Epilogue
“And to think, the season is almost half over, and I’ve already been married a few weeks. I accomplished my goals rather quickly,” Pere stated to Anna, but her gaze was on her husband, watching as Gabriel’s posture stiffened, and he turned from his conversation with Henley and gave her a wry grin.
“Is that so? Ah, how the mighty have fallen, will be your next statement I suppose?” Gabriel’s voice was like honey and silk, her body responding with a greedy need as he walked toward her, his broad shoulders drawing her attention as she recollected just how powerful they were under her fingertips.
“Pere, I believe it’s your turn to not scandalize the rest of us,” Anna teased. “It’s no wonder the ton can’t stop buzzing about the love match between you two.”
“It is rather obvious.” Gabriel’s words poured over her like warm rain.
“Indeed,” she murmured the word and bit her lip as her husband took the seat beside her, his expression caressing her features.
“Why did you even leave your house if you’re going to be like this?” Henley grumbled.
“You were worse.”
“Are worse,” Anna added, giving her husband a playful grin.
“Is it so terrible to be madly in love with one’s wife?” Gabriel’s words were directed to everyone, but Pere felt like they were confessed to her alone, a constant reminder of his love for her.
“Not so terrible,” Pere replied, basking in the glow of his gaze.
“Not to interrupt this tender moment…” Henley replied with dry sarcasm.
“Lies,” Pere called him out, and gave him a quick grin.
“Very well, yes, I completely mean to interrupt. Hawthorne, you were saying that Eliza had arrived in London?” Henley asked.
Pere watched as her husband gave her one final warm smile and then turned his attention to her brother.
However, he reached over and grasped her hand, pulling it into his lap.
She smiled at the tender gesture. She couldn’t imagine loving him more, yet every day, it seemed she woke up with a new capacity to adore her husband, and it was a mutual adoration.
“Yes, Eliza arrived a few days ago, and I was asked to make introductions to several members of society, as I assumed. I don’t foresee any issues, but if you would like to meet her…”
“I’m sure we will see her in society, regardless. I just was concerned in case there were any new developments.”
“Nothing new,” Gabriel assured her, and then Pere smiled as he turned his attention back to her. “I do believe we have a pressing engagement, if there’s nothing else?” Gabriel shifted his attention back to Henley, then stood, offering his hand to Pere.
Pere frowned, uncertain what pressing engagement he was referring to. She studied him with a furrowed brow but gave her regards to her family, giving a gentle hug to Anna in her delicate condition.
Henley’s expression was knowing, but Pere couldn’t quite discern the meaning as her husband nearly swept her from the room.
“What am I forgetting?” Pere asked as they stepped into their waiting carriage.
Gabriel sat beside her, his hand tracing up the side of her leg, teasingly caressing the skin under her gown.
Her heart hammered an unsteady and feverish rhythm as he answered.
“Oh, the pressing engagement is a rather private matter,” he whispered, his hand pausing at her knee as he leaned over and kissed up her neck.
“So very, very private, and can only be discussed in the seclusion of our bedroom, you understand.”
Pere’s lips spread into a wide grin. “Oh? I can’t believe I didn’t catch on sooner,” she teased, arching her neck to give him greater access.
“Yes. You were rather slow, and just to keep with the theme…” He moved his hand to the collar of her dress, tracing along the edge of the fabric, dipping his hand lower to brush her most sensitive areas. “I think we’ll take it very…”
Pere gasped, needing more, wishing they were already at home.
“Delightfully… seductively…”
“That is a long list of descriptions.”
“Slow.”
She took a deep breath. “As long as the ending is always the same,” Pere replied, meeting his gaze.
“And what is that?” he asked, his tone deep with unhurried desire.
“Together.”
“That … is easily promised. Again, again, and again,” he whispered the words like a promise.
One that Pere would never tire of hearing repeated.
For the next fifty or so years.
As promised.
The End