Page 107 of The Trouble with Anna

When the doors closed on the last of them, Anna spun around. “Julian! You know what they’ll think.”

“Mmm. Tell me? In detail, if you please.”

Anna’s lips twitched hopelessly.

Julian reached for Sally’s flowers and put them gently on the floor, then slid a hand around Anna’s waist and pulled her firmly against him.

“Nothing to say? Never mind, then.” The gleam in his eye faded away, leaving him oddly solemn. “I have something for you.”

“Not here!” Anna squeaked, blushing down to her feet. She hadn’t stopped blushing since the minute she met him. Forget the coal in its bin and the fat stacks of firewood, her cheeks alone could heat the Dowager’s townhouse.

Julian laughed, low in his throat. “Most definitely here, my lightning, but I had something else in mind.”

He pulled a small box from his pocket and rubbed his thumb over the top, oddly tentative. “It’s not… I hope… My first thought was to weigh you down with the largest stone I could find. But it wouldn’t be practical, not when you spend half your life in the mud. So I commissioned this.”

The box gave a satisfyingsnickas he opened it, and there, nestled into a bed of black velvet, was a glittering crescent of diamonds. Anna picked the ring up carefully, turning it so she could see the delicate workmanship that kept the stones flat along the band.

“They’re table-cut diamonds. I told my jeweler to make the ring perfectly smooth, so it won’t be in your way.” His voice went low, rough. “You won’t have to take it off. Not in the stables, not ever.”

Her legs felt suspiciously weak. “It’s like a little galaxy.” She wanted to snatch the ring and hug it against her chest. She wanted to coo at it and whisper it all her hopes and secrets. It wasn’t grand, but each stone was clear, blinding. Perfect. “Is that an inscription?”

Julian’s cheeks went dark. “It’s nothing. A bit of nonsense.”

Anna turned the ring to read the tiny squiggle:

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

She blinked and blinked, so overwhelmed she thought she might cry. This was love, wasn’t it? She was holding pure love in her hand.

“Anna? Blast. Don’t you like it?” Julian’s throat worked. “You can choose another. I’ll open the vaults and you can have your pick.”

“No!” Anna slid the ring onto her finger and flexed her hand against its coolness as the diamonds winked up at her. “I adore it. You’d have to pry it away from me.”

Julian’s shoulders settled and he cleared his throat. “The special license. You’re as stubborn as a mule. I thought the Barton stable only produced Thoroughbreds?”

Ann managed to laugh. “How terribly rude. Here I thought that you might say something nice about my character, or my—”

“Breasts?” he supplied helpfully.

Anna frowned. “I don’t really have breasts, thank god. Can you imagine what a nuisance they’d be on a horse?”

His eyes began to gleam. “Bouncing? Yes. Thank you, I can imagine it quite clearly.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Besides, what I have hardly count as breasts at all. They’re more like…” She squinted at her bodice. “Lumps?”

“Lumps? Good god, how you talk.” He leaned in, nibbled on her neck. “I’ve never seen a pair quite so adorable—”

Oh, thank god. His clever fingers dipped down her décolletage and found the little peak of her nipple, just as his mouth found hers.

“—or suckable?” he whispered after a long kiss, his voice full of hope.

Anna tried to shimmy out of her bodice without untying the bows at the back of her dress. “Drat! Julian! I’ve got my arms stuck.”

His made no move to free her. Instead, his eyes went dark and he pushed her slowly back against a broad post, pulling the front of her bodice down the last little way until her breasts were completely bare. Pouting up at him.

Anna’s breath hitched. “Julian? I’m stuck.”

His mouth curved. “I know.”

---