Page 60 of Lady Lilias and the Devil in Plaid
“Ye were born second, a breath after Thomas, but ye came out perfect. Strong. Healthy. But Thomas—” The duchess shook her head violently. “He was blue and so quiet, and he had that twisted leg. Yer father and I both knew before Dr. Balfour even told us that Thomas would never be strong enough to carry on the family name.”
“Dear God,” Nash muttered, and Lilias found herself nodding in mute agreement.
“Ye do not understand!” his mother sobbed. “Thomas could not have handled the weight of being the heir. Dr. Balfour said his lungs, like his leg, were not properly formed, and he would always be weak. That’s why—That’s why we did what we did to protect him. Ye were to be his protector with us, and in the end, ye failed him and we failed ye both. And…and to make matters dreadfully worse, Dr. Balfour has been blackmailing yer father and me for years! He threatened to expose what we had done unless we paid him and unless ye one day wed his daughter. I wanted to tell ye, I did, but how do ye tell someone how miserably ye have failed them? How do ye tell someone the terrible choices ye’ve made?” She buried her face in her hands and cried.
Partly in shock and partly relieved it all seemed to be out in the open now, Lilias looked at Nash, and she could see the indecision on his face as to whether to go to his mother or not. Lilias knew he could likely not totally forgive the horrible things she’d done, and it would take a lot of time to even accept what had happened, but she knew he’d feel guilty if he didn’t go to her now.
Lilias set her hand on Nash’s back and gave him a little push, which did not move him at all, but he knew what she meant. He smiled lovingly at her, and then he took the first step toward his mother and toward the possibility of healing. And when he put his arms around his mother and said, “I love you,” Lilias knew, without a doubt, that she had found her perfect love, her perfect hero.
Epilogue
“Come here, my duchess,” Nash said two weeks later, his seductive voice shooting thrills through Lilias that she was positive would never lessen.
She walked toward Nash, who was sitting bare chested on the edge of their bed in nothing but a kilt, and as she drew near, he gave her a smile that promised another night of bliss in his arms.
“Is it true,” she said, placing her hands on his thighs and nudging them apart while holding his gaze, “that Scots do not wear anything under their kilts?”
He smirked up at her, grabbed her by the waist, and lifted her as he stood, swinging her gently around to playfully toss her on their bed. She squealed with delight, and then laughter bubbled forth, followed by a rush of excitement as her husband came to kneel over her, caging her in with his powerful arms planted by each of hers and his strong thighs touching each of her hips. “I don’t know whether it’s true or not,” he said in a husky voice, kissing the skin of her chest that her gown revealed, “but I do know that this half Scot wears nothing under his kilt.”
“Oh, how deliciously scandalous.” She slid her hands between his thighs to their juncture. She smiled slowly as she felt the truth of his words. “I must say I’m glad,” she whispered wickedly. “It will make trysts in the gardens so much easier. If only I didn’t have to wear so many layers…”
“Ah, ye of little faith,” he said, placing dizzying kisses up one side of her neck and then down the other. “Let me show you how easy it is to deal with your layers.” His mouth descended to hers, sucking, pulling, nipping. By the time he was done with his kiss and he pulled back, she realized, bemused, that he’d shoved up her gown and had rid her of any underlayers that would hinder his loving her thoroughly.
“I think I’m too proper a lady for this wicked behavior,” she teased.
He chuckled as his hands slid under her buttocks to hoist her up to meet him and he slid slowly and deliciously into her. “Thank God you are not, nor have you ever been. I like that most about you.”
It was hard to concentrate enough to form a coherent reply because the way he moved in and out of her was building a fire that was burning her all over. With every stroke of his body, he was hitting the spot she had discovered with him, the one that made her splinter in his arms. But somehow she found the thread of her reply as her hands splayed over her husband’s own perfectly formed buttocks. “That’s what you like most about me?” she panted.
Another chuckle came from Nash, this time darkly rich. “In this moment,” he said, his voice ragged as his pace increased, making the blood in her veins rush faster and roar in her ears, along with the loud beat of her heart, “I most like that you are so warm, so inviting, so very wanton with me. I like—” he managed to lower himself, capture her right nipple in his mouth, and suck it in a way that made her arch on a moan toward him “—this breast,” he finished with a release of her now-puckered nipple.
“But that is so unfair to the left breast,” he said, sounding every bit like the devil she loved. “It—” he swirled his tongue around her left nipple “—is just as lovely and gives me just as much delight.”
“Prove it,” she choked out, both her breasts now heavy and tight.
And he did. He used his mouth to torment her nipple with sweet strokes, even as his body moved in and out of hers, pushing her toward that peak she’d discovered in his arms, the glorious one where all thought fled and all that remained was pure bliss. And just when she thought she would splinter, he released her breast and caught her by the underside of her thighs. He spread her legs farther apart and then set one of them over his back and brought his hand to the juncture of her thighs.
“Here,” he said, separating her to find the spot that pulsed only for him, “is another part of you I love, because when I touch it, I know it brings you exquisite enjoyment, and that brings me so much happiness that I ache with it. Shall I remind you?”
“Yes, please,” she begged, lost in him now.
His thumb pressed gently to the swollen secret spot, and he moved it in small circles. As he increased his speed with his thumb, he increased the speed of his strokes in and out of her, and she could see the top where he would take her, and she would fly. “What of you?” she gasped. “What shall I do for you?”
“This,” he said, moving faster. “Exactly this. Give yourself to me entirely always and that’s all I need.”
On that statement, she reached the top, and heat washed over her, her body tensing and then constricting around Nash over and over again. She let out a scream of satisfaction as he released his own rough moan to grip her thighs and find his own fulfillment.
They fell together to the bed, breathless in the candlelight until their chests slowly rose and fell evenly. Then Nash rolled off her, went to the washbasin, cleansed himself, then returned and lovingly tended to her. When he was done, he held out his hand to her, and they stood. He stripped himself of his kilt fairly quickly and climbed onto their bed once more, and then he watched her as she removed the clothing she still had on. She loved the intensity of his gaze, the hunger she saw there, and the love. When she was finished, she cocked her head at him, and he offered a slow, roguish smile.
“Come here.” He opened his powerful arms wide for her. “It’s been quite the sennight.”
She crawled between his hard thighs and lay across his chest, resting her chin there so she could look in his beautiful eyes. He smelled divinely of fresh soap, and she inhaled his scent, savoring it. “I’d say it’s been quite the frantic fortnight, but the sennights were hectic in very different ways.” Today, Miss Balfour had called upon them to say thank you for stopping her father’s plans. It had been quite unexpected.
He nodded and smiled lovingly down at her as he stroked a hand over her head and along her back, causing gooseflesh to race across her skin.
“I always imagined our life together would be exciting,” Lilias said, “but I daresay, not even I could have imagined we would stop a man like Levine and take care of a blackmailer like Dr. Balfour only to have his daughter call upon us to thank us for letting her know what her father was up to.”
“I would not have known exactly how to take care of him if it were not for your marvelous suggestion,” Nash replied.
