“Yes,” she said, pressing her hips up.
He groaned again and pushed against her. And pushed. And pushed. Their lovemaking resumed in earnest, and he thrusted toward his release. Dragging his face from her shoulder, he kissed her. Dani returned the kiss and continued weeping; there were salty tears on their lips.
He was pounding into her now, and she hitched her legs up. He reached for a knee and bent it higher on his hip, holding her there. She felt loved, and needed, and claimed. She felt like his wife in earnest, the mother of his future children, the beginning of a family.
And then it was finished. He let out another moan and then dropped against her. He released her thigh. The boat rocked and swayed, and their bodies, still joined, fizzed and jangled with aftershocks of pleasure. He settled his face in her hair and breathed. Dani turned her head and kissed his jaw.
“Are you well?” she whispered.
He made a grunting noise.
“Can you believe it?” she asked.
He snorted. “I cannot say exactly to what you’re referring, but regardless. I feel safe in claiming that no, on all accounts,I cannot believe it.”
“That I came for you?” she told him.
“Complete disbelief,” he said. “And outrage. I suppose this will become the expectation? Passionate sex as means to express my incredible outrage?”
She giggled. “Can you believe we managed to escape the castle? All of us?”
“No. Nor can I believe how many of ‘us’ mounted that escape. Thanks are in order, I suppose, for not coming alone. At the very least. Also, please don’t try anything like that, ever again.”
“Can you believe the viscount attacked Surcouf?”
Luke pushed onto his elbows. “Actually that shocked the hell out of me. But I’m not sure why. Fernsby is fussy and modest but never let it be said that he’s not a patriot. Nor courageous. We believe he actually managed to kill the bastard. Surcouf had so much blood on his hands, he deserved to die for his crimes. The added benefit is he’ll not come looking for you. Nor will his lust for your land persist.”
“Oh yes,” she said. A sigh. “My lands.” She began to toy with his hair.
“I’ve only just met your brother, obviously, but he seems unbothered by the fact that these Orleans lands are yours to do with what you wish.”
“You meanyoursto do with what you wish,” she corrected. “Did they not become yours when we married? My dowry?”
“I’ll not take your ancestorial lands, Princess. If you wish, I will help you find some purpose for them—to sell or cultivate, whatever you want. But I wanted you for my revenge plot, not for your land. As you know.”
She laughed, kissing him on the cheek. “I cannot say what I want. I’ve no interest in ever living in France. Perhaps we can sell the land and invest it in Ivy Hill. Perhaps I’ll buy out Giles Stinchcomb’s sand pits and allow them to fill with rainwater until we have a little lake. Your father may build his boat-making workshop there and float about.”
Now Luke was laughing. “For someone with no notion of what she wants, that is a very detailed plan.”
“It only just came to me,” she said, stifling a yawn.
“Sleep now, Princess,” he whispered, nuzzling her.
“Well...” another yawn “...perhaps just an hour. I want to look in on Mr. Welty again.”
“Sleep...”he whispered gently, kissing her ear.
She was quiet for a moment, allowing her mind to float. Finally, she said, “Can you believe we’ve married? In earnest? That we fancy each other. That we’ll build our life at Eastwell?”
“Fancy each other?” He frowned down at her. “Fancy?”
“That we...” It was so new, these words, she found herself pausing before she said them.
“I love you, Danielle,” he said—no hesitation. “Just to be perfectly clear. I think I loved you since that moment in Eastwell’s library, when you’d read the account of the rescue but sympathized about my lost crew instead of the swimming or the sharks. I’ve wanted you since I first saw you, but I began to love you after a day spent wandering that great tomb of a house at your side. Watching you react, hearing your plans. And then to feel your compassion? From there, my love has only grown. Exponentially.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered, tears in her eyes. “That is why I came for you, I love you.”
He kissed her. It was a hard kiss, but the pace was slow. He worshipped her in that kiss.
