“Lucan,” She lifted her hand, turning it this way and that, the purple gem flashing in the fire’s light. “I never thanked you for the ring.”
Lucan’s pulse quickened in anticipation, and he rotated Alexa in his arms, searching her eyes. The golden shards shimmered with something he’d not seen before.
“Dare I hope you intend to accept it? Me?”
Her sweet mouth crept upward. “Well, you did have the ring designed especially for me, and the gem is my favorite.”
Lucan spanned her narrow ribs with his hands, brushing her lips with his. “Are you saying yes?”
Nothing ever mattered as much as her answer.
“Promise you’ll have no regrets?” Biting her lower lip, she trailed a finger across the seam of his mouth.
Raining feather-light kisses over her face and alabaster neck, he pulled her tight against him. “Not now, or in a month, or a decade, or fifty years.”
“Not if a half-century passes, and I’ve grown fat and wrinkled? And toothless and bald?” Alexa skimmed her fingertips across his forehead before sliding her hand into the hair above his ear.
He chuckled as he palmed her cheek, his nose touching hers. “Not if time ceases.”
“What if I prove a bumbling, inadequate duchess?”
Rubbing his thumb along her fine jawbone, he whispered fervently, “None of those things matters a whit. Having you at my side until I draw my final breath is what I care about.”
She touched the tip of her pink tongue to her upper lip. “And you love me?”
“Yes, my gypsy witch. Now hush and kiss me.” Lucan gave her a fierce squeeze, earning him a breathless giggle.
Alexa’s mouth parted, and he plundered the sweet cavern. Their breath mingled as they kissed, tongues thrusting, retreating, and plunging again and again, a tantalizing dance of sensation and exploration.
He poured his love into the simple act, binding her to him— his Highland-Gypsy-turned-lady—across eternity and beyond. Lucan pressed his mouth to the mole gracing her mouth then the pulse throbbing at the juncture of her throat.
Alexa arched her neck, her breasts thrusting upward with the movement, and her fingers biting into his shoulders.
Theirs would be no tame joining.
His groin surged with lustful expectancy, and he sucked her lower lip. How soon might they wed?
Lucan crushed her to him. “I love you.”
A siren’s smile curved her mouth as she reached for the buttons of his falls. “Why don’t you show me how much?”
“Now?” Dashing a fervent glance to the closed door, he wavered. “I cannot take the time I’d like to—”
“We can go slowly next time.” Alexa shrugged off her spencer as she folded to the floor. Reclining upon the carpet, she drew her skirts up her shapely thighs before bunching the fabric round her waist.
Mother of God.
A saint couldn’t have resisted the luscious display. Firelight glinted over her satiny flesh, and the raven curls nested between her thighs beckoned.
Dropping to his knees, Lucan freed his rigid member. “I don’t want to hurt you, but we haven’t time for me to properly prepare you.”
Alexa spread her legs and raised her arms. “Silly man. I’ve been wet with want for weeks.”
Nipping her collarbone, Lucan positioned himself between her legs, his penis teasing her moist entrance.
Arching, she urged him to her.
“Hungry little thing, aren’t you, darling?”
“Uh hum.” She opened her mouth and gyrated her hips in invitation. “Hurry.”
Plunging his tongue into her sweet mouth, the same instant he sank home, breaking through her maidenhead, he fought to keep from exploding into her tightness.
He needn’t have worried.
Alexa’s violet eyes widened and an incredulous expression swept her face. “Lucan. Oh, God, Lucan.”
Clutching his shoulders, she wrapped her legs around his waist and surged against him, convulsing so violently, he burst.
Gripping her full buttocks, Lucan threw his head back and let bliss carry him away. When he could think coherently again, he rocked against her, still ensconced within her honeyed depths. “Kitten, you didn’t answer.”
Breathless, her eyes passion-glazed, Alexa whispered, “Can we marry before my family sails?”
Praise God and hallelujah.
“Yes. I already have a special license.” He’d acquired it the day after his grandaunt admonished him to marry Alexa, post haste.
Alexa chuckled. “Confident I’d change my mind, were you?”
“No, desperately hopeful you would.” He nuzzled her neck, and she slanted her head to give him better access. “I would have been a miserable, cranky, old curmudgeon for the next fifty years if I hadn’t been successful.”
Alexa grew pensive, doubt dimming her vibrant eyes. “Lucan, is our love enough to make our union work? Strong enough to last and persevere? We are very different, you and I.”
His father’s stern visage hovered before his face for an instant. If his sire loved Mother the way Lucan adored Alexa, no seductress’s wiles would have tempted him to abandon his vows.
“Love is why our union will work and be joyous beyond our greatest dreams. If we’re committed to the end, no matter what providence sends our way, we can endure anything together.” He pressed a kiss to her nose. “All else matters naught. I give you my pledge, as long as life’s blood flows through my veins, I will love you above everything else, upon my honor.”
The smile Alexa bestowed upon him surely came straight from heaven, for his soul shouted for joy as it recognized the answering love shining from her radiant face.
“Then, my answer is yes.”
Epilogue
Chattsworth Park House
24 December, 1818
Alexa tucked her toes farther beneath her nightgown as she wrapped the quilt tighter about her shoulders. This far from the hearth, the room retained a stubborn chill. Yet, she’d been unable to resist watching the snow fall. As a child she’d been captivated by the mystery, and as an adult, the phenomenon’s majesty and tranquility mesmerized her still.
She’d awoken a bit ago to the mysterious silence foretelling a thick blanket of white. Slipping from Lucan’s warm embrace, she snatched a covering from the bed and now lay curled onto the window seat. Intoxicated with happiness unlike anything she’d ever conceived, she hummed a Scottish lullaby and rotated her wedding ring.
Mere weeks ago she’d become Her Grace, the Duchess of Harcourt, and tomorrow, she’d experience the British’s holiest of holidays with Lucan’s charming family. Scots didn’t observe Christmastide, but Hogmanay? That was a different tale entirely.
The Scottish celebrated with merriment and gusto only a Highlander fully appreciated. The Dowager Duchess of Harcourt, sweet lady, expressed delight when Alexa suggested they plan a Hogmanay New Year’s, and she wanted to introduce Alexa to Boxing Day too.
Goodness, so many festivities.
Though frail, and tiring easily, Lucan’s mother’s health hadn’t worsened. The dowager hinted, often, that she’d like to live long enough to see Lucan’s son.
His brother’s reaction upon spotting the beagle pup they’d brought him made Alexa chuckle softly again. Nothing, this side of heaven, ever shined more joyfully than Jeremy’s face. He’d fallen to his knees weeping, and Baron—Jeremy’s name for the four-legged, needle-toothed terror—scampered onto the man-child’s thighs and proceeded to lick Jeremy’s face until he collapsed in a fit of giggles.
Minerva and Harrison maintained their innocence, but with the overwhelming evidence against them, as well as Shona’s testimony, their trials had been pathetically brief. Their deportation sentence, rather than hanging, was attr
ibuted to the Hintons’ generous greasing of a few palms. Alexa last saw them dragged from the courtroom, spewing curses and damning Alexa and Shona to hell.
God help her, but Alexa couldn’t extend them a jot of compassion, and the injustice, that they should be extended mercy when they’d been ruthless, rankled.
The Needhams graciously took Shona into their fold, and she was far better for it. She would receive the love and acceptance she’d lacked most of her life.
Alexa’s parting with her Highland family had been bittersweet. The New World offered them opportunities they’d never have as black tinkers. With a promise to visit in the next couple of years, she’d tearfully bid them farewell.
“Come back to bed, duchess. I’m cold without you beside me.” Grogginess weighted Lucan’s deep baritone as he rested on one elbow. He stared at her hungrily, the bedcoverings gathered at his waist, revealing his sculpted torso lightly covered in hair.
“Och, that’s what I’m good for, keeping you warm?” Alexa swung her feet to the floor and shivered as icy tendrils snaked up her calf. Scampering to the bed, she jumped onto the mattress, only to have her husband pin her beneath his muscular frame.
“No, lass, I can think of a thing or two more you are especially good for.” He dipped his fair head and suckled her breast through the fabric of her gown.
Pleasure speared to her core, and she raised her hips in invitation.
He reared upward. “Off with this.”
In one deft movement, he peeled the gown over her head.
“Brr, Lucan, it’s freezing.” Alexa burrowed under the covers then giggled when he pounced atop her again, this time flesh to flesh, his sinewy hardness against her rounded softness.
“Let me warm you.” His hands everywhere, caressing and arousing her, he lathered hot kisses across her breasts and collarbone, his penis nudging the apex of her thighs.
Reaching between them, she curled her hand around his thick length, grinning when he issued a guttural groan. She stroked him, reveling in how her touch affected him.
He groaned again and grasped her hand. “Careful or the deed will be done before we start.”
“We cannot have that. I won’t be cheated.” Spreading her legs, Alexa guided him to her center, moaning when he slid home.
As the snow blanketed the earth outside, the wonder of their joining worked its mystical magic until as one, they crested ecstasy’s peak.
Later, satiated and drowsy with contentment, she lay cradled in Lucan’s arms, his strong thigh wrapped around her legs. She skimmed her nails along his forearm. “Tell me again when you knew you loved me.”
He rocked his hips into her buttocks, and nipped her shoulder. “When you looked back at me at Dounnich House, my heart became yours.”
Lucan lifted her thigh and eased into her warmth once more. “When did you know you loved me?”
Alexa arched into his thrust. “When I looked back at you at Dounnich House.”
If you enjoyed Virtue and Valor,
be sure to read Collette Cameron’s
Castle Bride Series,
now available from
Soul Mate Publishing at Amazon.com:
HIGHLANDER’S HOPE
Not a day has gone by that Ewan McTavish, the Viscount Sethwick, hasn't dreamed of the beauty he danced with two years ago. He's determined to win her heart and make her his own. Heiress Yvette Stapleton is certain of one thing; marriage is risky and, therefore, to be avoided. At first, she doesn't recognize the dangerously handsome man who rescues her from assailants on London's docks, but Lord Sethwick's passionate kisses soon have her reconsidering her cynical views on matrimony. On a mission to stop a War Office traitor, Ewan draws Yvette into deadly international intrigue. To protect her, he exploits Scottish law, declaring her his lawful wife—without benefit of a ceremony. Yvette is furious upon discovering the irregular marriage is legally binding, though she never said, "I do." Will Ewan's manipulation cost him her newfound love?
Buy now at:
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THE VISCOUNT’S VOW
Half Romani, noblewoman Evangeline Caruthers is the last woman in England Ian Hamilton, the Viscount Warrick, could ever love—an immoral wanton responsible for his brother’s and father’s deaths.
Vangie thinks Ian’s a foul-tempered blackguard, who after setting out to cause her downfall, finds himself forced to marry her—snared in the trap of his own making. When Vangie learns the marriage ceremony itself may have been a ruse, she flees to her gypsy relatives, declaring herself divorced from Ian under Romani law. He pursues her to the gypsy encampment, and when the handsome gypsy king offers to take Ian’s place in Vangie’s bed, jealousy stirs hot and dangerous.
Under a balmy starlit sky, Ian and Vangie breech the chasm separating them, yet peril lurks. Ian is the last in his family line, and his stepmother is determined to dispose of the newlyweds so her daughter can inherit his estate. Only by trusting each other can Ian and Vangie overcome scandal and murderous betrayal.
Buy now at:
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THE EARL’S ENTICEMENT
She won’t be tamed.
A fiery, unconventional Scot, Adaira Ferguson wears breeches, swears, and has no more desire to marry than she does to follow society’s dictates of appropriate behavior. She trusts no man with the secret she desperately protects.
He can’t forget.
Haunted by his past, Roark, The Earl of Clarendon, rigidly adheres to propriety, holding himself and those around him to the highest standards, no matter the cost. Betrayed once, he’s guarded and leery of all women.
Mistaking Roark for a known spy, Adaira imprisons him. Infuriated, he vows vengeance. Realizing her error, she’s appalled and releases him, but he’s not satisfied with his freedom. Roark is determined to transform Adaira from an ill-mannered hoyden to a lady of refinement.
He succeeds only to discover, he preferred the free-spirited Scottish lass who first captured his heart.
Buy at:
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Also read the first book in the
Romancing a Scot Series:
Triumph and Treasure
A disillusioned Scottish gentlewoman.
Angelina Ellsworth once believed in love--before she discovered her husband of mere hours was a slave-trader and already married. To avoid the scandal and disgrace, she escapes to the estate of her aunt and uncle, the Duke and Duchess of Waterford. When Angelina learns she is with child, she vows she’ll never trust a man again.
A privileged English lord.
Flynn, Earl of Luxmoore, led an enchanted life until his father committed suicide after losing everything to Waterford in a wager. Stripped of all but his title, Flynn is thrust into the role of marquis as well as provider for his disabled sister and invalid mother. Unable to pay his father’s astronomical gambling loss, Flynn must choose between social or financial ruin.
When the duke suggests he’ll forgive the debt if Flynn marries his niece, Flynn accepts the duke’s proposal. Reluctant to wed a stranger, but willing to do anything to protect her babe and escape the clutches of the madman who still pursues her, Angelina agrees to the union.
Can the earl and his Scottish lass find happiness and love in a marriage neither wanted, or is the chasm between them insurmountable?
Buy at:
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VIRTUE AND VALOR
Bartholomew Yancy never expected to inherit an English earldom and had no intention of marrying. Now, the Earl of Ramsbury and last in his line, he’s obligated to resign his position as England’s War Secretary, find a wife, and produce an heir. Only one woman holds the least appeal: Isobel Ferguson, an exquisite Scotswoman. Brought to Scotland to med
iate between feuding clans, he doggedly woos her.
Disillusioned with men pursuing her for her attractiveness, rather than her unusual intellect, Isobel has all but abandoned any hope of finding a husband in the Highlands. Not only does she believe Yancy no different than her other suitors, he’s a notorious rake. She’s been told he’s practically betrothed. Therefore, his interest in her cannot possibly be honorable, and so she shuns his attentions.
When Isobel is mistakenly abducted by a band of rogue Scots, Yancy risks his life to rescues her. To salvage her compromised reputation, her brother and father insist she marry him. Yancy readily agrees, but Isobel—knowing full well she’s fated for spinsterhood by refusing his offer— won’t be coerced into marriage.
Can love unite a reluctant earl and a disenchanted beauty?
Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/ph6ba3h
Heartbreak and Honor Page 26