Page 120 of The Scottish Duke
He might as well surrender now. Fighting it any longer was futile.
He wanted her, the whole of her, her laughter and her thoughts. He wanted her to share herself with him and wanted to do the same with her, the first time he’d ever felt that way about a woman. But, then, Lorna was unlike any woman he’d ever known.
Her hair was touched with sunlight until it glinted like gold. She didn’t mind getting dirty and thought that mud was just another of nature’s miracles. She carried Robbie around like one of those marsupials he’d seen on his visit to Australia, perfectly natural in motherhood. She’d transformed his mother into someone who laughed more often than she looked sad, who expressed joy in a quick smile and in whose eyes he saw a radiant happiness he’d never expected to see again.
And him? What had she done to him?
She reminded him that he was a man first, then a man of science, duke, property holder, and all the other attendant roles of his position. She taught him that being a father was not passing on lessons as much as accepting and giving love.
He was always going to worry about her and be afraid for her. She was going to make him question his own thoughts. He knew, without a doubt, that there would be times when she’d annoy him. They would probably get into rousing arguments because she’d never back down. She had the unique capacity to hurt him.
Yet with her, he’d experience everything life had to offer.
He’d never be able to hide again.
How could he rearrange his world to best please her?
He wanted his wife, and not simply in his bed. He wanted to hear her laugh, see her smile, and notice that her eyes were sparkling with humor.
Had he ever been affected by someone the way he was Lorna? Had his emotions ever been wrapped up in another person’s happiness? He didn’t think so. Had he ever been a fool the way he was around her? That was an easy question to answer. No.
Lorna had opened up his heart and he’d never known it was closed.
Chapter 30
Back in their room, Lorna watched as Alex placed Robbie in his cradle. The baby gurgled up at him, fists and feet punching the air.
The two of them, father and son, regarded each other for a moment before Alex glanced at her.
“I can’t get over how much he’s grown.”
“Your mother said he’ll be walking early if he’s anything like you.”
He only shook his head, turned back to the cradle, and tucked the blanket over Robbie’s feet. The baby promptly kicked it off.
“He’ll probably be stubborn, too,” she said, smiling.
Alex startled her by reaching out, hooking his hand behind her neck and gently stroking the skin there with his fingers.
“Do you still feel the same?” he asked. “Are you still fascinated?”
“I was madly in love with you,” she said. “I think now that it was just lust.”
“There’s nothing wrong with lust,” he said.
“Not if it’s coupled with something else. Otherwise, it’s just like a plate of chocolate biscuits. You can’t live on chocolate biscuits. You’ll get sick from them and of them. You have to have meat and potatoes and greens.”
She studied him.
“I admired you like you were a prince. I thought you the most handsome man I knew. Then I thought you the ugliest.”
He would have walked away had she not extended her hand to him.
“Now I know the truth,” she said.
“And what is that?”
“Oh, don’t sound so ducal, Alex.”
