“Emily is here,” he repeated. “Well, please send her in. I would very much like to receive her.”
As Jennings exited the room to fetch her, the marquess got to his feet and smoothed his jacket. Cav blinked, trying to bring his attention back to the room rather than focus only on Emily, Emily, Emily, Emily…
“I will say hello to the lady and then I shall leave you,” his grandfather said.
Cav drew in a long breath. “I’m surprised you don’t want to stay here and involve yourself.”
“With this? No. But I do hope you will come and call on me and tell me good news,” his grandfather said. Then he stopped talking as Jennings ushered Emily into the room.
“Lady Rutledge, Mr. Cavendish, Lord Comerford.”
She stepped around him, her gaze finding Cav. Her eyes lit up and she smiled slightly, then she glanced toward his grandfather. “Oh, my lord,” she said, breathless. “I did not realize you were also here. I apologize for interrupting you two, I ought to have made an appointment.”
The marquess snorted as he came forward and caught both of Emily’s hands in his as greeting. For all his bluster about her, Cav could see the genuine affection his grandfather felt toward her. “Posh, my dear, I think you already know you needn’t have an appointment to call on my grandson. And I was just on my way out.”
“Oh dear.” Emily looked up at him. “I hope I haven’t chased you away.”
“Not at all,” he assured her with a glance at Cav. “You look lovely, as always. A very happy new year to you, and Cav, I expect to hear from you soon.”
Cav gave him a half-salute, and his grandfather snorted as he exited the room and pointedly closed the door behind himself. Which left them alone. At last. As usual. Only this time it didn’t feel normal or friendly or anything but charged as Emily clasped her hands before herself and fiddled with her fingers restlessly.
“Good afternoon,” she said at last.
He chuckled. “Good afternoon.” There was a pause that lasted for what felt like an eternity and then he shook his head. “God’s teeth, I hope we aren’t going to stumble all over each other like this. Not after all we’ve been through. Would you like a drink? I have tea or whisky.”
Her eyes went wide. “So early?”
“If it’s after one, my grandfather believes it’s not too early. And today I happened to agree. Tea then?” He moved to the sideboard and began to grab for a cup. Her favorite cup, of course.
She shifted. “The whisky isn’t the worst idea.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. One more comment that didn’t bode well for his heart. But he managed to keep his calm as he traded a teacup for a tumbler and poured her a finger of whisky and a finger of water, since he knew she didn’t like it straight.
He handed it over, careful not to touch her as he did so. He feared if he did, this might become messier than it needed to be.
“Please, sit,” he said softly. “I heard you got back to Town last night.”
She arched a brow. “Our gossip circle has reported well. I did. I…stayed at Crossfox a few days longer. I needed the time.”
He swallowed and watched her sip her drink, then down the entire thing in one gasping gulp. He did the same and set his glass aside. Liquid courage for what he was about to say.
“I’ve tried to be patient,” he said. “I know you need your space, and perhaps it isn’t fair, but I must know. What decision, if any, did you come to, Emily? About me. About us.”
She pushed to her feet and walked across the room. At the fire, she turned and folded her arms. “Do you know how difficult all this has been?” she asked. “When I am struggling, I talk to you. When I’m hurting, I talk to you. When I’m confused, the only advice that ever makes any sense is…yours.”
He was holding his breath and had to let it out to say, “Because we’re friends.”
She moved a little closer. “Because you are the most…” She caught her breath. “…the most important person in my life.”
His hands shook as he slowly rose to his feet. “Emily,” he whispered.
“When you told me you loved me, it frightened me down to my very core, Cav. Because I didn’t want to lose you if this changed things too much. But as the hours passed, as the days passed, what you told me really sank in. The meaning of it became so very clear. You’ve been in love with me for years.”
“I have,” he said.
She shrugged. “And it hasn’t changed anything. So I had to stop thinking about it from your side and start thinking about it from mine. I’m the one who will change everything or destroy everything. And it kept me longer while I pondered what that would mean.”
He found difficulty making words as he stared at her. “And what did you decide, Emily, as you pondered your side of this? I don’t think I can wait any longer to know. Please tell me what it is you’ve decided. Because I can see you’ve decided something.”
“Of course you can,” she said with a smiling shake of her head. “Of course you can. So I won’t leave you waiting any longer.”
* * *
Emily’s words choked her but she fought to say them, just as she’d practiced all last night and during the walk over to his home from hers. But now that he was standing before her, it was hard to think of anything except just how handsome he was. And how much she wanted to take his hand.
But first she needed to say these things.
“If you cannot wait to see someone every time they’re gone, if you miss them so much it hurts, if you think about them all the time…that’s love, isn’t it? It’s all love.”
She expected him to smile, to move toward her, to be joyful in her declaration. But instead his shoulders rolled forward a fraction and his brow wrinkled. “What you are describing…it could also be the love of friendship, Emily. Listen to me: I know you don’t want to hurt me. You are too kind to do so. But I don’t want you to talk yourself into loving me just to make me happy or to keep our friendship intact.”
She stared at him. He looked so devastated at the thought, but also resigned. He was willing to let her go to make her happy. And that made her emotions swell all the higher.
“Oh dear, I’m making a mess of this. I’ve explained it all wrong,” she muttered. “Let me try again. While I was at Crossfox this last week, I thought a great deal about how I’ve felt for you the last few years. I even went to Andrew’s grave to talk to him about it.”
His expression softened. “I did the same last week.”
She smiled. “I’m glad of it. He was so important to me, Cav. I loved him very much and I will always love him. But the idea of being parted from you ever again, it is too painful for me to fathom. I thought of all our jokes and laughter. I thought of your support and mine to you. I thought of what it’s like when I enter a room and find you there, already staring back at me. I thought of what it was like the first time you kissed me and it felt so…right, so perfect. I thought of when you made love to me and how much I want you, not just with my body, but down to my very soul.”
She moved toward this man she had been pondering and considering and analyzing for days. She reached up at last, tracing his jawline with her fingertips. “I never want to be parted from you again, John Cavendish.”
When she used his full name, his mouth fluttered a little. Like he was shocked. Like he was moved.
“I have loved you for a long time. Not as long as you’ve loved me. But for years. Even though I tried to ignore it, call it something else.”
His eyes lit up, pure joy on a face that already gave her so much of the same.
“More importantly, I love you today. I will love you tomorrow. I will love you forever.” She shifted because he was being so quiet as he stared at her. “If you’ll have me.”
“If I’ll have you,” he said, his arms coming around her waist and tugging her closer. “Can you really have doubt about that? If I am not reacting as strongly as you expected, it is because I am in shock and disbelief. Is this a
dream, or did you really just tell me you love me?”
“Really,” she whispered, and leaned up to brush her lips to his. “Madly.” She kissed him deeper and his fingers bunched against her back. “Truly,” she murmured against his tongue, and felt him smile. She pulled away. “Deeply. So very deeply.”
Tears had sprung into his eyes, and she caught her breath at seeing them there. Not tears of loss or sorrow like they had shared so many times since Andrew’s death. These were tears of joy. And suddenly the future felt very real and very bright and very close, indeed.
“Marry me,” he said.
“Are you certain, so soon?”
“So soon?” he said with a bark of laughter. “So soon says the lady who makes decisions on a lark?”
“But I’ve been practicing patience over the last week,” she said. “Perhaps I’ll take to it.”
“Never!” he said, his smile widening. “I refuse to accept it. And this isn’t so soon for me. I’ve been in love with you forever, don’t you recall?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes you recall or yes you’ll marry me?” he asked.
“Yes to both,” she said without hesitation.
He caught her closer and lifted her from her feet as he spun her around the room. When he set her down, he cupped her cheeks and kissed her again, far more deeply and gently, and she melted against his chest in pure pleasure and true surrender. Because she was his.
He pulled back a fraction. “Run away with me to Gretna Green so we don’t have to wait a moment more?”
“Yes to it all,” she said. “Yes to everything forever…”
His laughter merged with hers on another kiss, and she laughed again at his ardor. At his certainty. At the future he offered so effortlessly and beautifully, and all the joy it would hold for the rest of her days.
Epilogue
One week later
“So you waited for nearly a decade and then you ran off to Gretna Green to marry the woman on a whim?”
Cav smiled, because though his grandfather was trying to sound stern, he looked as happy as Cav felt as they watched Emily flit around to their friends and family at this small celebration of their recent marriage. Including some of those who had been part of the Christmas gathering. Andrew’s family was also there and seemed over the moon at the union of two who had been so dear to their fallen son and brother.
This was Cav’s wife. Emily was his wife. He nearly staggered from the joy of that.
“I did,” he said. “Because I could not wait a day longer.”
His grandfather slung an arm around him. “And you are deliriously happy together, it seems.”
Cav glanced at him. “I was not certain you entirely approved, though. Do you?”
“Not that it matters, because you have always done as you pleased,” the marquess said. “But my only hesitation about the lady had to do with protecting your very vulnerable heart. But now…now I see her look at you with the same expression you always had for her. And I could not be more pleased with the union.”
Emily had begun to approach as they talked, and she leaned up to kiss the marquess’s cheek before she took Cav’s hand. “I’m glad to hear it. I would not wish for the very intimidating Marquess of Comerford to disapprove my union with his grandson.”
The marquess gave Cav a playful glare. “You are a bad influence on the lady, I fear.”
“The very worst,” Cav said as Emily guided him away from his grandfather and out onto the terrace.
The starry night was cold, but what was weather when they were so warmed by all the love between them? She leaned up to kiss him and he was lost, as always. Found, as always.
“Seems you are the worse influence, after all,” he murmured as they parted. “Please do not tell the others or my reputation will be in tatters.”
“I would never ruin your reputation,” she teased as he wrapped an arm around her. “It was nice that Lady Hickson and some of the others from the party a few weeks ago came to celebrate.”
“Yes. I may have destroyed the hopes of a few unmarried ladies, but none of them seem to judge me for being desperately and completely in love with you.” She sighed. “I only wish I could have made them the matches I planned. Everyone should have the happiness I do now.”
“Well they may find their happiness yet, love,” he assured her.
She cuddled a little closer against his chest as they looked up at the night sky together.
A star streaked across the dark after a few moments, and they gasped together at the sight. He couldn’t help but smile. “You are supposed to make a wish, I think, in such circumstances.”
“We both know that isn’t a star meant to grant a wish,” she breathed as she faced him. “But rather a message that we should be happy with the wishes that have already come true. I love you, Cav.”
He cupped her cheek and ducked his head to take her lips again. “I love you, Emily. Always and forever.”
Also by Jess Michaels
Three Women. One Murdered Husband. Will The Three Mrs find love from a hopeless place? Coming in January 2021, a new series by 10-Time USA Today Bestselling Author Jess Michaels.
* * *
The Duke’s By-Blows
The Love of a Libertine
The Heart of a Hellion
The Matter of a Marquess
The Redemption of a Rogue
The Shelley Sisters
A Reluctant Bride
A Reckless Runaway
A Counterfeit Courtesan
The Scandal Sheet
The Return of Lady Jane
Stealing the Duke
Lady No Says Yes
My Fair Viscount
Guarding the Countess
The House of Pleasure
The 1797 Club
The Daring Duke
Her Favorite Duke
The Broken Duke
The Silent Duke
The Duke of Nothing
The Undercover Duke
The Duke of Hearts
The Duke Who Lied
The Duke of Desire
The Last Duke
Seasons
An Affair in Winter
A Spring Deception
One Summer of Surrender
Adored in Autumn
The Wicked Woodleys
Forbidden
Deceived
Tempted
Ruined
Seduced
Fascinated
The Notorious Flynns
The Other Duke
The Scoundrel’s Lover
The Widow Wager
No Gentleman for Georgina
A Marquis for Mary
To see a complete listing of Jess Michaels’ titles, please visit:
http://www.authorjessmichaels.com/books
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling author Jess Michaels likes geeky stuff, Vanilla Coke Zero, anything coconut, cheese, fluffy cats, smooth cats, any cats, many dogs and people who care about the welfare of their fellow humans. She is lucky enough to be married to her favorite person in the world and lives in the heart of Dallas, TX where she's trying to eat all the amazing food in the city.
When she’s not obsessively checking her steps on Fitbit or trying out new flavors of Greek yogurt, she writes historical romances with smoking hot alpha males and sassy ladies who do anything but wait to get what they want. She has written for numerous publishers and is now fully indie and loving every moment of it (well, almost every moment).
Jess loves to hear from fans! So please feel free to contact her in any of the following ways (or carrier pigeon):
www.AuthorJessMichaels.com
Email: [email protected]
Jess Michaels raffles a gift certificate EVERY month to members of her newsletter, so sign up on her website:
http://www.AuthorJessMichaels.com/
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