Page 131 of A Foolish Flirtation

She gave a breathless laugh. Suddenly, she felt light as air. Jeremy Vance loved her. He had loved her all along. She laid her hands on either side of his face. “I love you too,” she said simply. “I always have, and I always will. I used to think it was a terrible sort of curse, but now I know it is quite the opposite.”

“Always?” he whispered with such a hopeful look dawning in his eyes that it somehow made her heart ache a little.

“Always,” she responded warmly. “Even when I thought you were quite undeserving of the honor.”

He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “Oh God, tell me again, Ballentine,” he breathed into her neck. “Don’t ever stop telling me.”

“I still love you. I’ve always loved you. But I can’t carry on kissing you like this,” she added firmly.

“Why not?” he asked, peering down at her.

“Because of your cravat,” she said apologetically. “It’s covered in Humphrey’s nose blood.”

He grimaced, tearing it from his neck at once and casting it onto the floor. “I should go and wash,” he sighed with frustration. “I haven’t changed out of my riding things yet, but I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”

“I could wait for you in your bedroom,” Emmie suggested tentatively, blushing slightly. “Under the covers.”

“Really?” He hesitated. “You would not prefer your own? Last time we were in mine…” He pulled a face.

“Let’s make some better memories there,” she suggested brightly.

He disentangled himself at once and leaped off the sofa. “I’ll send for hot water.” His eyes roamed over her, as though he found it hard to tear himself away, and then he crossed the room, shouting for his valet and shedding his waistcoat.

Twenty minutes later, they were huddled under the covers together naked in his bed, reassuring one another of the strength of their continued love and affection. Their first joining was hurried and almost clumsy in their combined haste to consummate their renewed bond.

Emmie had a suspicion she was grasping him too tightly but every time she tried to ease up her hold of him, he made his dissatisfaction plain. In the end, she simply gave in to her promptings and squeezed the life out of him. It seemed he could not get enough of her in any case. Even when their bodies lay entwined, sated and replete, he did not stop kissing her and murmuring sweet words of love into her ear.

“This is what our wedding night should have been like,” he sighed at last as they collapsed onto the mattress, side by side. “Though honestly, I can’t regret the one we had. I felt so hopeful that we would reach this place eventually.”

“And after all, we have,” she agreed.

He smiled faintly, and as though he could not bear even such a short distance between them, he shifted onto his side toward her and slipped an arm about her waist. “Yes. Eventually.”

“It didn’t really take that long. We have not quite been married three months even!” she pointed out. “And we did have rather a few misconceptions to clear away.”

“It took a lot of effort and a good deal of suffering,” he said sternly, “if you take our ten-year separation into account.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, that. I wish I had simply told you everything from the start,” he said regretfully, resting his brow against hers. “I should have just laid my soul bare to you and been done with it.”

“Which start?” Emmie asked. “Do you mean ten years ago or…?”

“God no, not then!” he shuddered. “I was a vicious brat back then. You were far better off without me. No, I mean three months ago. When I found you again.”

“You were not a vicious brat!”

“Yes, I was, Emmeline,” he said sincerely. “It took me years to start to straighten out and get some basic decency. God, I shudder to think of myself at twenty-one. I shouldn’t have been allowed in polite company.”

She tutted. “You make yourself sound worse than Count Stefano.”

“Because I was,” he said. “Stefano is a villain of the moustache-twirling variety, whereas I…I was the nasty everyday variety. Less glamorous and a good deal more detestable.”

“I would not say less glamorous,” Emmie objected, “you were both glamorous and detestable.”

He did not smile. “Emmeline, do you think—?”

She waited. “You could ever forgive me,” she supplied when he could not finish his words. He gave a short nod. “You have already asked me this question, Jeremy,” she said gently.