A most satisfied smile stretched her lips wide.
It had beenhewho had foundher! When he’d come sauntering around to the back of the inn, hair slightly askew, blue eyes blazing, it was as though the universe had opened up to reveal her chance to embrace that which fate had promised all along.
He loved her. They were to be married. He had made love to her in the most glorious fashion throughout much of the night.
Her smile stretched even wider. Andshehad made love tohimas well. She’d touched him intimately. She’d taken him into her mouth and performed the most wicked acts.
Without opening her eyes, she reached out to touch him.
Perhaps she could do so again this morning.
Her hand failed to locate the warmth that she sought and instead landed on cool bed linens
She reached farther and then opened her eyes in alarm. Fear tore into her heart and she wondered if she would ever breathe again.
The blighter was gone!This was not happening.
Sun streamed through the windows into the room. Into the very empty room.
She would kill him. She would chase him to the ends of the earth and then strangle him with her very own hands. She threw back the bedclothes and unheeding her nakedness, ran to the window to stare down at the yard.
“I believe you are wearing my favorite garment this morning,Princesse.”
Her heart nearly dropped into her feet when she spun around to catch the cockiest of dukes closing the chamber door behind him, looking quite satisfied with himself.
He was fully dressed and carried a tray laden with, from what she could tell by the aromas that entered with him, all sorts of breakfast delicacies.
Her heart returned to it’s normal place but she had to force herself to breathe deeply before it could beat regularly again.
“I had thought… The bed was empty… You were gone…” And then she burst into tears.
In the flash of an instant, warm, strong arms wound around her protectively enfolding her into the safety of his masculine frame.
“Mon amour. Mon coeur. Plus jamais. Jamais. Oh, ma Princesse.”
Never again, he promised. She nodded into his chest. “I trust your love for me. I do. Its just that I am so happy and I thought…” She gulped, overwhelmed in the moment.
“I know. Oh, my love. My purpose, for the rest of my life, is to make certain you are never sad again. Not if I can help it. We are destined to be together and I won’t allow anything to separate us ever. Remember, my heart? It is fate. Madam Nadya promised. We endured our time apart and now are together again. Forever.”
Aubrey blinked the tears out of her eyes and pulled back to stare up at him. “Forever.”
He lowered his lips and sealed the promise with the most tender, the most loving, aching, devoted of all kisses, leaving Aubrey’s knees feeling like jelly and her heart filled with more love than she could have imagined.
When their lips parted in a sigh, Aubrey was surprised to see Chance blinking hard. One lone tear escaped to trail down his tanned cheek and disappear into the shadow of his morning stubble.
Aubrey touched the corner of his eye.
“You forgive me?” The words came emerged from him along with a choking sound. “I’m so––”
But Aubrey stopped him with another kiss. A soft one that was meant to absolve him of this forever.
“There is nothing to forgive. Just as you said. We were fulfilling destiny.”
She watched his throat move, as though he’d swallowed hard. In a thousand years, she would never have imagined the happiness she knew in this man’s arms. His gaze shifted to study each of her eyes, and then he exhaled and seemed to dismiss the sadness for both of them.
“And we have so much destiny to fulfill.” That smile of his emerged slowly. That smile that she’d seen for the first time when he’d caught her watching him from the window. It promised something wonderful and possibly something slightly scandalous and she could hardly wait to hear what he had planned for the day.
“I had brought you something to eat but I find myself tempted by the sweet morsel in my arms instead.”
