Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
“Relax, lioness, I’ve got you.”
She leaned against him, her hands over the arm around her waist. They rode through London in the early snowy morning and when they got to Heartstone townhouse both his mother and father stood there, dressed in mourning clothing, for they were burying the duke that day, but they’d waited for him. For them.
Lucien helped Rosamunde down. When his father kissed her cheek and called her daughter, he knew this was what his father had tried to get him to understand. This was family. This was love.
And he planned on keeping it for the rest of their lives.
Epilogue
“You shouldn’t be here.” Even as she whispered the words to the man who had snuck into the room she was staying in yet another night, she couldn’t stop the silly grin tipping up her lips.
“Gonna tell on me, lioness?”
Bryn crawled over the large bed until he sat against the headboard and tugged her into his arms, her back to his chest as his legs bracketed her in.
Obeying his silent command when he nudged her chin with his knuckle, she lifted her mouth to his for a kiss she’d missed all day. Their tongues slid along each other and dipped and danced until her fingers curled into his forearm.
“No,” she managed to mumble when he let her up for air.
“That’s my good girl.”
With a tiny bit of readjusting, she sighed as his arms latched around, her keeping her snug against him.
The past five weeks had been a whirlwind. Nothing had been posted about her and Bryn as his family was still in mourning. That officially ended next week and he assured her the news of their engagement would be spread around London as soon as it was possible. Not that people didn’t already know, or assume.
Her family had been disgraced and she’d not given them much thought as she’d settled into life here in the Heartstone’s town home.
“We have to make plans, lioness.”
Turning her head so her ear rested over his strong heart, she closed her eyes and listened to the lub-dub for a few seconds. “For what?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Where we are going first. I want to take you with me to America. We’re also stopping off to see my grandfather in Ireland. You should meet that side of the family. At some point we’ll sail to Africa and see that side of the family also. But, are there places you specifically wish to see?”
Her heart nearly burst. Shaking her head, she gulped when he gripped her chin and forced her to look up at him.
“No lying to me, baby. We need to make that a rule. You don’t hide and try to shoulder your fears alone. We’re a team. No secrets.”
She worried her lip before pushing away from him and turning so she could face him. Reaching between them, she fingered the cuff of his shirt, which had been rolled up to expose strong, sexy forearms.
“I’m not worth anything to you. I feel like a burden.”
He growled low in his throat, hands fisting at his sides for a second before he cupped her face with them.
“Lioness, I need you to listen to me.”
He held still, eyes boring into hers.
“You listening to me?”
She nodded.
“You are my life, my love, my everything. What you are not now, nor ever will be, is a burden. You’re going to be my wife, and God willing, the mother of my children someday. Will we have fights, of course not, because I’m stubborn and you are too. We’ll fight hard and make up harder.”
Her lower lip trembled and he swiped his thumb along it before pressing it into her teeth oh-so briefly.
“Still listening?” He put his nose to hers, blocking out all sights other than him right there in front of her.
“Yes.”
“Then repeat it to me.”
“I don’t hide from you. We’re a team. We have no secrets from one another.”
He pulled back a tiny bit. “Keep going.”
“I’m not a burden.”
“Say it like you mean it.” He grasped her chin in his hand.
“I’m not a burden.” Her voice fell a bit louder.
Bryn tugged her back into his chest. A place she loved to be, with his strength surrounding her. “You’ll believe me one day, baby. I’ll spend every day proving it to you.”
They sat in quiet for a short while, his hand stroking up and down her arm.
“We should also visit Uncle Phillip and Aunt Frye in the islands. The world is ours, lioness.” He brought her mouth to his. “Let’s go where the wind takes us.”
His kiss, as potent as their first, melted her and she sank into him, believing a bit more each day that this man meant everything he told her.