“Jahleel Andrewovich Charles, I command you to solve all our problems, including my hunger.” The light from my study shows her outline approaching. She yanks the pull, and the secret panel begins to close. The slight screech muffles her asking me to love her again.
Darkness covers us as she grabs my waistcoat. “We are still married, Jasha, aren’t we? The truth. Tell me.”
“Katherine. I … Da. The decree has no date. Unsigned, it doesn’t end our marriage but does invalidate yours with Tavis.”
Katherine presses into me. “You kept our vows when I was faithless.” Her fingers sink into my hair, and she kisses my jaw. “I choose us.”
“What about forever, Katherine? You said that’s what you actually wanted.”
Her lips linger on my neck. Then she kisses me with the passion I miss. I feel her love—fragile, breakable like a rare tower piece. “I want us, too.”
Her bonnet falls away. My jacket, too. She unbuttons buttons and that gorgeous mouth whispers into my ear, “Love me, my husband.”
Paper complies.
Paper bends.
Paper crumbles and covers marble. Doesn’t that mean I win?
“Find me, Jasha. Find me. Then solve all our problems.”
The woman I’ve always wanted wants me. Miracle. Dream. Both.
Naked, unafraid, Katia and I wrap up in the surgery sheets. She’s in my arms … upright and then we roll on the floor.
Kisses. Caresses. Oh. Oh, Mary. Moses. Lazarus. Papen’ka Abraham. Maybe Grampa Gannibal too. Lord, those feet wrap about me with heels pressing into my calves.
Everything I’ve suppressed, hidden in fear, unsheathes and takes over my body. I’m hers, and she’s all mine.
All.
No treasures or medical instruments shatter as we do. We are careful and tender. Yet Katia and I, we love like there is a tomorrow.
Chapter 34
KATHERINE—THEAFTERGLOW
After a long bath in my husband’s chambers, I sit at the vanity in my wifely mistress room.
My cheeks redden. I think about Jahleel’s hands, about my waist, and the kisses down my back. That man and my feet—that’s a different kind of wonderful.
A knock on my door makes my heart race, but it’s the main entry, not the connecting door to Jahleel’s suite.
“Come in?”
Scarlett and Georgina come inside.
Georgina has her arms folded. Scarlett has hers behind her back. Their frowning faces look serious.
“What has happened?”
“Nothing in particular.” Scarlett puts my crushed bonnet on my vanity. “The maids and I had to do a little tidying up where Mr. Thom’s surgery will be performed.”
“I had to help her boil tools.” Georgina shakes her head at me.
“Well, I’m sorry. I think we might’ve …” I stop rambling and look at my sisters. Something else is wrong. “Talk, ladies.”
“We came to ask why the duke has gone to dinner with Lord Livingston. Our husbands will meet up with the two later at White’s.”
