong, Dante.” Sophia pulled her hands from his to step away from him. “I was never truly Simon’s wife but in the eyes of the world I am still his widow, moreover a woman four years your senior—”
“Which matters to me not at all—”
“It will matter to Society,” she insisted. “There would be gossip aplenty, my father’s past scandal would be recalled, talked of, laughed about. As you too would be laughed at for marrying a woman so much older than you who is also the daughter of a man they called a charlatan.” Her shoulders firmed. “I will not now, or ever, subject you to that, Dante. I—I have loved you too much and for too long, to ever do such a thing to you,” she concluded huskily. “No, Dante, this, the role of your mistress, is all I shall ever be able to be to you. A role I will accept willingly, and for as long as you wish it, if you will have me…?”
Dante stepped forward to once again take her hands in his before lifting them one at a time so that he might place his lips against the softness of her skin. “Have you ever known me to take a mistress, Sophia?”
She looked up at him uncertainty. “Not publicly, no…”
“Not privately, either,” he assured her. “You are the only woman I have ever wanted permanently in my life. And you always will be. But as my wife, never my mistress.”
Hope glowed in her beautiful eyes for several seconds before it was once again dampened. “Society—”
“You did not let me finish what I was saying just now, my love.” He bent to kiss her lingeringly on the lips. “You shall be my wife, Sophia. As soon as it can be arranged. And Lady Jersey herself has promised to attend our ceremony,” he added ruefully.
Sophia looked suitably startled. “Lady Jersey?”
Dante gave a mocking inclination of his head. “She just now gave us her approval. And having done so, there is now more likely to be a scandal if you do not marry me!” he added.
Sophia looked up at him searchingly. “Are you sure, Dante? Absolutely sure that this is what you want?”
“More than anything, and for more years than I care to think about,” he assured her fiercely. “It is the one conclusion, and the only one I will accept, which I assured you a week ago lay in our future.”
Her heart now shone in her eyes. “I love you so very much, Dante!”
“As I promise to love you for the rest of our lives together, my darling Sophia!”
Sophia released a shaky breath, barely able to breathe for the
happiness brimming up inside her. Dante loved her. Wished to marry her. Promised to spend the rest of his life loving her. As Sophia would spend the rest of her life loving him…
It was not the future Genevieve Forster had suggested a week ago, but somehow she knew that her friend would understand, and be happy for her, when Sophia explained that she was not to become one of the Daring Duchesses after all, but the wife of Lord Dante Carfax, the man Sophia had loved for so long, and would continue to love for the rest of her life.
She looked up at him with all of that love glowing in her eyes. “Make love to me, Dante.”
He frowned slightly. “Are you sure, love? Having waited so long already—”
“I do not intend to wait a moment longer!” Sophia assured him as she began to unfasten her gown. “Hurry, my love,” she encouraged as Dante slowly began to remove his own clothes. “For I find I cannot wait to become truly yours.”
Dante finally stood naked before her, the muscled strength of his body bathed in moonlight, his arousal standing proud in his need for her. “You have always been mine, love, as I have always been yours.” And then he lifted an equally naked Sophia into his arms before laying her down on the jacket he had draped over the floor of the arbour.
Where he proceeded to pay homage to the beauty of her body and her soul with both his lips and his hands, kissing her breasts, that delicious honey between her thighs, taking her to peak after peak, until he considered she was ready to accept him without pain or discomfort, entering her slowly then, inch by throbbing inch, until he was buried inside her.
“Home,” he murmured gruffly as he thrust slowly, pleasurably inside her. “I am truly home now, Sophia.”
“I love you, Dante!” she cried out. “How I love you…!”
Dante found he could hold back no longer as Sophia reached yet another climax, contracting and releasing about his hard length in pleasurable spasms. “Yes, Sophia! Oh God, yes…!” His back arched, his head thrown back as he pumped his own release hotly, ferociously inside for long, timeless minutes, breathing hard as he rested his head against the dampness of her breasts. “Now you are truly mine, Sophia,” he murmured with satisfaction.
“I have always been yours, Dante.” Sophia smiled in the darkness, knowing that they were both finally home.
Together.
* * * * *
Want to read more about the Daring Duchesses? Don’t miss Pandora and Genevieve’s stories, coming soon from Carole Mortimer and Harlequin Historical!
Some Like It Wicked
(December 2012)
Some Like to Shock
(January 2013)
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To Undo a Lady by Christine Merrill
The Pirate’s Reckless Touch by Linda Skye
His Wicked Christmas Wager by Annie Burrows
An Invitation to Pleasure by Marguerite Kaye
A Lady’s Lesson in Seduction by Barbara Monajem
What a Cowboy Wants by Lauri Robinson
An Illicit Temptation by Jeannie Lin
How to Live Indecently by Bronwyn Scott
Taming the Highland Rogue by Terri Brisbin
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ISBN: 978-14592-4554-9
Some Like It Scandalous
Copyright © 2012 by Carole Mortimer
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