Delighted, she squirmed against his arousal. “I believe I could find time to sneak away to The Sword and Sheath again.”
They were both trying to keep their voices low.
His forehead dropped to hers as he exhaled. “I was wondering if you might consider accepting the Countess’sinvitation to stay here at Dumpkins for the remainder of the summer. Your father could come too.”
She grinned. “Move Callan into the nursery with Matthew, and shock the hell out of all of proper Society? I wonder if there is an open chamber available for me?”
“There’s one right beside mine. My mother and sister are on one side, but the elderly couple who were on the other side of my chamber had to return home early in the summer, leaving it empty for you.” When he chuckled, his warm breath washed over her, calming her heartbeat. “We could find a way to sneak you next door. And during the afternoons, when I don’t have to work…”
“Ye could join us in the nursery?”
“And beside the river.” He smiled crookedly. “I find I prefer being Cash and Athena to being the Duke of Cashard and his…” His gaze flicked over her as his smile grew. “Lady Love.”
She was about to respond, to tell him she much preferred him as a man than a duke, when the pounding came at the door again.
“Mama! Did ye spank him?”
When Cash’s gaze grew speculative, and he raised a challenging brow, Athena had to smirk and look away.
“Not too horribly, son,” Cash called out, his voice as even as he could make it, despite the laughter she heard lurking. “I believe I’ll survive.”
There were more whispers, and then the locksnicked.
Athena was trying to push herself off his lap when thedoor was yanked open, and she froze, realizing she’d look more guilty for trying to change positions.
When Matthew’s gaze landed on her, with his father’s arms still around her, his brows went up. Callan stepped into the tight space, his gaze landing on far more important things.
“There’s still trifle left, Matthew! Good thing we got extra spoons!” Beaming, he plopped himself down on a pillow beside Athena—and the trifle—and reached into his pocket for a big spoon. “I didnae want to steal spoons at all, because I think trifle’s more fun to eat with yer hands, but Matthew said we had to leave some for ye.” He waved the spoon enthusiastically enough that Athena ducked away from it. “So I nicked us some spoons so we could eat some too!”
Smiling, Athena reached for his hand, trying to calm the frantic motions in the tight space. “I think that is a lovely idea, Callan. Far better than trying to eat with our hands.”
“I told him that’s unhygienic,” Matthew intoned, sinking to his knees on the pile of pillows, and eyeing the trifle speculatively himself.
“Did you tell him he also need not steal spoons?” Cash asked, laughter in his voice. “Someone would have gladly handed them over.”
When Matthew sighed and nodded, Athena could very much see the resemblance to his sire. “He says it’s more fun to filch things than ask permission.”
“I suppose that would explain this room?” Cash asked.
Matthew glanced at Callan, then met his father’s gaze firmly. Since Athena was still sitting in Cash’s lap, she was met with the lad’s seriousness head-on.
“I’m sorry for filching things, Father,” Matthew said, his shoulders back, accepting his faults like a little gentleman. “ItwasCallan’s idea, but I—Ilikedit. I’ve never had a fort before, and it sounded so grand when he proposed it, and…and I wanted to have fun.”
He dropped his chin, and Athena felt Cash’s sigh against the back of her neck. She knew what he was thinking, because she was thinking it as well.
“Oh, Matthew.” She slid from Cash’s lap, but instead of moving beside him, reached instead for his son’s hands. It resulted in her lying half-across the man she loved, half-reclined on a set of pillows, but staring into Matthew’s serious gaze.
“Lad, yer father loves ye more than ye can ken, and he wants ye to be happy. And if having a secret fort is going to make ye happy, then he wants ye to have a secret fort. Callan is too wild, and ye are too serious, but together, ye play perfectly. Ye each temper the other, and ye are both better for it.”
Just like her and Cash.
Matthew ducked his chin, although he kept his gaze on her. “Not very much a secret anymore, is it?” he asked shyly. When she hummed in confusion, he explained, “You and Father know about our fort now.”
And all the servants who helped follow the clues they’d left out, but she wasn’t going to say that.
Fortunately, Cash replied instead. “I think it can still be a secret fort, as long as the only people who know about it are the ones who love you.”
Matthew’s blue gaze, so like his father’s, swept from Cash to Athena and back again. “And you love us? Both of you, love both of us?”
