The touch continued on both our parts as he slowly glided in and out of me, our hands moving on each other’s skin, caressing, giving. I even used my heels to touch him, running them up and down the backs of his thighs as he moved inside me.
And we did all of this while kissing.
As much as I might want it to, it couldn’t last forever. Battle’s movements grew faster, his drives more powerful, our breaths became heavier.
In order that we could breathe, he slid his lips to my neck to nuzzle me there, and I threaded my fingers into his thick, soft hair.
It was the right time, the perfect time, and I wasn’t going to squander it.
I turned my head and whispered, “I’m in love with you, Battle Talyn.”
In response, his face came out of my neck and his mouth took mine in a branding kiss as he shifted his hips and his thrusts slammed into me.
I fisted my hand in his hair, grasped his tight clenching ass in my other, and used my heels in his thighs as leverage to lift my hips to meet his drives.
The whimper that warned of my impending climax vibrated against his tongue, he growled in return, then my moan of orgasm mingled with his groan of the same, and we came simultaneously.
Oh yes.
It was the perfect time.
He glided inside me for a while as he gentled our kiss, before he planted himself and traced his mouth to my ear.
And there, he said, “I’m in love with you too, Vivienne Dupree.”
The best part about that?
I didn’t question it.
Because I already knew it.
Undeniably.
CHAPTER 26
THE CLIPPINGS
I was out in the studio, studying a picture of Harmony alongside a picture of Charlie.
It was Tuesday, a week and two days after we got back from the wedding.
Battle and Tempie were in London.
They were returning together tomorrow evening, because the folks from the auction house were coming to get the stuff from the attics, and since it was such a huge job, Tempie wanted to help Prue oversee that, and Prue wanted Tempie’s help.
Battle was coming home because he still worked from The Downs half a week, no longer to be there to look after Chassie, but to be close to me.
And yes, him making that effort, changing his work schedule like that, made me feel all squidgy.
I’d arrived at a place in my book where it was now time to turn my attention to the ill-fated love affair of a duke’s daughter and an injured American soldier.
And for the first time, I was seeing something eerie.
The pictures were in black and white, but even so, Harmony was blonde.
Like me.
She was also not petite or dainty.
