"You trusted me?" he said.
She nodded. "I had not trusted anyone in a really long time. And I knew I could trust you. I could lean on you if I had to."
"And that's...all?"
Nora blushed before she could help it and pushed against Nathan's finger so she would not have to look at him.
Nathan laughed.
"What is this? My brave wife has suddenly gone shy on me?"
Nora tried to squirm away from him but ended up in his lap on the bed, giggling. Nathan was laughing, too, trying to hold onto his squirmy wife. The poor, cheap inn's mattress sagged under their combined weight.
Nora forced herself to look at him. "No, that might not have been all."
"What else?"
Nora looked down again, gathering her courage before she started, looking him in the eye. "That night in the library, after you had been shot, I...I...I wanted things."
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to know what it would be like to kiss you. And it was the first time in my life that I had ever thought that about any man, and...and...and it was the first time I actually felt like a woman. You made me feel like a woman."
Nathan's smile made her stop. Maybe she had said enough.
"Is that all now?" he asked.
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded again.
"Nora?"
"You didn't blame me for what...what happened to me."
Nathan stared at her. "Other people blamed you for being raped?"
Nora nodded, knowing her voice would not hold when she felt the tears burning in her eyes.
"Nora." Nathan cupped the side of her face, and Nora nuzzled his palm, the tears disappearing at his touch.
"That first night when you talked to Samuel, I knew. I knew that you did not judge me and...find me lacking." She barely got the last out and felt deflated in Nathan's arms.
"You did not ask Chesterfield to rape you, Nora. No one can blame you for what happened. And if someone does, I'll give you my gun and you can shoot them."
Nora did not know whether to choose tears or laughter. So she kissed him instead, savoring the sweet softness of his lips. But Nathan pulled away too soon.
"All right, if you can confess, so can I."
Nora felt a trickle of fear at the back of her throat. Confess to what?
"That first night? When you were bandaging my arm? I wanted things, too. You were so beautiful and brave in the firelight, and I wanted you. Wanted you in my bed, in my life, just wanted you. I wanted to see your face everyday, to feel your strength. I wanted to make you happy. I want to have you here to shoot the bad guys when I can't," he teased.
A laugh burst nervously from her lips.
Nathan continued, "Have I made you happy?"
And that was when Nora started to cry. Not just little whimpers, but full out sobs. Nathan's face went white in terror, and she reached up to touch it, as if her soft caress would make him feel better. He reached up and snatched her hand, gripping it hard in his.
"Nora, what is it? What did I do?"
Nora just shook her head because she was crying too hard to speak or even smile. Her lips wobbled around on her face. Finally she just laid her head on his shoulder and nuzzled her nose into his neck like she liked to do. Nathan stroked her back, and the sobs eventually died away.
When she could draw a full breath, she said, "Do you know when I first realized I loved you?"
She heard the tentative smile in Nathan's voice. "No."
"When you stepped out of that carriage holding my son. You were ten different shades of purple, but you didn't seem to notice because you were cradling Samuel like he was the most precious thing in the world."
"He is one of the most precious things in the world," Nathan said, quietly interrupting her.
Nora sat up. "One of them? What else is precious?"
"You," he said, falling back on the bed and rolling her beneath him.
"Nathan," Nora began to admonish him for wrinkling her uniform, but the wicked glint in his eyes had her quickly changing directions, "Do we have enough time?"
Nathan looked up toward the clock on the wall by the door. "I would say we have about, oh," he looked down at his wife and a smile spread across his face, "all the rest of our lives."
And then he kissed her.
And she let him.
~
Don't miss the next Spy Series book:
For Love of the Earl:
Book Two of the Spy Series
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Thank you for reading Son of a Duke: Book One of the Spy Series. Please consider leaving an honest review where you purchased this book.
Other books by Jessie Clever:
Inevitably a Duchess: A Spy Series Novella
For Love of the Earl: Book Two of the Spy Series
A Countess Most Daring: Book Three of the Spy Series
To Save a Viscount: Book Four of the Spy Series
Shake Down Your Ashes
Son of a Duke Page 25