Page 94 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
Lucas shook his head in disgust. “I can’t believe I was such a downy bird that he put one over on me. He beat me ridiculously fast, and I’m known as a dab hand with the cards.”
“He wanted you to play Romeo, by hook or by crook. Shakespeare demanded it.”
Self-mockery tugged at Lucas’s mouth. “Then by all means, I must forgive him. After all, the deception brought me the love of a lifetime.”
Juliet sighed and tilted her face up. “I adore it when you say those things.”
“That’s good. Because you’ve got about fifty years of similar avowals ahead, my love.”
This time, the kiss held more passion than sweetness, although sweetness lingered below the heat, the way love flowed like a river beneath their desire. Juliet made an incoherent sound of delight when Lucas lifted her to straddle his lap. As the kiss deepened, she felt him swelling between her thighs.
With a boldness born of love given and returned, she shaped her hand to that hardness. “I can’t tell you how many nights I stayed awake, remembering what shameless things you did to me in Salisbury.”
He closed his eyes, and she read the ghost of agony in his face. “It was hell, knowing I’d only ever see you in my imagination. I’d wake from dreams that felt so real, only to find my arms empty and heart aching.”
His confession threatened to rip her own heart to pieces. She rested a hand on his lean cheek in a gesture of apology. “Lucas, you should hate me.”
He kissed her quickly. “I could never hate you, although there were times when I wanted to give you a good shake and tell you to think what you were throwing away.”
She stroked his chiseled jaw. “True love.”
“Yes.”
“I pledge myself to you.” The depth of her feelings turned her voice hoarse.
“Do you?”
“With all my heart.”
He studied her with a frown. “I’ve asked you to marry me four times. You’ve always said no.”
Juliet understood now how those rejections had wounded him. She swallowed to shift a lump of painful emotion from her throat. Then swallowed again before she managed to answer. “If you ask me again, I’ll say yes.”
He caught her head between his hands, so she couldn’t evade his somber dark eyes. Despite having already given Lucas her answer, despite knowing what he was going to ask, her heart began to race with giddy excitement.
“My one love, my forever love, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want us to make a family and grow old together. I want your face to be the first thing I see every morning. I want your voice to be the last thing I hear every night. I want us to link hands and step forward into a future that we create together. I never want us to part. I swear that from this moment on, you will be my cause and my beloved and my care.” His throat moved as he swallowed. He wasn’t immune to the moment’s profundity. “My darling, make me the happiest man in England. Say you’ll be my cherished wife, my duchess, my dearest. Say yes, Juliet. It’s time.”
Drat it. More tears. Despite blinking to clear the mist from her vision, it was hopeless. Her voice emerged as a shaky rasp. “Everything you say, it’s like poetry.”
“All that Shakespeare must have rubbed off.” His voice lowered into earnestness. “Please answer me, my darling.”
“I’d be honored to be your wife, Lucas. How could you think otherwise? The answer is yes.”
“No hesitations?”
“None.”
“No regrets?”
“Only that it took me far too long to trust what my heart knew to be true from the beginning.”
Elation lit his face. “Juliet…”
Lucas kissed her with a hunger that echoed her rising need. She wrapped her arms around him, hardly able to believe that they’d found their way to each other at last.
Juliet closed her eyes in an ecstasy of surrender. Velvety darkness enveloped her, crammed with heat and love and Lucas. His rich, spicy scent fed her famished senses. His hard, glorious body beneath her caressing hands made her crave the ultimate union.
“Take me,” she whispered, running her teeth down his neck and combing her fingers through the silky hair at his nape. “I need to feel you inside me.”
