"You are very good at what you do, Tess," Jane said, "and I am very proud of you. You are quite, quite forgiven and now I want you to fully accept what I am about to tell you: Welcome home, Elizabeth. Welcome home." She pulled her granddaughter into her arms.
* * *
EPILOGUE
« ^
"Your fuddy-duddy days are now officially behind you."
"Hallelujah."
"You have a surprisingly good baritone, you know."
"You're too kind."
"I've never heard 'La Cucaracha' sung in the nude before. I was very impressed. And I know Grandmother enjoyed your performance tremendously."
"I sought only to please."
"Oh, you did," Tess said with a grin. "Your brother Joshua was especially vocal in his thanks to me, but I had to tell him it was none of my doing. You were the one who made such a silly promise."
"Trust me, if I had met you first, I never would have been so rash."
"It's best to be forewarned about these things. You should probably never play strip poker with Grandmother or me, either."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Tess laughed. "Are you really sure, Luke, that you want to live at the Cushman mansion? Grandmother would understand if we decided to live in our own house."
"The Cushman mansion is large enough to insure all the privacy we want for our married life and I'm not so cruel as to take you away from Jane after she just got you back. I move in after the honeymoon, Tess, and gladly."
"Sometimes you're just too wonderful. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."
Luke leered at her. "Oh, I'll find a way, trust me."
"I do. I do!" Tess said with a grin. "I like being married very much, you know," she said, sipping her champagne as she rambled around the huge hotel suite. She held up her left hand and gazed lovingly at the slim band of gold and the emerald engagement ring Luke had bought days before he had ever demanded she marry him. Such an impetuous man.
"I like that negligee very much, you know," Luke said with a grin. He sat on the king-sized bed, his back against the headboard. He was naked.
"Thank you. I was thinking of you when I bought it. You know, your father is really a bit of a darling, once he loosens his tie. But I may be prejudiced. As I recall, he was the best horsy I ever rode when I was three, and I had lots of grown-ups to compare him to. I trust that you will be just as good a horsy for our children as your father was for me."
"Our children? Are you pregnant yet?"
Tess frowned at Luke. "We have only been married for seven hours. These things take time."
Luke opened his arms invitingly. "I'm willing to give it all the time in the world."
Tess set her champagne glass down on a nearby table. "Eagerness is all well and good, and your eagerness is duly noted, Husband. But, if you will be so kind as to notice, I am still dressed."
"Not for long, Wife," Luke said as he slid from the bed and strode up to her. "Just two ribbons holding this thing together," he said, studying Tess from every angle. "How convenient."
Tess laughed.
"I must say that I was impressed," Luke said, gently tugging at the black silk ribbon on Tess's left shoulder, "with the way you and Jane were able to concoct a mammoth wedding on only three days' notice."
"We Cushmans are renowned for our organizational abilities."
"I wondered what it was," Luke said, studying the ribbon on Tess's right shoulder. He pulled it slowly. It fell apart. The black lace negligee it had been supporting slipped with a whisper of silk to the floor. "Lovely. It is true that the best things come in small packages."
"You always say the nicest things," Tess said, her arms going around Luke's waist as his warm lips nuzzled her throat.
"A Mansfield specialty," Luke replied and picked her up in his arms. "Allow me to demonstrate another Mansfield specialty," he said, striding to the bed. He set her down and quickly lowered himself beside her. "There is just one thing I think I ought to know before we consummate this union of ours," he said, his hands caressing her breasts as his teeth nibbled one sensitive earlobe.
"Yes?" Tess gasped, her fingers sliding across the muscles of his broad back.
"You know I would have been happy if we'd spent our honeymoon in a crate in the Mojave Desert, so don't think of this as a complaint. But why on earth did you want to spend our honeymoon at Niagara Falls?"
Tess smiled up at her husband, barely able to think straight as his hands caressed her. "Having lived so long without them, I find that I crave the traditions of the past. Grandmother honeymooned here."
"Did she?" Luke said, his head dipping down, his mouth capturing one engorged nipple.
"Yes. Oh, Luke!"
"And will you mind following the traditions of the past," Luke asked, raising his head to gaze into Tess's stormy blue eyes, "by giving up the adventures of WEB, con games, and international thievery to run the Cushman empire?"
Tess smiled, one hand moving down past Luke's taut stomach. Her smile grew at his gasp. "The empire is in my blood," she murmured. "Can't you tell?"
Luke groaned. "I wondered what it was."
* * * * *
STOLEN HEARTS Page 24
