He tamped down the urge to crow with victory, for he hadn’t yet heard those most glorious of words. “I rather believe that those men enjoy the challenge.” Crispin took the liberty and pulled her into his arms. She reclined haphazardly over his lap. “Marry me and become my partner in all aspects of my life. Let me show you how good we’ll be together.”
“Oh, Crispin.” Then she smiled and genuine joy shone in her face. “Despite all my reservations on many things, you’ve wormed your way into my heart.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I love you, you silly, aggravating man, and if you had died, I’d never have forgiven myself, but please don’t put yourself into a similar situation.”
Her words rang in his ears, and this time he did whoop in victory before hugging her close. “I cannot promise that, for I intend to remain a King’s agent.”
“As do I,” she reminded him, and the smokiness of her reply sent need shuddering through him. “I suppose we’ll have to live fully day by day.”
“Absolutely.” He kissed her, covered her lips with his while he gently drank from her. When he pulled away, he couldn’t contain his happiness. “Does this mean you’ll become my duchess, travel the world with me, and defend England by my side?”
“Yes. Imagine, an adventuring duchess with a pistol.” Her eyes darkened to sapphire. “A partner equal to my skill and worthy of my steel, so to speak.”
“Always equal, love, never better.” Crispin kissed her again, this time with more gusto and intent, and he continued to make love to her mouth until they were both breathless and more than a little heated. “I feel like I should run through the streets of Luxor and tell everyone the wonderful news. You are mine, and that is the most valuable treasure this ancient land has managed to produce.”
“Such a romantic. I’d never thought it from a duke.”
“But then, I’m only a lord by happenstance, so I’m not one of those usual dukes, am I?” His natural optimism came hurtling back. Oh, life would be such fun with her!
“Certainly, you are not.” Juliana laughed, and the throaty quality distracted him, as did her hand cupping the all-too-obvious evidence of his desire. “And I feel you should seal this momentous occasion with something more... intimate.” Gently, she squeezed his equipage and he caught his breath. “We were thwarted in our intent the last time. I won’t be best pleased if you cry off now.”
Was it any wonder that he loved her? “I’ve never been one to disappoint the woman who has my heart,” he murmured and kissed her again. Although, if he were to be literal about the moment, his heart wasn’t the organ she held right now.
The thought had him snickering.
They tumbled against the pillows. Kisses and fleeting touches gave way to more insistent meetings of mouths. Explorations with tongues, teeth, and lips followed. While sighs and moans of pleasure escaped, clothes were removed, and as desire built, Crispin paused merely to enjoy the moment.
“Why do you hesitate? You’ve already won me,” Juliana whispered as she wrapped her legs about his waist and wriggled into position so that the head of his member brushed her opening. “I want you, Crispin.” A pout marred her kiss-swollen lips. “No, let me rephrase that,” she said, and she slipped her hands about his shoulders, pulling him down on top of her. Into his ear, she said, “I need you. No other man has given me everything like you have and yet offered such freedom at the same time. I need you now and always. There is nothing more to say.”
Indeed, there wasn’t, so he set out to show her the depth of his regard.
When he thrust into her honeyed warmth, he couldn’t help the sigh of pure bliss that escaped. Finally, after all the incredible changes he’d experienced in his life over the last year or so, he’d found home. And he paused again, joined with her, this fantastic woman who constantly challenged him into being more than he’d ever thought possible, the woman who supported him and allowed him to be the same for her.
“So help me, Your Grace, if you make this a habit, I will bite you,” she warned in a low voice that brimmed with blatant need and exasperation.
“Hmm, biting is sometimes a nice stimulant though.” But the same desire in her eyes coursed through him, and he didn’t delay further.
He moved within her, his strokes slow and steady, designed to tease and draw out the exquisite torture between them. When he caught her hands in his and pinned them to the pillows above her head, holding his weight on his elbows, he grinned despite the tiny twinge of pain in his bad shoulder. “You’re not as enthusiastic with slow lovemaking as I’d hoped.”
She lifted up and lightly nipped his bottom lip. “We have a lifetime ahead for that. Right now, I want to feel you against me, claiming me, giving me the assurance that you will be everything I need.” One of her eyebrows rose in challenge. “Are you man enough for it?”
“What do you think?” His thrusts came fast and hard, and she matched him in rhythm and enthusiasm. Over and over he pushed into her. Deeper and deeper he went, rocking with enough vigor that the bedframe thumped against the wall.
He let go her hands in order to grip her hips as his moved. Juliana looped her arms about his shoulders, encouraged him with words of love and they crashed together in a frenzied tide.
All too soon, tingling sensation swept through his stones. Need shuddered through his cock. “Please tell me you’re ready,” he all but gasped, and when he shoved a hand between them and found the swollen, slick button at her center, she gave him a strangled, muffled cry in answer.
She shattered in his arms. The sight of the bliss in her expression, the contraction of her inner muscles around his shaft, her shaking in the throes of bliss, sent him flying into his own release. He bit down on his own wont to shout, and instead, kissed her as waves of pleasure broke, hard and intense. His member pulsed deep within her passage; their ragged breathing rang in time to the frantic beating of his heart, and finally he collapsed against her, sated, spent, and irrevocably happy.
“You and I are going to set the world on its ear,” he whispered as he wrapped her into his arms and held her close. “Well, you probably more than me, but damn if that won’t be the most exciting thing to watch.”
“Do shut up, Your Grace,” she said in a tired sounding tone as she snuggled into him. “Sometimes I think you talk entirely too much.”
Crispin didn’t care. He’d survived a madman’s machinations, he’d completed his mission without Archewyne’s assistance, and he’d won the heart and hand of his lady. Everything else that happened to him now would pale in comparison.
Several hours later
Crispin stood in the courtyard. A cheerful fire blazed in the iron brazier that kept off the night chill. Overhead, millions of stars twinkled in the navy velvet sky, while inside, a dinner party was being assembled. Tonight, the expedition and friends in the area would celebrate the terrific find as well as toast his new engagement.
But first, there was one item of business he needed to finish.
“Crispin, why the summons? They’re seating for dinner.” Juliana’s dulcet tones preceded her out of the darkness, and she crossed the courtyard to his side, a stunning vision in a gold satin gown. Her blonde hair had been twisted and arranged high on her head, threaded through with ribbons and strings of pearls. On the fourth finger of her left hand, a simple band of silver filigree rested—the symbol of their troth. They’d gone shopping earlier and had found the bauble in one of the Luxor markets. She hadn’t wanted a more expensive or flashy ring.
“This.” He held up the leather folio that Archewyne had given him seemingly ages ago.
“Oh.” Her expression fell. In the light of the windows, worry gathered in her eyes. “Do you hate me? The whole of my life as an agent is in there. Nothing was held back. I haven’t told you everything I did.”
“I don’t hate you. Never could I feel such for you.” With a long look at her, he tossed the folio into the flames. They licked over the rich leather for a few seconds and then worked on consumi
ng it. “I never opened it. I didn’t read it, not one word.”
“Why?” Shock and hope reflected on her face.
“I don’t need to.” Crispin drew her into the circle of his arms and held her in a loose embrace. “Everything of meaning, everything that matters, I already know about you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. As one of them fell to her cheek, he brushed it away with a gloved fingertip. “Are you certain? I don’t ever wish my past to come back to haunt us.”
“I have never been more certain of anything, love.” He kissed her gently—a promise. Then he pressed his lips to her forehead and pulled back to peer into her eyes. “It is my privilege and my honor to go into the future with you by my side. Our life together begins now, and we are leaving the baggage—secrets, our pasts, everything—behind.”
“Oh, Crispin.” Juliana threw her arms around him and held him close. “I’m not sure you deserve me.”
He laughed and then spent a few seconds convincing her without words. When they paused, breathless, his chuckle was decidedly shaky. “I’m quite certain I deserve every inch of you. A partner who is brave, kind, considerate, intelligent, beautiful, and who challenges me in every way she should? Yes, I’d say I’m the most fortunate of men.”
“And don’t you ever forget it,” but her threat held no venom, for she kissed him, and he felt her love all the way into his soul. She pulled away. “There is something I would ask of you, though.”
“What?” His gut clenched with worry.
Juliana threaded her arm through his and slowly tugged him back toward the house. “I’d like to return to London. I owe Lady Rathesborne an explanation and an apology for what happened to her nephew. I’d like to ask for her forgiveness.”
“Then I shall stand at your side.”
“Good.” She nodded and a smile curved her kissable lips. “One other thing?”
“Name it. I’ll bring you the moon if you desire it.”
“I would like to marry here before we set off for London, here in front of our friends who have become my family.” The tendons of her throat worked with a hard swallow. “And then I want to stop in Cairo to free the man who’d stood in for my father when everyone else abandoned me.”
“Done and done, though the matter of obtaining a special license might take months due to the slow post.” He squeezed her hand. “Perhaps it would serve us better to travel up the Nile in leisure, stop off in Cairo and then continue on to London. We’ll marry there and take care of any other business needed. By that time, parliament will have opened and all of our friends will have returned to Town. We can throw a ball to celebrate and catch up.”
Her smile was blinding. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He only had time for a swift kiss before Lady Archewyne swooped down on them and pulled them both into the dining room full of happy chatter and laughter.
There was very little that a man needed in his life for him to feel worthwhile and whole. Thankfully, he had all of them, and he couldn’t wait to see where they led him.
The End
Other Regency-era stories by Sandra Sookoo
Scandal in Surrey series
Lady Parker’s Grand Affair
The Bride’s Gambit
Misfortune’s Lady
Miss Bennett’s Naughty Secret
Darrington family series
Marriage Minded Lord
To Bed or To Wed
The Bridal Contract
Thieves of the Ton series
Captivated by an Adventurous Lady
Engaged to a Scandalous Earl
Married on a Wicked Morning
Intrigued by an Ancient Pedigree
Beguiled on a Christmas Morning
Caught with a Stolen Diamond
Tortured by a Horrible Secret
Delighted on a Summer’s Evening
Trapped in the British Museum
Charmed at a Yuletide Ball (coming November 2019)
Lords of the Night
Devil Take the Duke
Bitten by the Earl
Adrift with the Viscount
Treasured by the Earl (coming August 2019)
Transformed by a Christmas Star (coming December 2019)
Author Bio
Sandra Sookoo is a USA Today bestselling author who firmly believes every person deserves acceptance and a happy ending. Most days you can find her creating scandal and mischief in the Regency-era, serendipity and happenstance in Victorian America or snarky, sweet humor in the contemporary world. Most recently she’s moved into infusing her books with mystery and intrigue. Reading is a lot like eating fine chocolates—you can’t just have one. Good thing books don’t have calories!
When she’s not wearing out computer keyboards, Sandra spends time with her real life Prince Charming in central Indiana where she’s been known to goof off and make moments count because the key to life is laughter. A Disney fan since the age of ten, when her soul gets bogged down and her imagination flags, a trip to Walt Disney World is in order. Nothing fuels her dreams more than the land of eternal happy endings, hope and love stories.
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What the Stubborn Viscount Desires
(Lords of Happenstance #1)
Stubborn hearts might be the last to fall, but when the hard tumble comes, it’ll last forever.
Jonathan Banshire, Viscount Trewellain, has become a bitter, sarcastic lord and against anything remotely smacking of romance. Though engaged to a woman whose hand he’d won in a game of cards years ago, he hasn’t thought of her in years. But he’s also a king’s agent, and as his duty to the Crown, he’s being sent to Spain to track down a missing peer. He goes to escape his personal life.
Miss Sophia Wickham is tired of men deciding her future. She’s on a mission to live her life on her terms, but can’t due to an ambiguous engagement to the Viscount Trewellain. Determined to gain her freedom, she sneaks onboard the ship intent to have Jonathan release her from that old promise. When he refuses in a fit of pique, she’s stuck as a stowaway, bound to the one man she can’t stand.
In Madrid, they search for not only the missing lord, but also stolen Spanish crown jewels and an ancient relic. Through crashing a glittering ball to hunting down clues to exploring the hidden catacombs and caves beneath Barcelona, the unlikely pair comes to an understanding. Vulnerable and trapped, truths are revealed as well as the fragile state of their hearts. But machinations of a madman bent on revenge could destroy a budding romance, and when the specter of death makes an appearance, Jonathan must finally decide what it is he desires the most.
What a Wayward Lord Needs
(Lords of Happenstance #2)
Even if the world is falling to pieces, when the treasure of the heart is discovered, a fight is needed to keep it.
King’s agent, Bentley Courtenay—Lord Castlereagh—has been sent on his first solo mission to rescue a widow, who’s been abandoned in the dense jungles of Venezuela. He intends to bring her back to England to answer questions regarding the poisoning death of a peer. Yet what awaits him in the on the Orinoco River has him wondering why the devil he ever signed up to work for the Crown.
Widowed Cora, Lady Trammel, is on a quest to locate a deadly orchid and destroy every last bloom before the toxin she accidentally created can fall into the
wrong hands. When she encounters a king’s agent who fires her imagination, she declines his demand to return to London. The fate of the world is at stake, and she has to fix her mistake, for her discovery has the capacity to kill every human on Earth.
In the course of the journey, desire flares between Bentley and the older, more experienced Cora, but she’s not looking for love. While he loses his heart, evidence of the fabled city of El Dorado comes to light, and their mission takes a critical turn into dangerous adventure, so matters of love are shelved. Pursued by threats, time is running out to destroy the deadly toxin and protect the world’s greatest treasure from men who mean both to use both for their own insidious gain.
Captivated by an Adventurous Lady
(Thieves of the Ton, book one.
The quest to break a mummy’s curse turns dangerous when a peer ends up dead.
Miles Lawrence Hawkins, fifth Earl of Archewyne, is alone and the last of his line, save for a young daughter, and he’s made peace with that...Yet unexpectedly finding an attractive female thief in his library gives him doubts. Drawn into the lady’s insane plot to retrieve various stolen mummies from around London—including the British Museum—he accompanies her merely to see what will happen next. Being captivated by her quest and intrigued by her talent for skirting the law is a much needed distraction from the stress of his own life’s misfortunes.
Lady Emmaline Darling, skilled thief and only child to the Earl of St. Ives, is under a mummy’s curse. Believing herself damned due to her father’s penchant for removing antiquities from Egypt, she’s vowed to return a pair of mummies to their eternal resting place in order to save his life and her own. Being caught by Miles wasn’t in her plan, and neither was falling for his charm, but she’ll do anything to see he’s free of the curse as well, for their histories are too intricately connected for his ills to just be bad luck.
What the Dashing Duke Deserves (Lords of Happenstance, #3) Page 32
