“Hmm?” She brought one hand out of the water, smiling to herself at the glazed expression in those newly unshielded eyes. Dear heavens, they were beautiful. Moistening a finger in her mouth, she wet his bottom lip, right there in the center where she always thought of touching it.
Thrilling to his soft intake of breath, she licked her finger again and drew it across his top lip. So chiseled, and so talented—oh, what that mouth could make her feel. A third time she sucked her finger, then worked it between his lips, rubbing his tongue while she held his gaze with hers. It was heady, the power of seduction, driving her to try things she’d never even imagined.
A dazed smile on his face, his eyes slid shut when she moved her hand beneath the water, leaning forward for a long, melting kiss. “Don’t move,” she reminded him when she pulled back.
His hands clenched on the edges of the tub.
“I know I drowned,” he gasped, “because I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
Sixty-One
DUNCRAVEN SEEMEDlighter the next morning.
When Kendra woke, the chamber seemed brighter, and the walls seemed to hold fewer secrets. Ghosts no longer seemed to be lurking. She found herself almost sorry to leave.
But Trick was in a hurry.
“I want to deliver what’s left of the king’s treasure. Get it off my hands.” He latched his trunk. “And I want to get back to Amberley. Although…”
He watched her look up from tying a garter. “Although what?”
“It shouldn’t be mine.” He’d been thinking about that ever since he’d had other obvious facts pointed out to him—that Annag and Duncan were his siblings, and that he wasn’t really English at all. “Amberley, and the dukedom. By rights, by blood, they shouldn’t belong to me.”
And the shock of it was, he found that disturbing. Mere months ago he hadn’t wanted Amberley at all, hadn’t wanted anything that came from the man he’d thought was his father. His shipping concern had been more than enough to support him, the estate and title just another reminder of the life he’d wanted to forget, another responsibility he hadn’t needed.
But he needed them now. He needed them for his wife and the family he’d begun envisioning. No sane man would reject something that so clearly benefitted the people close to him.
Loving Kendra had changed everything.
“Who would get Amberley if not you?” Always direct, his Kendra.
“I don’t know. The man who raised me had no brothers…some distant cousin of his, I imagine. Someone I’ve never met.”
“And do you imagine he’d use that dukedom for the same good that you do? Do you imagine he’d shelter orphans in the old manor house?” Always straight through to the heart.
“I don’t know that, either.”
She rose and walked close. “You know I didn’t want to be a duchess any more than you wanted to be a duke. But you earned that dukedom, Trick.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. With your sweat, and I suspect with your blood and your tears.” She leaned up to press a soft kiss to his lips. “Legally, it’s yours, and I see no reason on earth it shouldn’tstayyours.”
Maybe she was right, and there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to keep it.
No reason except his monarch’s threat hanging over his head if he failed to finish the job he’d started.
He kissed her back, a kiss filled with all the hope he had for their future. “Come,leannan, let’s traipse down these endless stairs one last time. Let’s go home and get started on our brand-new life.”
Sixty-Two
KENDRA HELDHamish’s arm, thrilled that he was strong enough now to accompany them outdoors along with Niall.
They paused on the drive where the Amberley servants waited. “What will you tell King Charles?” Hamish asked Trick.
“I’ll think of something.” Trick looked up to the single chest he’d had lashed to the top of the ducal carriage. “At least nobody will suspect I’m carrying anything of special value.”
He’d told Kendra that when they stopped for the night at an inn, they’d simply bring it with them into their room. They didn’t need all the extra guard he’d been envisioning. Four Amberley outriders stood ready, and that should be enough. They planned to travel directly to London.
