Chapter 27 #2
His arms came up to encircle her so her back was pressed against his chest. “I do,” he said, brushing a kiss over her temple, then her ear.
“But… we said we wouldn’t—” she began, but it appeared Xavier would hear none of the old arguments they’d both mounted to stop themselves crossing the lines they’d said they’d never cross.
He pulled her from the stool and gathered her close into his arms. “We were idiots,” he said, capturing her chin between his fingers.
“ I was an idiot. Since I sent you away, this last fortnight has felt like purgatory to me. I didn’t just miss you, Emmeline.
I felt like half a man without you. A mere shadow of myself.
I will readily own I’ve been practically mad with loneliness and longing and wishing you were here every single day. ”
“I didn’t feel like myself either,” she murmured thickly. Her fingers curled into his coat lapels seeking a way to anchor herself to this man. Come what may, she suddenly knew she could never let him go. “I think about you all the time. Dream of you too.”
“It seems we are both hopeless cases.” He smiled then, the precise lines and angles of his mouth settling into a soft, uptilted curve.
“I’ve always found you fascinating. The most intriguing distraction.
Indeed, from the very start, from the day we met, I’ve craved your company.
I find you endlessly irresistible, my love. ”
Endlessly irresistible? Fascinating? My love? Emmeline was so touched—so overwhelmed and flummoxed—she was momentarily lost for words.
Before she could even formulate a coherent thought beyond Oh my, did he actually just call me “my love”? Xavier was speaking again.
“But it’s more than that, sweet Emmeline,” he said huskily.
Lifting her chin a fraction, he stared straight into her eyes as though he were trying to connect with her very soul.
“Like the air that I breathe or even the ground beneath my feet, you are essential to me. A needed component. A vital cog. An element that makes my life worth living. You make me feel so many things that I never thought myself capable of feeling. With you, I am whole. I am at peace. I’m at home. ”
“Oh, my goodness.” Emmeline couldn’t contain her emotions now. Tears were sliding down her cheeks, even as her mouth was lifting into a smile. “What are you trying to tell me exactly, Xavier?” she whispered. “I need to hear you say the words.”
The Duke of St Lawrence, the man Emmeline adored with her entire being, cradled her face between his hands. “I love you, Emmeline Chase. You’ve taught this man to understand his feelings. And that’s the most magical, miraculous gift of all.”
She clasped his wrists. Searched his light blue eyes that were as clear as a rain-washed sky at dawn. “Oh, Xavier. Are you… are you absolutely sure that’s how you feel? Because if you’re not—”
“My love.” Xavier stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, brushing away her tears and any lingering doubts. “My darling, Emmeline. You make my heart smile. How could that not be love?”
Emmeline inhaled a shaky breath. Her heart was beating so fast and thrumming with so much happiness, she thought it might burst. “I love you too, Xavier,” she whispered. “More than you could ever know.”
“Then marry me,” he said, his voice rough with emotion.
“Be my wife. With Harry, Bartholomew, and Gareth in our lives, we’ll be a true family in every sense of the word.
I honestly don’t care what anyone else thinks or says.
Society and the Parasol Academy, and indeed any naysayers at all, can go and jump in the English Channel.
The only thing that matters is what you and I both want. And I want you to be mine.”
All at once, Xavier sank to the marble floor on bended knee and clasped her hands in his.
“Emmeline Chase, will you do me the untold honor of consenting to be my wife? The woman I will love until the sun no longer rises and the stars no longer shine. You own my heart and you shall have it and everything else I have to give until the end of time.”
Emmeline bit her lip as her heart swelled with the sweetest, most pure and potent joy.
This man was everything she could ever want.
He was more than she’d ever dreamed of. “Oh, Xavier. Yes. My answer is an unreserved and unequivocal yes. I am yours and you are mine and I will happily be your wife forevermore.”
“My darling.” Xavier rose and caught her in his arms. And then he kissed her, deeply, thoroughly, and with such aching tenderness that warm tendrils of delicious desire were soon unfurling inside Emmeline’s body, licking along her veins and setting her aflame.
Making her moan and wind her arms around Xavier’s neck, unashamedly offering herself to him.
He pushed her against the bench and it was clear his desire was awakened too. Emmeline could feel the urgent press of his hips and his arousal even through her uniform’s skirts and her underthings.
One of his hands curled around her nape as his hot mouth slid almost frantically along the line of her jaw.
“Stay here with me tonight,” he whispered roughly before he slanted his mouth over hers again, his tongue entering her, boldly stroking and teasing.
“In my room.” Another kiss. Hotter. Hungrier.
He caught her lower lip lightly between his teeth then sucked delicately. “I want you in my arms. In my bed.”
“Yes,” moaned Emmeline, angling her head so he could feast upon her neck and throat. The tiny licks and sucking kisses he rained upon her fevered flesh were driving her wild. “Anything for you.”
“Come with me.” Xavier caught her hand and led her across the room to a towering oak longcase clock at the farthest end.
He turned the gilt key in the polished cabinet below the clockface, there was a soft click and whir, and then the whole clock and the wall panel behind it slid sideways to reveal a gaslit corridor.
The clock was another elaborate jib door.
“You have a secret passage leading to your suite?” asked Emmeline.
Xavier grinned. “I do. You go first. I’ll close the door after us.”
By the time Emmeline reached the end of the passage, she was breathless with excitement.
Xavier, who was right behind her, reached past her and pressed on a metallic lever below a wall sconce.
There was another click and whir, and this time when the jib door opened, the Duke of St Lawrence’s opulent bedchamber was revealed.
It was a breathtaking study in shades of dusky blue and rich wood with touches of gold.
A low fire burned in the gray marble fireplace, and dominating the far side of the room was an enormous four-poster bed draped in sumptuous silk brocade and velvet.
“My valet, Babcock, has retired to his quarters downstairs for the night. And Horatio is asleep on his perch in my sitting room next door.” Xavier tipped his chin at another oakpaneled door to the right of the fireplace.
“We won’t be disturbed. Wait…” He stopped and a look of horror crossed his features.
“My raven can’t hear your thoughts all the time, can he? ”
Emmeline laughed softly. “No. He can only perceive them if I purposefully direct them his way. Believe me, I won’t be doing that tonight.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” Xavier closed the jib door then asked softly, “Now, where were we?” His intent gaze blatantly wandered over Emmeline from the top of her head down to her toes, then back again.
“Oh, that’s right. You were about to take off that blasted nanny’s cap for the very last time and throw it into the fire. ”
Emmeline could hardly object. Of course, she’d worked so hard to be a Parasol nanny. She truly loved her job and had always tried to do her very best. Giving up her Parasol Academy license also meant losing access to all the magic she had at her fingertips.
But it would be worth it because now she had something even better than magical pockets and words and parasols.
Something more fulfilling that would last a lifetime.
She was going to marry a man who loved her and would do anything for her and those she cared about.
Just like she would do anything for him and his adorable wards.
And, God willing, one day she and Xavier might be blessed with children of their own.
With a deliberately provocative smile, she removed her lacy cap and then held it out to Xavier. “Would you like to do the honors, or shall I?”
“As much as I would like to, I think you should,” he said.
Emmeline moved toward the fireplace and cast the handful of lace and linen into the flames. The cap caught alight immediately, the tongues of fire consuming it until nothing but a few sparks and embers remained.
“There,” she said with a saucy smile. “Is that better, Your Grace?”
“A little, but not quite,” murmured Xavier. His voice was low and raspy as he added, “I think you need to take down your hair… and then remove your entire uniform.”
Oh heavens… What on earth had gotten into the Duke of St Lawrence?
His eyes were heavy-lidded with lust and when Emmeline’s gaze dipped to his trousers, she could see he was more than ready to make love.
A heady thrill shot through her at the thought that he’d been waiting so long to be with a woman and he’d chosen her, Emmeline Chase, to be his one and only lover.
She wanted this experience—his first time—to be wonderful and utterly unforgettable.
“While I can scarcely disobey your command, Your Grace, might I trouble you to help me with all my buttons and laces and hooks and eyes?” she asked in a seemingly innocent, nonchalant sounding tone that was really meant to tease.
She tugged loose the ribbons securing her pinafore then tossed it onto the floor.
“There are an awful lot to contend with.”
His eyes danced as he joined her by the fireside. “What, you don’t have a spell for undressing at the drop of a hat pin?”
“There might be,” she murmured, looking up through her eyelashes at him before she turned to present him with her back, “but where would be the fun in that?”