“Lily Waldegrave,” Alistair announced as he wiped the back of his arm across his brow. “Welcome home. I love you, daughter.”
Lily threw herself into her father’s embrace, squealing in glee when he responded by swinging her in dizzying circles. “Thank you, Papa. I love you, too.”
Alistair froze with his arms wrapped tight about his daughter, eyes squeezed shut tight, and held her as if he’d never let go.
Chapter 34
After stroking his daughter’s hair until she fell asleep, Alistair hastened from the sanctuary and knocked upon Violet’s chamber door. She swung open the door immediately, almost as if she had been just as eagerly awaiting his arrival. Grinning, he swung her in a circle before collapsing onto the vanity chair and pulling her down with him.
“Lily loves me,” he announced with no little amount of satisfaction. “She said so in front of everyone.”
Leaning back into his arms, Violet turned her face to laugh up at him. “Of course she does, you silly creature. Who wouldn’t?”
He was not so foolish as to believe love came that easily. “She loves you, too, you know.”
Violet’s head tilted quizzically. “And I her, as you well know.”
Yet there was so much he did not know. Starting with the future. “Then do not leave us.”
She blinked up at him. “What?”
He took a deep breath. “I received word this morning that my solicitor has an appointment tomorrow with Mr. Livingstone. I wish to know your plans for the future.”
“My plans?” she echoed with a startled chuckle. “I haven’t any plans. I’ve taken life moment by moment since the day that I was born. I have never successfully anticipated what tomorrow held in store.” She touched his arm. “I thank you very much for engaging your solicitor. No one wishes your man more luck than I do, but Mr. Percy Livingstone is as heartless as he is wealthy, and it’s impossible to know—”
“It’s impossible to know,” he repeated, cutting off whatever else she’d been about to say. He decided he didn’t particularly wish to know her plans after all. He was in far too euphoric a mood to countenance depressing “what ifs” and worst-case scenarios. “You’re absolutely right. We should concern ourselves only with the moment.”
Before she could reply, he lifted her in his arms and silenced her with a kiss. Without separating his mouth from hers, he carried her from the chair to the bed and tumbled backward onto the mattress so that Violet lay sprawled on top.
“Oh dear, you’ve entrapped me,” he moaned dramatically. “I exist solely to satisfy your every desire.” He grinned up at her and added, “Ideally, your desires involve something slightly more interactive than counting sheep and snoring. And I promise not to behave like a horse’s arse.”
“Ladies do not snore!” Violet gasped in mock affront. Her lips curved into a slow, sensual smile. “And Imighthave a desire or two that should please you.”
He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “Promises, promises.”
Giggling, she bent down as if to kiss him. When his lips parted and his eyelids lowered in anticipation, she darted to one side and lightly bit the lobe of his ear instead.
His eyes flew open in surprise, their expression mischievous. He flipped her onto her back and caught her wrists against the pillows. “It’s like that, is it? Let’s see how well you like a nibble or two upon your own flesh.”
Starting at the corner of her mouth, he dragged a line of hot kisses down her throat and across her bosom. He took her breast into his mouth, suckling until her nipple strained against the thin silk of her bodice. She gasped as he softly grazed the sensitive bud with the edge of his teeth before laving it with his tongue and bending to suckle once more.
She clutched his hair and held him to her breast, then dragged him upward until their mouths met. Without breaking the kiss, she raked her nails down the length of his back to his breeches. She gave his arse a quick squeeze before bucking gently with one hip, simultaneously arching upward to indicate she wanted him to roll over.
With his hands still buried in the soft ringlets of her hair and his mouth still locked to hers, he docilely allowed her to flip him onto his back. She slid to her side, one thigh still draped across his, and began to pluck open the buttons of his waistcoat. Task completed, she quickly divested him of coat and waistcoat and shirt, then pushed him onto the pillows to tease his nipples with the same bite-and-suckle treatment he’d subjected her to moments earlier.
“Minx,” he murmured when he could breathe again.
She arched a brow. “Just to see howyoulike it.”
“I love it,” he admitted freely. He reached around to tug loose her ribbons and stays. “Is it my turn yet?”
With a coquettish smile, she allowed him to lift away her gown and her petticoats. He made short work of his boots and hers, then rejoined her upon the mattress.
“Well?” she asked archly, her eyes sparkling. “Now that you have me naked and supine, what do you intend to do with me?”
He widened his eyes. “I, madam? It is you who makes the demands and I who am yours to command.”
“In that case...” She slid free one of the buttons on his fall and then the other. “It is imperative that you be naked.”
