“Or what?” A laugh. “You couldn’t really buy this parish hall. And the town wouldn’t sell it, not even to you.”
“If I donated enough money for the vicar to build anewparish hall, Icouldbuy this one,” he told her, crossing his arms over his chest. He couldn’t touch her, but he could admire her.
“With what funds? You’re a... a...” She narrowed her eyes, waiting for him to say it.
“Cat lover?” he supplied.
“Criminal,” she corrected in a dramatized whisper.
“So I am, but—and forgive me if I’ve said this before—I’m not animpoverishedcriminal.”
She blinked at him.
“How am I to set up house in Eastwell Park, if I have no money, Miss Allard?”
“I thought to live in a small section of it; to heat only a room or two and seal off the rest. Or perhaps live in the space above the carriage shed?”
He barked out a laugh. “You mean live with Abbott?”
“In time, the estate will support itself,” she assured him. “Only in the beginning, we’ll need to—”
He reached out and caught her hand. She stopped talking. She went still. She looked down. They stood suspended, three feet apart but joined by their hands. He found the ring with the pad of his thumb.
“No one will live with Abbott,” he told her. “There is money for fuel, Princess Danielle. And candles. In every room. There is money for housemaids and kitchen help and a proper butler, unless you like Abbott for the role. I would never dream of installing you in a giant house without the means to see it properly run.”
“All the money from ill-begotten means?” she asked.
“If you prefer, we’ll say the source of the money applied to Eastwell Park came from the War Office—how’s that? I’ll build Miriam’s cat sanctuary with the smuggling money.”
“You’ve enough money for both?” Her eyes were huge.
The great irony was that Luke didn’t care about riches. Wealth was useful but hardly his goal in life. His home in Cornwall was modest. His ship had been in good repair and his crew had been well paid, but there were certainly finer vessels. His preferred luxury was books. If necessary, he could dress and dine like a gentleman to influence a client. But he’d never thrown around coin to feel important. No one had been more surprised than Luke when his profits began to accumulate; even more so, when his investments began to multiply. No, that wasn’t true. His mother’s family had been more surprised—or appalled, more like. Horrifying his grandfather had been the most satisfying part of making money as a smuggler. It was the only compensation he craved.
But the princess did not look horrified at the moment, the princess looked... dazzled. Without thinking, Luke gave her hand the slightest littletug.
She went, allowing herself to fall. Ever so slowly, their bodies collided. He was leaning against the stage and she dropped across his chest. She planted her hands on his lapels, then slid them to his shoulders, then to his hair. His hat fell off.
“Princess...” he whispered.
“Do not call me that,” she whispered back.
“I will call you that.”
He squared his hips against the stage, turning to her, but he kept his hands on the boards. She raised her face to him, eyes closed, mouth parted. For a long moment, heart thudding, groin tightening, he feasted on the sight of her pretty face, turned to him. He could feel her, warm, and pliant, and lush.
“Captain?” she whispered, eyes still closed.
Finally, he settled an open palm on her bottom and the other hand along her jaw, his fingers fanning her neck. When he bent to receive her mouth, he barely remembered the reasons he’d come. If there were reasons not to kiss her, he couldn’t remember them either. He knew only that if he didn’t kiss her, he would perish.
“I missed you,” she whispered between kisses.
“You needed time with your parents.”
“And yet, I missed you.”
Their kisses had a rhythm now, a cadence distinctive only to them. She knew how to slant her head, he knew where to nuzzle. He knew her body, too—helovedher body—and he massaged his hands over the most glorious parts, small pert breasts, round bottom, slim throat. Within minutes their breath was labored, eyes closed, minds lost.
It was always like this when they kissed; extended, and deep, and energetic. He’d spent a lifetime languidly kissing women who were willing and eager for sex with someone, although not necessarily with him. The princess seemed to want only him; and God knew he wanted her. He wanted only her.
