Chapter Eleven
Jilly: Will you please call me?
Jilly: I'm getting worried.
Jilly: Seriously.
JILLY WAS STARTING to think that maybe, just maybe, she could get used to this whole “being married to Guy de la Rocq” thing.
Well, okay, if she had to be honest—
She totally could get used to this, easy.
After all, she had been dreaming of this ever since watching nineteen-year-old Guy play Heathcliff.
But that would be a secret she would never tell him.
Just like she would also never tell him she had secretly perfected her signature as Jillian de la Rocq one rainy day, and well, who knew that would actually come in handy?
Her gaze flicked back to her husband, who was also the Duke of Rockforge for as long as they were still in Foxtown. They were just three days into their honeymoon, but she already knew she would want to come back here again and again and again.
I mean...
Where else could she enjoy the sight of Guy de la Rocq navigating a Regency-themed kitchen while wearing nothing but a pair of sleep pants that did nothing at all to hide his, um, very impressive manliness?
Her phone buzzed at that moment, and Jilly tapped her screen. While Foxtown was Internet-free, text messages and phone calls were allowed, and right now...
Star: Made any babies yet?
Fire burst in her cheeks. Like, seriously. That was just so like Star to suddenly ask, and—oh, another text?
Good afternoon, Ms. Kitt. This is, um, Mr. Pliny Carter. I was able to procure your number from the Foxtown guest services. I believe we met at the welcome dinner yesterday?
Jilly blinked in surprise. Wasn't Pliny the man seated across her during dinner?
Pliny: I hope you don’t mind, but I was wondering if you might be interested in joining me for a walk around the lake this morning? My wife passed away two years ago, and I find myself missing conversation with someone who actually remembers the Carter administration.
Jilly's heart melted. Oh, poor man. It was naturally inappropriate for her to say yes, but it was also quite understandable he wouldn't know this.
Since her wedding ceremony had also been kept under wraps, none of the guests knew she and Guy were married.
Actually, none of them even knew Guy was Guy, with her husband always opting to cover his features with the standard black face mask that Foxtown provided all of its guests.
"Everything alright?"
Guy joined his wife in their cozy dining table by the window as he handed Jillian her coffee.
"Thank you," Jillian said rather shyly. It was just still so...surreal to wake up and see Guy next to her in bed, knowing that he was her husband, and the kind that made coffee, too!
She took a sip, and of course it was delicious. There was nothing her husband did that wasn't perfect.
Guy meanwhile had caught sight of the opened text on his wife's phone, and his gaze narrowed. "Is some other man texting you?"
"It's Pliny, the lovely old man from dinner last evening."
Lovely?
His wife thought another man was lovely?
Jilly couldn't help but laugh at the way her husband's gorgeous features had darkened. "Guy! The man is in his sixties!"
"So is Tom Cruise," he shot back, "and that hasn't stopped other women from falling for him."
"Well, of course! He's Tom Cruise! He's like perfect and ageless, and he's at that stage in his life where you know you can talk to him about anything and—"
Oops.
Jilly realized she had only made things so much worse when she saw the way her husband had gotten perfectly still.
"Please don't hold back on my account," Guy drawled. "It's completely fine that you find every man but your husband lovely —"
Jilly couldn't help wincing at the softness of his voice.
"And naturally, it's because they're at that stage of their lives that I haven't yet reached—"
Oh, Guy.
A grunt slipped past his lips as his wife suddenly launched herself into his lap.
"How can you be so ridiculously cute?"
"Say that again," he threatened, "and you'll see just how cute I can be."
"I'm sorry." And she was, truly, but...
It was just so, so cute, you know?
All this time she had been worried about being five years older than Guy while he was apparently just as worried about being five years younger. Like, how—
" Wouch!"
Guy was suddenly pinching her cheeks.
"I can practically hear you calling me cute in your mind, sweetheart."
Uh oh.
"And I warned you, didn't I?"
She tried to escape, but Guy already had her where he wanted her—
"Which reminds me..."
Jilly found herself flat on her back on the dining table in a blink.
Oh no.
"I haven't had breakfast yet..."