She was so shocked she could not speak.
“Did you love the man?” he asked in a choked voice. He swallowed, and then added, “Do you love him still?”
She did not know whether to slap him or weep.
“This child was conceived in summer, before I was taken,” she said in a voice as cold as ice.
“The child is mine?” William said, breaking into a grin.
“Of course the child is yours,” she snapped. “And I pray to God he does not become a horse’s ass like his father!”
“Then we must hope it is a girl,” he said, scooping her up off the bench. Holding her across his chest, he twirled in a circle, laughing.
He stopped and covered her face with kisses. Gently then, he set her on her feet and took her hands.
“My happiness this day makes up for all the days of sadness since you were taken from me,” he said, his eyes shining. “God punished me for my pigheadedness. But now I am doubly blessed.”
Unable to hang on to her anger in the face of his joy, she wrapped her arms around him. She would not let the mistake he made in that moment of surprise ruin this reunion. After all, he had accepted her at her word as soon as she told him.
“I love you to the depths of my soul,” he said into her hair. “I do not know how I lived these months without you.”
She pulled his head down to press her lips to his. In an instant, his kiss turned hungry, demanding. His hands were all over her, rubbing up and down her back, over her buttocks, pressing her against him.
Abruptly, he pulled away. “Are we hurting the babe?”
Feeling dazed from his kisses, she blinked at him for a moment before she understood.
“The babe is fine,” she said, smiling. “Marged tells me that if a woman is healthy, she can share her husband’s bed almost until the child is born.”
She rose on her tiptoes and put her mouth to his ear. “I am exceedingly healthy, William.”
He needed no further encouragement. They were on the bed pulling each other’s clothes off without knowing how they got there.
Once he had her naked, he leaned back to run his eyes over her. In a ragged voice, he said, “You are even more beautiful than I remembered.”
“With this belly?” she said, putting her hand on it as she smiled up at him.
“You are more rounded now, love. Not just your belly, but also”—he gave her a wicked smile—“your breasts.”
As if unable to resist, he leaned down and nuzzled his face between them.
“I hope you do not prefer me like this,” she protested, “for I will not always be with child.”
He lifted his head and said, “You are my Kate and beautiful to me in all ways.”
Her pulse quickened at the desire she saw in his eyes.
“How I have longed for you,” he murmured as he pressed his face into the curve of her neck. “Night after night, and day after day.”
“I, too,” she whispered back as he trailed slow wet kisses up and down her throat.
“I lay awake nights thinking of doing this,” he said, then circled her nipple with his tongue with tantalizing slowness. “And this,” he murmured, and took it into his mouth.
At last.She closed her eyes.
After a time, he worked his way down to her belly. She watched as he pressed tender kisses over it.
With his eyes on hers, he ran his hand up the inside of her thigh. “Shall I show you the other things I longed to do?”
