Page 102 of The Duke's Second Bride
Towardtheirson.
“Things look to be quite well between the two of you,” the dowager duchess said. “I have never known Christian to be so happy, child. You have truly created a new man out of him. Who knew he had the capacity for such joy?”
Ava looked at them. Luke greeted his father with new delight and began showing him again how to hold and maneuver the kite properly.
“He always had the capacity,” she said softly. “He just needed to let go of his fears in order to embrace it.”
After a spirited dinner, after which their guests left and Luke’s maid took him to get ready for sleep, Ava and Christian lay in bed together, kissing languidly.
“You know,” Christian remarked, “I have been thinking…”
“Is that so?” Ava cut him off casually. “How surprising.”
With a grin, he crushed his mouth against hers, kissing her hungrily. “So cruel to me,” he said, faux mournfully. “You tease me ceaselessly, wife.”
“Only because you are so easy to tease, husband,” she said back, kissing his mouth again, then his jaw. “But I shall behave now. Tell me, what were you thinking about?”
“Today,” he said, “I was perfectly happy. I could think of nothing that would be better than to spend every day like that, with you.”
She smiled at him. “I could not agree more,” she said. “Is that all?”
“Well,” he said. “Then I realized there was something that would make me happier.” He reached to caress her face. “You have been most patient with me, Ava,” he said. “And I am so happy and content in our lives with just you and me and Luke. But if you still had room for more love in our life …”
He trailed off, but Ava understood immediately what he was referring to. “You truly mean it?’ she asked, happy tears rising to her eyes. “Really?”
“Really,” he promised, kissing her deeply. “You have seen how Luke is with Sophia and Vincent’s children. I think he would be most pleased to have a younger sibling of his own.”
“A younger brother, perhaps,” she suggested. “With dark hair and a stubborn disposition.”
He smiled, kissing her more fiercely still. “Perhaps,” he agreed. “Or a younger sister, with hair like spun gold and eyes like the sky… and a stubborn disposition, of course.”
She laughed against his lips. “I suppose we have always been alike, in that way,” she said. “Perhaps that is why we were drawn to each other.”
He pulled back, looking at her intensely. “I was drawn to you for hundreds upon hundreds of reasons,” he said, before kissing her again.
As they kissed, his hand traced a path up along her leg, pushing up underneath her nightgown. She hooked a leg over his hips, allowing him access to touch her where he wanted to.
She sighed in bliss into their kiss as he touched her, readying her to take him deep inside her.
“Will you still love me when I am round with child,” she teased, running her hands along his arms and shoulders. “Or will you grow tired of me, and seek your pleasure elsewhere?”
“Never,” he promised. “I could never tire of you, Ava. I am going to love you this much until the day we die, and forever after that.”
He slipped a finger into her, then two. She rocked her hips against his hand, her pleasure growing in harmony with the moans and sighs that fell from her lips.
As she bucked against him, his length pressed against her hip, and the friction began to make him harden.
He brought her just close to the edge and then pulled back, teasing her mercilessly. She let out a light growl of her own, her hips moving, seeking pleasure.
“Now who is being cruel?” she murmured, reaching forward to kiss him, then pouting in displeasure when he pulled his lips just out of reach.
The sight of her like this, flushed and ready and wanting, was too much for him to resist. He leaned in and kissed her, giving her what she wanted.
“I cannot,” he admitted. “I am powerless against you, my love. I could never go so long without giving you everything you want and more.”
With that, he rolled her onto her back, climbing atop her. Her legs parted for him eagerly, allowing him to settle between them.
He entered her slowly, so slowly that both of them were nearly shaking with desire.
