“Let’s go,” he husked out, clearly just as inflamed as she was.
She loved the wild look in his beautiful amber eyes.But she wanted those eyes closed.She wanted him kissing her.“Where?”
“Another bedchamber.God knows the last duke designed plenty of extra bedchambers into this damned mansion.”
“What will the servants think when they find a rumpled bed in a room that hasn’t been used for months?”
“Why should you care what they think?You’re the duchess.They’re servants.We pay them not to think.”
“For heaven’s sake, Trick, will you fault me for having some decency?Let’s go to the library.We can use one of the couches there.We won’t have to rumple a bed.”
“Very well.Let’s go, then.”He pulled her out of the room.
She laughed as he raced down the corridor, dragging her by the hand behind him, both of them barefoot.She was forty-three years old and felt fourteen.This was ridiculous.
But when he pulled her into the library and slammed the door closed behind them, she didn’t feel ridiculous.She felt desperate.
The library was huge and deep, a long room with furniture scattered all around and a lofty, fancy gilded ceiling.They dashed inside and fell to the nearest high-backed red leather couch, which faced away from the door.Trick deftly untied her sash while she fumbled with his, the two of them kissing frantically all the while.
Before opening, the door rattled—luckily—and they bolted to sit upright, hastily closing their robes.
Their eldest daughter, Elspeth, walked in and past the couch, then turned, looking surprised to find them there.“Da, you’re home!We missed you!”She ran to Trick, bending down to give him a hug.
“I missed you, too,” Trick said.
“What are you two doing in here?”
“Just having a discussion,” Kendra said, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt.“What areyoudoing in here?”
“I thought I’d find a book to take to Lakefield House.”Elspeth was tall and golden-haired, with amber eyes like Trick’s—it was fitting that they’d named her after his mother.“I don’t want to interrupt you, though.Shall I come back later?”
Her lovely, full-sleeved pink gown made Kendra feel conspicuously naked.“No, no,” she said.“Choose your book now.”
Trick elbowed her in the ribs.
Elspeth walked to the far end of the library, where she took a good ten minutes to choose a book—ten minutes during which Trick and Kendra exchanged inanities while he slipped a hand inside her robe to tease her.He’d always been skilled at teasing her and hadn’t unlearned anything during his long absence.
Kendra was burning.She was dying.She was wishing her dear daughter away.
Was she really wishing her daughter away?She loved her children beyond measure.But right now, right this moment—
Trick snatched his hand back when Elspeth approached, book in hand.
“Breakfast was being laid out when I came up here,” she told her parents.
“We’ll be down in a minute.”That was Trick, because Kendra found herself incapable of saying anything.
“Very well, then, I’ll see you downstairs.”Slanting a final curious glance at her barefoot mother and father, Elspeth left the room.
“Lock the door,” Kendra demanded breathlessly.
Trick rose and went over to close the door.Kendra heard a groan.“There’s no lock.How is it that all these years I’ve never noticed there’s no lock?”
“This is a library, not a bedchamber.We’ve never had any reason to lock the door before.”
“Why on earth isn’t that lass married by now?”Back beside Kendra, Trick was ripping open his robe.“She’s eighteen already.She shouldn’t be here.”
“I was twenty-three when we wed.”Kendra untied her own sash this time, reclining back on the couch and beckoning him closer.“You’re not really wishing her away, are you?Just because she wanted a book?”
