Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
12 Oct 1985
Gardener says the camellias at the south end are dying—some sort of virus. Not sure.
The real news is from HG, back from his first session with the Lords, only to cause yet another scandal, which I have promised not to detail here, though the papers may not be so generous, despite our donations to their cause. Sufficed to say, the engagement to Lady Harwood has been called off, and it’s most likely he shall have to weather the storm here in Kendal rather than resuming his place in town.
You can imagine how happy he is about that. The camellias are more cooperative, frankly.
M is pregnant.
So much for keeping promises.
Honestly, I don’t know what to do.
“ C es? Ces, did you hear me?”
I looked up from the journal, which I’d been engrossed with ever since arriving in Kendal yesterday evening.
Xavier had surprised me yet again on our wedding night by booking not a lavish suite at The Plaza or some swanky penthouse, but instead the same room he’d occupied when we’d first met. The boutique hotel on Riverside was a far cry from a five-star place on Central Park and certainly wasn’t up to Xavier’s usual standards, but he teased he’d gotten used to smaller quarters after living in my basement for the last month.
Besides, tradition was tradition.
“And I want to fall in love with you all over again tonight,” he pronounced as he picked me up and carried me across the threshold.
I couldn’t argue with that.
The next morning, however, we went to Nonna’s to kiss Sofia goodbye (she would fly to London with Elsie to give Xavier and me a few days on our own), then met up with Jagger at Teterboro and flew to Manchester, where Ben was waiting to drive us straight to Kendal while Jagger left for London.
It was quite a different entrance from the one I’d made the first time. For one, we arrived at the estate to find the entire staff waiting outside in a line, ready to welcome their duke home again.
“Is this always how they greet you?” I asked nervously as Xavier helped me out of the car.
“It is when I come home with a bride,” he said with a purely piratical leer.
Then he turned to the row of people who made the estate function, pulled me in front of him, and introduced me to everyone as the new Duchess of Kendal.
The men bowed.
The women curtsied.
I felt like I was on the set of a BBC drama. And desperately in need of some etiquette lessons.
The next morning, after a long night spent rechristening our bedroom and sleeping in far too late, Xavier and I were cozied up in his office while he went over the accounts that Frederick had overseen in his absence, and I dove into another of Henry’s journals.
“What’s got you so interested over there?” Xavier asked from his desk. “You’re making the same sounds as when you discover a new Marvis flavor.”
He wasn’t particularly stressed. That was good news. It meant that in spite of his stepmother’s best attempts at interfering, Frederick had done right by the place while Xavier had been gone.
I paged forward, hoping that Henry would elaborate on whatever scandal was happening that ruined Rupert’s impending marriage. It didn’t seem to be related to Masumi’s pregnancy, especially since he said point-blank that he wouldn’t write down the details. But then again, wasn’t that scandalous enough?
“Well, for one, you’ve finally made an appearance,” I said. “Your mother showed up again in Henry’s journals. And now she’s pregnant.”
“Ah.” Xavier seemed oddly uninterested in the revelation.
I put the journal down. “Don’t you want to know what he said?”
My husband—it was still surreal to call him that—just shrugged his big shoulders. “I already know what happened. I was there, wasn’t I?”
“Well, not yet, you weren’t.” I picked the journal up again and re-scanned the section. “Do you know of any sort of scandal that happened in 1985? Regarding your father, I mean?”
Xavier snorted. “Besides my conception?”
My shoulders slumped. “Just listen.” I read the section out loud, then looked up, expecting a remark. Maybe an elaboration. Something more than the blank look I was facing.
Xavier just shrugged again. “It sounds like he convinced himself not to describe how my father had knocked up Mum, then thought otherwise at the end. Also, sounds like Dad and I had more in common than he let on.”
I frowned. “How do you mean?”
“‘Yet another scandal,’ didn’t he say? You don’t want to know how many times I was told not to embarrass the family. God, I wish I’d have known about this back then. Way to be a fucking hypocrite, Dad.”
I sat back in my chair, somewhat disappointed with his cavalier attitude. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d undone my suspicions with a single guess.
Xavier seemed to sense my disappointment, so he set aside the ledger and flicked his finger at me. “Come here, let’s have a look.”
I joined him at the desk, only to be pulled unceremoniously into his lap. Henry’s journal was plucked from my hand and tossed to the floor before I was thoroughly ravished.
“Put that away,” he said, burying his face in my neck. “It will keep. You won’t.”
“Ah!” I squealed as his long nose found its way down my shirt. “I was looking at that!”
“And now you’re looking at me .”
He swiveled around, then heaved me up so I was sitting on his desk. Immediately, my mouth was captured by a kiss that made all thoughts of journals, pregnancies, dukes, and scandals evaporate completely. My hands slid into the silky softness of Xavier’s hair while I lingered in his musk, enveloped in his taste.
Lord, the man could kiss. And he really was all mine.
After nearly every thought in my head had been completely obliterated, Xavier sat back in his chair and surveyed me, looking rather like a king peering over an expanse of kingdom he had just conquered.
“Wouldn’t you know it?” he said with a devilish cock of his head. “I’m a bit famished.”
I bit my lip. “Haven’t you had enough? You only kept me up all night. And the night before. And the night before that. I haven’t gotten up before noon for days.”
He responded by peeling off my leggings and underwear and tossing them to the floor beside the journal.
“There’s never enough Francesca,” he rumbled before delivering another soul-searing kiss. “I’m addicted now, you see. And a newlywed. Every few hours, I need my hit of sweet new bride. Right here on my ancestors’ furniture.”
I giggled but did nothing to stop him as he undid the top buttons of my shirt—which happened to be one of his, since most of my shirts were suddenly too small—and settled his mouth on one breast while sliding a hand up and over my clit.
“Oh!” I gasped as one long finger slid inside me.
Xavier’s teeth bit lightly before he released my nipple and kissed me instead.
“Lie back,” he ordered, pushing me down until I did as he said and lay splayed completely across the enormous mahogany surface. He spread my legs farther, then lifted them over his shoulders and pulled my hips to the edge, like he was about to attend to a feast.
Which, apparently, he was.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered, pulling my hands to my breasts. “Pinch them a bit and pull. I know you like that.”
I found myself obeying once again, using one hand to toy with my bared nipple and the other to take a handful of his hair while he bent to his work.
“Oh!” I gasped as his tongue slid over that most sensitive spot—more sensitive now than ever due to the raging hormones of my second trimester.
Seriously, two swipes and I was ten seconds to heaven.
My head met the desk with a thump as Xavier went to work, proving to me yet again just how much taste the man really had.
“I know he said that, but honestly, Gibson, it will just take a moment!”
My eyes flew open at the sound of an extremely proper, petulant, and extremely unwelcome voice in the hall. The door creaked open, and I opened my eyes just in time to see a flash of round gray eyes, fair skin, and feather-soft blond hair.
Imogene Douglas’s shocked face peeked through the door and, to my surprise, didn’t immediately move.
“ Fuck , Ces.”
Xavier appeared to be too lost in, well, me to notice our intruder. And with his other hand locked around my waist in an iron grip, I certainly wasn’t going anywhere.
Unable to stop myself, I offered our voyeur a satisfied smile. She started, like my acknowledgment of her presence was akin to a jolt of lightning.
“Yessss,” I hummed, gripping Xavier’s hair and pulling ever so slightly.
In response, I received a most animal growl.
“Babe,” Xavier hummed against my flesh, “you taste so fucking good.”
It was the key to my undoing, audience or no. My back arched off the desk, my eyes squeezed shut, and it was everything I could do not to scream as pleasure flooded my body in hot, heavy waves. Xavier’s tongue continued its magic until my body was a sponge, every drop of ecstasy squeezed out, and I was left limp, lifeless, and completely satisfied there on his desk.
A meal completely consumed.
When I opened my eyes, Imogene was gone.
“That ought to keep her away for a good while.” Xavier sat back in his chair and removed a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at his mouth as if he’d just finished a particularly wonderful meal.
I sat up on my elbows. “You knew she was there?”
Xavier chuckled, then gently pulled me back up so we were nose to nose once more. “I knew, yeah. Just like I knew you didn’t mind the show, you little minx.”
I flushed even as I gave a half-hearted shove in response. I wanted to argue, but he was right. I hadn’t. In fact, I had been more than happy to let the interfering brat see exactly what she was trying to get in the middle of. That a man like Xavier Parker wanted to get down on his knees for someone like me. That he had made me his duchess for all to see.
“Do you?” I wondered. “Mind, I mean. I suppose I used you too a little.”
“Do I mind you getting a bit territorial?” he posed. “Fuck, no. It’s hot, but also, it’s nice not to be the only one with a jealous streak for once.”
Before I could respond, he cupped my face, urging me to look at him directly. All vestiges of humor were gone, leaving only pure, earnest love in his bright blue eyes.
“You do know you’re it for me, right?” he said. “That you’ve nothing to worry about? Not with her, not with anyone else. I know it’s scary facing all this again. But it won’t be forever, and in the meantime, you are the most important thing to me. Do you believe that?”
I watched him but nodded almost immediately and was rewarded with a smile of singular sweetness. It was an easy thing to believe. Even if it was forever. Even if we had to stay in Kendal and be gentry or even do something else completely different than either of us had ever imagined.
We had each other now. And somehow, I knew that wasn’t ever going to change.
“I know,” I told him. “Though I don’t mind it either when you go out of your way to demonstrate it to any naysayers.”
His black brow rose sardonically. “Is that right?”
A blush warmed my cheeks and neck. “Could be.”
“Minx,” he mouthed again before kissing me once more.
Then he stood, allowing his tall form to cast its shadow over my body, which I found was humming with anticipation all over.
“Well, if you need me to demonstrate it again, my beautiful duchess,” Xavier said as he reached down to unbutton his trousers, “I’ve got a few things in mind.”