Page 42 of For The Love Of A Widow

She leaned in toward him, her hands reaching for his face and settling at his cheeks. She ran her fingers under his eyes and across to his temples. Daniel hadn’t realized his head thumped in expectation. The headache receded as she caressed his face.

Finally, she smiled a tentative smile. Not weak—in no way was Lettie weak. She was the strongest person he’d ever known. “You may be lost now, but together, we can—no, we will—overcome this. I have no doubt of that.”

She lifted on her tiptoes and set her mouth against his for a light, chaste kiss before stepping away. “I do not know if it is easy to overcome what holds my mind hostage, but…” Her words trailed off, and a soft sob left her.

Her mouth parted, and she drew her bottom lip in and nibbled on it.

“Nothing in life worth having comes easily,” he said.

“Oh, Daniel, I want to try—with you,” she confessed.

The words were all he needed to pull her back into his arms, everything else forgotten.

The gathering in the dining hall downstairs. The expectations for her parents. The future of her mother’s estate. The watchful eye of society.

None of it mattered.

Lettie mattered, only Lettie.

And she was willing to give him the opportunity to love her. The chance he’d turned away from six years ago.

The future he would never take for granted again.

He loved her with his whole heart and mind.

She loved him with her heart—now, they only need convince her mind that it was capable of the same.

It would be a difficult, harrowing journey, but Lettie had seen and done worse. With her steel strength and him to guide her, there was no way they’d fail.

He pulled back far enough to lean down and kiss her and run his hand through her hair.

She pushed against him, her lips as demanding as his.

He allowed her control, gave her the power to take their kiss and embrace in whatever direction she longed to.

Not surprisingly, she wrapped her arms around him to caress his back, her fingers digging tightly into his waist to keep him securely to her as her tongue darted out and slowly crept along his bottom lip.

She tasted him, and Daniel wanted nothing more than to savor her in return.

The softness of her welcoming lips, as she hesitated for a brief moment before giving in to what Daniel knew she wanted—complete exploration of one another both emotionally and physically.

Daniel pulled back, needing to gaze into her eyes, make sure she understood and believed in his commitment to her—and their future together. “Lettie, I am here for you, with you. Every minute of every day I will stand devoted to you…and to us. Anything and everything you desire will be yours. I will make sure of it. I will love you until my last days on earth, and then, never fear, I will love you in the next world. I will live every day to make you happy.”

“This, with you near, is when I think that healing is possible.” She looked up at him, her eyes no longer holding the haze he’d noted since picking her up at The George. “It is because of you I also have hope—for myself and the future.”

“Allow me to love you forever, Lettie.”

“I will have it no other way.”

EPILOGUE

L ondon, England

Summer 1816

L ettie wiped the dusty rag across her forehead, causing her shoulder-length golden brown locks to fall into her eyes. Huffing, she tilted her head to send the strand back where it belonged. Not that things ever stayed where they belonged, at least not for Lettie.

“Allow me to help you.” Daniel hurried across the room and righted the chair she’d been cleaning of dust and grime from years of disuse. “I told you to rest…and this is what you do?”