But Adam wanted her to know something more, something deeper. “You are every inch a lady. I could see it the first moment I laid eyes upon you, and that’s why I fell in love with you, even when I thought you to be a governess.”
“Even then,” she murmured, tilting her head. “Did you marry me to help me out of my lowly status?”
He had never thought of it that way. “After all, the Diamond family motto isMiseris Succurrere Disco. Is your Latin up to snuff, or shall I translate?”
His Alice enjoyed a challenge. “I believe I can work it out,” she said. “Something along the lines ofI learn to help the wretched.”
“Well done.” One woman in a thousand could have translated that. Her intelligence was almost as alluring as her shapely figure.
“And was I the wretched?” she asked.
He considered his life before her. “Not at all. I was until you agreed to be my wife. I married you to help myself. And now, will you do me the honor of a dance, my lady?”
“We don’t have a ballroom,” she reminded him, starting to laugh.
“Then we shall have to move to a larger house,” he quipped.
“No need. We have a serviceable if modest ballroom at Stonely Grange, and it won’t take much to restore it to use. Perhaps we could host the next Diamond family Christmas there.”
His heart squeezed thinking of enjoying their first Christmas together, and he desperately wanted to kiss her.
“I’m awfully glad you’re back. I missed you, Wife.”
“I missed you, Husband,” Alice replied. She glanced at the front of his trousers to see if the magical word still worked. He grinned back at her and then did a strange shuffling with his legs.
Leaning over, he whispered in her ear, “Come chase away the spiders, and I’ll eat your watercress.”
Desire, hot and intense, coursed through her, stronger than any fear. She would never walk away from him again. Despite any threat, she knew she was stronger with him than without him. And how magical to know she was not alone.
After the party, when he scooped her into his arms and carried her upstairs, she understood it was his masculine way of bringing her back despite having allowed her to return in her own time.
When Adam stripped her more swiftly than he ever had before and then sent his own clothing flying hither and yon, Alice knew there wouldn’t be any drawn-out sensual play beforehand. Usually, he kissed her skin with the whisper softness of butterfly wings, but this time, he pulled her naked body hard against his own.
Instead of a tender joining, there was a ferocity about their love-making, both knowing what they had nearly lost. Adam barely pressed his lips to hers before she felt herself tumbled backward onto their bed.
Their bed! How she had missed it.
She parted for him at once, not needing anything but the feel of him deep inside. Sensing this, her husband drove into her, making them one.
The rude and naughty term, “the two-backed beast” seemed entirely fitting. Hungry for him, Alice arched, tilting her hips to give him better access. And Adam growled like the beast she’d just imagined before threading his fingers between hers, anchoring her hands to the sheets as he rocked back and surged forward.
“You are so wet,” he whispered against her neck.
“I missed you.”
“No as much as I missed you,” he vowed.
She was about to protest, but the motion, the friction, the pleasure quickly overtook her thoughts. In another moment, they were both soaring toward repletion. He released her hands, so she could drape her arms over his damp back as he finished thrusting.
When her heartbeat calmed, she turned to look at her husband now lying beside her. His eyelids were heavy, but his eyes were open. The love shining from within took her breath.
“Did I mention how happy I am to have you home?” he asked.
“Yes. Did I tell you how much I love you?”
He nodded. “When we swive the next time —”
“In about ten minutes,” she interrupted, feeling cheeky.
