Page 104 of Winning Her Duke

Bess clapped her hands together.

“I am so happy.”

“Where is she?”

“Follow this path to a meadow. She’ll most likely be asleep. She’s not been sleeping well.”

“Thank you.” He said this over his shoulder as he hurried for the path. All the words he’d planned to say when he arrived seemed to float away when he reached the meadow and found her lying on a blanket asleep.

An easel with a blank canvas sat close by. Had she been attempting to paint a landscape?

The light filtering through the tree above her moved across her face. She was so beautiful, but even more so now that he’d missed her and worried he might never see her again.

Taking advantage of the open space on the blanket, he lay down next to her to wait until she woke. Then he could tell her he loved her. And hoped she would still agree to be his wife.

*

Gia was chilly. She didn’t know why she had no covers and wasn’t awake enough to open her eyes to find out, but she did manage to reach out in a small effort to find them. Instead, she found something even better.

A warm man. Jeremy.

She nestled closer until she was up against him and his arms came around her, protecting her and sharing his warmth.

She breathed in the scent of him. Leather warmed by the sun, spicy vanilla, and the slightest hint of hay. They had once joked that the smell of hay had sunk deep into their pores never to be washed away. It was not such a bad thing.

“Mmm… Jeremy,” she said settling in closer. She felt his lips press against her forehead and again in her hair.

“Rest, love. I’ll be here when you wake.”

She answered with a sound of contentment. Jeremy would be there when she woke. He would always be there. Except…

A whisper of sadness trickled through her perfect dream with Jeremy.

She’d left him because she’d wanted more than he could give. And she was going to go get him back. She needed him.

“I must go,” she murmured.

“Where do you wish to go?” he asked, his voice so far away, yet she could feel his breath on her cheek.

“I must find him and tell him…”

“Will you tell him you wish to marry him?”

“Yes.”

“And that you love him?”

“Yes.” She felt the heaviness of sleep slip further away, as this odd conversation pulled her closer to awareness.

“Open your eyes, love, and let me tell you the same things.”

She blinked and opened her eyes as he’d instructed and gasped when her gaze focused on him.

“You’re here?”

“In the flesh.”

She reached out to make sure and her palm rested softly against the prickly stubble on his jaw.