Page 94 of The Rules of Matrimony
“I plan to tell you over and over again. I have to make up for lost time.” He dropped another kiss on her lips, smothering another laugh. “Is it all right if I come home with you?”
Home? She shook her head. “No! You must turn around. You could still make it before morning.” She could endure the storm. The torture would be acute, but knowing he loved her would sustain her on the journey.
He stroked her jaw with his thumb. “I sent all my notes to the committee. They were working on this far before me and can handle the vote on their own. My father is graciously reaching out to his connections too. I’ve made my decision. I’m not leaving you again. Not if I can help it.”
“Ever?” He would walk away from his most passionate project for her?
His eyes crinkled with vulnerability. “If you’ll let me stay.”
She stared at him. “It’syourhouse, Ian.”
“It’s yours, Amie. I’ll only come if you wish it. I promised you, remember?”
For the first time all day, she felt herself smile. “Hang your promise. Of course I wish it.”
His thumb reached the corner of her mouth and slid toward the center. “And do you wish for me to kiss you again?”
“Must I beg?”
He chuckled. “Not at all, but I might.” His finger stroked her jaw and neck, and she leaned back into the wall of the carriage. Again their kiss drowned out the noise of the night until all she heard was the beating of her heart and the feel of his pulse under her hand.
Chapter 45
A month and a half later.
Ian looked around the Domeat the smiling faces of his Rebel friends, his hands covering Amie’s eyes as he led her inside. The temple had been the Rebels’ secret meeting spot since they were children, and he had been anxiously waiting for the day he could share it with Amie.
“Should we make her take the Rebel Oath?” Jemma asked from somewhere beside him.
“Next time,” Paul said from the sofa. “Let her see what she is getting herself into first.”
“Your hands are too big,” Tom teased, his arm around Cassandra. “You’re going to suffocate our Lady Brilliant before she even has a chance to learn to like us.”
Lady Brilliant was Tom’s new nickname for Amie. As soon as he’d heard Amie call Ian Lord Grumpy, he’d announced it utterly brilliant, which had quickly evolved intoLadyBrilliant. Like all of Tom’s odd names, it had stuck.
“You can breathe, can’t you, darling?” Ian asked, leaning down and catching his favorite vanilla fragrance.
“I can breathe.”
“Good. Just one more step.” Ian directed her to where she would have the best view of the circular room. “Ready?”
“I’ve been ready since you told me about this place,” Amie said.
Without further ado, he dropped his hands and let them rest on her arms as she took it all in.
“Well?” Miles asked, Tiny snuggled in his arms. Apparently, their little terrier liked tall men. “Is the Rebel lair like you imagined?”
“Not at all,” she said, laughing. “It’s bigger and smaller all at the same time.”
“Give her the royal tour,” Jemma insisted, looping her arm through Miles’s, the wide skirt of her rather unique plum dress nearly surrounding her husband’s legs.
“A tour?” Ian chuckled. “You can see everything by standing in one spot. There’s only this one room.”
“I’ll do it,” Tom released his hold on Cassandra, which was a notable feat. He had been hovering over her since he’d learned she was with child. He walked over to a set of wooden chairs. “Paul and Louisa generally sit here. Paul is the most rigid of us all, so he doesn’t get any cushions.”
Paul balked from his seat beside Louisa on the sofa. “So the only reason I get to sit here today is because Louisa just had a baby?”
Ian hadn’t even seen their baby yet, as he and Amie had arrived the day before yesterday and Paul and Louisa the day before that. He was eager to remedy it.
