Chapter 5
Five
Kendra
Amberley House
KENDRA WOKE late that morning. And she didn’t wake on her own—she woke to someone gently rubbing her back.
She rolled languidly over, thrilled to find Trick in bed next to her, gazing at her with his heart in his amber eyes. She hadn’t dreamed that he’d actually come home, then. He really was here.
She gave him a soft smile. “You’re up,” she said huskily, sleepiness in her voice.
“Awake, if not up.” His voice was clear; evidently he’d wakened well before her. Watching her closely, adoringly, he pushed her hair off her face.
His fingers felt smooth and warm. The gesture made Kendra feel like the breathless innocent she’d been when she first met him.
“I cannot believe I fell asleep before we made love last night,” he said with a heartfelt sigh. “This last week on the road, all I could think of was getting home so I could have you in my arms. And then…”
“You can have me in your arms now.” Still sleepy, Kendra moved closer to hold him near, intertwining her legs with his.
He felt heavenly. “Have you any memory of how difficult it was for me to get you clean and dry and into bed last night? You were like a rag doll—like one of Elspeth’s or Diana’s old rag dolls. Except much heavier.”
“I remember trying to be as cooperative as I could, which I gather wasn’t much.
” He chuckled before he kissed her—a quick kiss, yet hot enough to make her head reel.
Hot enough to bring her wide awake. It had been so long since they’d been together this way.
Entirely too long. “It seems several sixteen-hour days on the road took their toll,” he added mournfully.
“Well, thank heavens you’re here now. All clean and toasty warm, and I am so ready—”
He cut her off with another kiss, a kiss full of weeks of pent-up desire. His arms tightened around her as he explored her mouth as though tasting her for the first time, rather than after twenty years of marriage. Kendra’s heart raced as she pressed against him, anxious for more.
He wasn’t wearing anything beneath the coverlet—he never did wear anything to sleep, and she wouldn’t have been able to wrestle any nightclothes onto him in any case, after that frustrating bath. But she had donned a nightgown before joining him in their bed, and he reached for the hem now.
She pulled up on the garment, trying to help. She couldn’t wait to get out of it, to feel him skin to skin. But as he yanked it off over her head, a knock came at the door.
Kendra grabbed the nightgown from his hands and stuffed it under the covers.
Trick stifled a laugh. Or maybe it was a groan. “Yes?” he called.
“Your grace?” His valet opened the door, and Kendra clutched the coverlet to her chin as three footmen followed him in.
“I’ve learned you’re leaving for Lakefield this morning, your grace, and I’m not to go with you.
” Edmund had traveled to Scotland with Trick and apparently been unaware of today’s Christmas plans.
“Her grace’s belongings and all of your children’s are already on the baggage cart. We must pack your things immediately.”
“Now, Edmund?” It was more a growl than a question.
Edmund looked taken aback. “Shall we give you a few minutes to rise?”
“At the least.”
The four men beat a hasty retreat.
No sooner had the door closed behind them than Trick reached for Kendra.
“Not now,” she whispered in horror, scooting away.
“Why not? I sent them away. Come here, leannan.”
“They’ll come back any minute.”
“No, they won’t.”
“How do you know? A few minutes, Edmund said.”
“I know because I’m the duke, and a duke’s valet doesn’t interrupt the duke when he’s asked to be left alone. Besides, we can be quick.”
“I don’t want to be quick.” Yearning for much more, she released a resigned sigh. “Let’s get up and go down to breakfast.”
“I don’t want to go down to breakfast.” He was running his hands all over her, making her pulse pound, making her senses spin, making her weaken. Every inch of her felt sensitive, felt alive, felt amazing.
He leaned closer to capture her lips with his.
“No.” She pulled away, a supreme effort. “Let’s get dressed and find another place to do this, then.”
“I’m not getting dressed when all I want is to be undressed. Too many damned layers.” With a gigantic sigh she suspected was mostly for show, he rolled away and out of bed. “I’ll fetch two robes and we’ll find another room.”
When he returned from the dressing room, Kendra rose on shaky legs. She shrugged into the robe he handed her. Burning for him, she stood still while he tied the sash around her waist as one might for a small child. It took all she had not to grab him close and fall back onto the bed.
“Let’s go,” he husked out, clearly just as inflamed as she was.
She loved the wild look in his beautiful amber eyes. But she wanted those eyes closed. She wanted him kissing her. “Where?”
“Another bedchamber. God knows the last duke designed plenty of extra bedchambers into this damned mansion.”
“What will the servants think when they find a rumpled bed in a room that hasn’t been used for months?”
“Why should you care what they think? You’re the duchess. They’re servants. We pay them not to think.”
“For heaven’s sake, Trick, will you fault me for having some decency? Let’s go to the library. We can use one of the couches there. We won’t have to rumple a bed.”
“Very well. Let’s go, then.” He pulled her out of the room.
She laughed as he raced down the corridor, dragging her by the hand behind him, both of them barefoot. She was forty-three years old and felt fourteen. This was ridiculous.
But when he pulled her into the library and slammed the door closed behind them, she didn’t feel ridiculous. She felt desperate.
The library was huge and deep, a long room with furniture scattered all around and a lofty, fancy gilded ceiling.
They dashed inside and fell to the nearest high-backed red leather couch, which faced away from the door.
Trick deftly untied her sash while she fumbled with his, the two of them kissing frantically all the while.
Before opening, the door rattled—luckily—and they bolted to sit upright, hastily closing their robes.
Their eldest daughter, Elspeth, walked in and past the couch, then turned, looking surprised to find them there. “Da, you’re home! We missed you!” She ran to Trick, bending down to give him a hug.
“I missed you, too,” Trick said.
“What are you two doing in here?”
“Just having a discussion,” Kendra said, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. “What are you doing in here?”
“I thought I’d find a book to take to Lakefield House.” Elspeth was tall and golden-haired, with amber eyes like Trick’s—it was fitting that they’d named her after his mother. “I don’t want to interrupt you, though. Shall I come back later?”
Her lovely, full-sleeved pink gown made Kendra feel conspicuously naked. “No, no,” she said. “Choose your book now.”
Trick elbowed her in the ribs.
Elspeth walked to the far end of the library, where she took a good ten minutes to choose a book—ten minutes during which Trick and Kendra exchanged inanities while he slipped a hand inside her robe to tease her.
He’d always been skilled at teasing her and hadn’t unlearned anything during his long absence.
Kendra was burning. She was dying. She was wishing her dear daughter away.
Was she really wishing her daughter away? She loved her children beyond measure. But right now, right this moment—
Trick snatched his hand back when Elspeth approached, book in hand.
“Breakfast was being laid out when I came up here,” she told her parents.
“We’ll be down in a minute.” That was Trick, because Kendra found herself incapable of saying anything.
“Very well, then, I’ll see you downstairs.” Slanting a final curious glance at her barefoot mother and father, Elspeth left the room.
“Lock the door,” Kendra demanded breathlessly.
Trick rose and went over to close the door. Kendra heard a groan. “There’s no lock. How is it that all these years I’ve never noticed there’s no lock?”
“This is a library, not a bedchamber. We’ve never had any reason to lock the door before.”
“Why on earth isn’t that lass married by now?” Back beside Kendra, Trick was ripping open his robe. “She’s eighteen already. She shouldn’t be here.”
“I was twenty-three when we wed.” Kendra untied her own sash this time, reclining back on the couch and beckoning him closer. “You’re not really wishing her away, are you? Just because she wanted a book?”
Evidently deciding that question didn’t deserve an answer, Trick came over her and crushed his mouth to hers.
He crushed his body to hers, too. Kendra wrapped her arms around him in an effort to pull him even closer.
She twined her fingers in the hair on the nape of his neck and kissed him back with all the passion she’d been saving up the past two months.
His hands went everywhere, stroking her into a frenzy.
Just as he inserted a knee between hers, the door opened again. Again! They bolted upright and clothed themselves once more.
“Da!” their daughter Diana cried, running in. “Elspeth said you’re home!”
“That I am, sweetheart,” Trick said, reaching to return her hug.
Kendra said nothing. She didn’t have any words in her.
“I’m so glad to see you, Da.” Diana’s green eyes sparkled, matching her ruffled emerald dress. She was petite with dark red hair like Kendra’s. Still mute, Kendra was trying not to wish her away. “What time will we be leaving for Lakefield?”
“Straight after breakfast.”
“Oh, good. Breakfast is starting now.”
“We’ll be down in a minute. Close the door on your way out, will you?”
Trick waited until Diana left before daring to meet Kendra’s eyes. “I suppose I cannot wish this one away, either?”
“She’s only sixteen. You cannot wish her married at sixteen.”
“And I wouldn’t wish her away anyway,” he said with an exaggerated sigh.
“Of course you wouldn’t. What kind of parent would that make you?” Kendra launched herself at him.
“Ooof!” He laughed, and then their mouths were sealed together and they were fighting with their sashes again.
Some time passed. Three or four minutes? Ten? Kendra wasn’t sure—all she knew was a haze of long-denied passion. All she knew was her dear husband’s mouth and his hands and his body—
Until the thirteen-year-old twins walked in, forcing the two of them to bolt upright yet again.
“Diana told us you were in here,” Castor said. “Why aren’t you at breakfast?
“We’re all waiting,” Pollux added.
The boys were identical, with golden hair like Trick’s and eyes greener than Kendra’s.
Thanks to their mother’s love of mythology, Castor, Pollux, and Diana all bore names of Roman gods.
But the twins preferred to be called Cas and Pol.
“Pronounced like Paul the Apostle,” Pollux informed anyone who would listen.
Trick had once confided that he understood his son’s feelings. Having been called an unusual name all his life, he sympathized with Pol’s desire for a more normal one.
“I’m so glad to see you’re both feeling better,” he said now, since the twins’ illness in October had kept the family from accompanying him to Scotland.
“But we’re missing breakfast!” Cas said again. “Won’t you come down to the dining room? We can’t leave for Christmas till we’ve eaten.”
“We’ll be down in a minute,” Trick said for the third time. “Run along.”
The twins left the door open. Which was just as well.
“I suppose we’d best go down to breakfast,” Kendra said with a heartfelt sigh.
Trick’s sigh was even more elaborate. “Bloody hell, I suppose you’re right.”