Page 71 of The Duke's Second Bride
Every day now, he woke up with a smile on his face and with Ava wrapped soundly in his arms, sleepy and sated from the activities of the night before.
And his newfound joy did not just extend to the bedroom. While it was a hardship every morning to leave behind their warm bed and Ava’s even warmer embrace to go about their daily business, there was still a lightness in his heart that felt new.
Sitting at his desk, his work no longer seemed like such a burden, aside from the fact that it kept him from spending as much time pleasuring Ava as he would have liked.
The townhouse, which, though beautiful, had once struck him as overlarge, now seemed like heaven.
The rest of the household seemed to benefit from the newly improved relations between the duke and duchess. The servants were in a bright mood. Luke was delighted to spend more time with his father and stepmother together.
“Th-this one cannot go there,” he said firmly, as they were out in the courtyard, working on the small replica garden of the one he and Ava had planted back at the country house.”
Christian laughed. “This is London, my boy,” he said. “You can hardly expect there to be as much sunlight here as there was in the country.”
“Still, we must do our b-best,” Luke insisted. “It is in the book you got us, from the village.”
Luke’s stammer seemed to have nearly vanished within the past few days. Christian realized, with great pride and joy, that his son seemed to be growing as comfortable speaking in front of him as he was speaking in front of Ava.
“You heard him,” Ava said teasingly.
Christian could not help but look at her with longing.
Her face had a healthy flush from the exertion of digging. She had a light smudge of dirt on one cheek, from where she had wiped sweat off her face with the back of one wrist earlier in the afternoon.
Luke must have noticed the latter at the same time, because he pointed at it with a giggle.
“Ava, you have dirt on your face,” he said, laughing.
Before Christian could think to stop himself, he reached out to brush it away. Ava looked surprised but soon leaned into the touch.
“Thank you,” she said shyly.
“Of course, my dear,” Christian said.
Luke looked back and forth between them, his jaw agape, an expression that was soon replaced by a delighted smile.
He laughed, clapping his hands together. “You have never c-called hermy dearbefore!” he crowed.
Ava blushed with an intensity that Christian was sure matched his own.
Just at that moment, a small ball of orange fur came slinking into the garden.
“Oh, who let him out!” Ava said. “Careful, I don’t want him eating any of the plants.”
“Come here, Pudding,” Christian said, ready to catch the cat and carry it back inside.
Pudding neatly dodged out of Christian’s reach, instead leaping past him and upsetting a pot of dirt onto his lap, entirely ruining his pants.
Instead of any annoyance, Christian burst out laughing.
“Naughty Pudding!” Luke said, matching his father’s chuckling. Ava immediately joined in.
After a few moments, the three of them were all laughing so hard that they could do nothing but watch Pudding slink away, returning into the house as though he had come outside for the sole purpose of upsetting that one pot of soil.
“Well,” Christian said, changing his tone to one of pretend offense. “Let’s see how funny you think it is now!”
He reached out and smudged dirt lightly onto Luke’s forehead with his thumb.
The boy was delighted, immediately breaking out into even more intense giggles. Then he reached out and smeared dirt across his father’s rolled-up sleeve.
