by Fiona Miers
Lizzie hit Rupert’s massive back again and attempted to get up. But he was too big, her body in too awkward a position.
Rupert starting moving, walked inside a room, shut the door, locked it and put the key in his pocket. Only then did he put Lizzie carefully down into a chair.
Lizzie put a hand to her pounding, spinning head. How dare he announce he was getting married and then prevent her from leaving? What did he want? One last tumble before he was tied for life to another woman?
“What are you doing!” Lizzie exploded, her need to scream again gathering in her overheated body. She pushed herself to her feet, needing to kick, punch and shout.
Rupert fell to his knees in the middle of the sitting room.
Lizzie froze. she could feel the heat leeching from her face, but she remained standing. Her angry words were stuck in her throat. Rupert was on his knees, in the middle of the day, looking at her like she was the sun and the moon combined.
“What are you doing?” she asked, rather obtusely she thought.
“I’m proposing marriage to the woman I love,” he announced, all the love that Lizzie had hoped to see in his eyes, shining back at her.
Her knees sagged and she fell back into the chair behind her. Was he serious? When had he changed his mind? When had he realized this?
“When did you realise that you loved me?” Lizzie asked, dazed.
Rupert swallowed visibly. “I realized it when we made love on the piano,” he told her, refusing to get up from his knees until she gave him an answer.
“But…you left me!” She all but screamed at him. Why was the man so confusing?
“I know. I was terrified of what it would mean. But I’ve come to apologise and to tell you the truth. I didn’t think falling in love would happen to me. But it has and I’m hoping that you will make me the happiest of men by consenting to sleep next to me for the rest of my life.”
Lizzie blinked like an owl. Had Rupert Willoughby just declared love and an intention for fidelity? Impossible.
“You won’t have any other women?” Lizzie asked doubtfully.
“No, I won’t. If you promise not to consort with anyone else either.”
Lizzie choked on a laugh. Her? Cuckold him? “Why would I go to anyone else when you’re all I want,” she sighed.
Rupert’s face lit like a Yule log. “So you’ll marry me?”
Lizzie chewed on her lip. Of course she was going to marry him, but she needed to establish a few things first.
“Where would we live?” she asked, cocking her head.
She had never disclosed to him how much money she had. Few people knew even if he had bothered to ask around.
“Where ever you like. I currently live in my bachelor town house but I also have a small country estate if that is where you would prefer to be. I also have a rather good income due to Archie’s advice on investing. I am my brother’s heir apparent, so although I couldn’t afford to buy us a town house initially, we won’t lack any other comforts.”
Lizzie smiled at Rupert’s attempts to reassure her. He wasn’t accustomed to talking about his assets, that was quite obvious.
“Children?” Lizzie asked, crossing her arms. She had been overwhelmed when she had seen him touch Charlotte’s pregnant belly, but it gave her hope that he would someday look at her like that.
Rupert swallowed.
“I want children.” He said quietly.
“Girl children?” Lizzie couldn’t help asking. He would be under a lot of pressure to produce an heir. Would their marriage go the same way that his brother’s had if they couldn’t beget a son?
“Any sort that comes our way. I never really cared about the title, so if it passes to my cousin, then that is the way it is supposed to be.” He declared.
“Oh, what if I can’t,” Lizzie cried helplessly, letting her hands fall into her lap. Here she was, making Rupert earn her trust and respect, and yet she was the one with the fear of being found unsatisfactory.
Rupert dragged himself up onto the chair next to her and gently pulled her into his lap. Lizzie went into his arms gladly, settling into his lap with a sigh and burrowing into his shoulder.
“Whatever happens, happens Lizzie. I just want you.”
Lizzie sobbed against his shirt, the stress from the past few weeks welling up inside her and breaking forth like the pressure of water breaking free.
“I just want you too,” she sobbed happily, tilting her head up for a kiss.
His big hand came around her chin and pulled her eyes up to his.
“Then you’ll marry me.” He declared, uncertainty still swirling around those amazing blue eyes.
Lizzie laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Of course I’ll marry you, I love you too.” And with that declaration, Rupert kissed her and kept kissing her, all the days of their lives.
THE END
Epilogue:
Lizzie had been wrong about one thing. The happiest day of her life arrived two years after their wedding day. It had taken her more than a year to conceive and when she finally did, she had been so worried for her baby that she had hardly moved from her bed. It was only the assurances of both Charlotte and Sarah that had got her up and moving again.
She had been afraid to let her rather large husband into her body too and he had been remarkably understanding about her fears. Both Sarah and Charlotte had been pregnant with their third babies around the same time and they both professed to not be able to get enough of their husbands.
Lizzie had decided to try and found that her body was the same. Her touch also gave Rupert the intimacy he needed. For she had found that since their wedding day he did not sleep without her. Even through those weeks of her flux and choice of abstinence he would hold her all night.
So now, almost two years to the day since she had married her beautiful blue/black eyed man, she had given birth to his son. An exact replica of Rupert he had black hair, blue eyes and the most gorgeous face Lizzie had ever seen.
Rupert had been there for the actual delivery which had been most unorthodox. As was customary he had been sent from the bedroom when the pains had started. But after more than twenty-four hours in labour and when the pains had gotten so fast and so intense that Lizzie couldn’t help screaming out, Rupert had burst in to aid her. He had voiced concerns early in her pregnancy that she would not bear a child with his height well and he had been terrified that she would die and leave him. He had held her hand, mopped her brow and promptly burst into tears when his son was presented to him.
The birth had been difficult, but the doctor assured them that it had all been perfectly normal for a first baby.
“He is perfect,” Rupert cooed at his son.
Lizzie lay against the pillows. The maids had come and helped her while Rupert had held their baby. She was now clean, bathed and exhausted. While she’d been attended to, Rupert had taken the baby's swaddling off and laid him out on a blanket naked. He really was perfect. Long and thin, Lizzie was sure he would fill out like his father in no time.
“You’re happy we had a boy?” Lizzie asked, elated despite her determination not to care about the sex of the child.
Rupert looked at her and gave her a smile so sweet that her heart melted all over again.
“I am, but when he was laid on your chest I didn’t even know what he was. I just knew that we had a baby and you were still here with me. Nothing else mattered.”
The tears welled up and she let them fall, happier than she ever had been.
“Thank you so much for loving me.” Lizzie whispered through her tears.
“No, thank you for never giving up on me.” Rupert said fiercely, cupping her face and bringing her lips up to his for a perfect kiss.
“So six weeks till I get you to myself again?” Rupert asked, not sounding entirely disappointed by this.
Lizzie nodded, weary and sublimely happy, she drifted into sleep.
****
Rupert staye
d watching his wife for a long time after she fell asleep. He sat in the chair next to her bed with his newborn son in his arms and gave thanks for all of his blessings.
He had finally found the woman who was his other half, his equal, his better. She loved him unreservedly and had total faith in their marriage. That, in turn, left him feeling confident and loved. He had been jealous initially of any men who danced with her, or tried to get her alone. But she had been unstintingly loyal, and he, in turn, had been the same.
He often laughed with Archie about the fact that he had once been worried that he couldn’t stay faithful to one woman. Lizzie fulfilled every fantasy he ever had in the bedchamber. And when she couldn’t give him that, the comfort of her warmth and presence in his bed was enough to keep him satisfied.
And he now had a son. The next heir to the Earl of Sweeting. Rupert’s mouth curled into a wry smile. His father would have been proud. His brother would be on his way by morning. Yet it was bitter sweet. He wanted a son for his own sake, not just as the heir to a fortune and title.
He looked down on his son and smiled again.
“We’ll just have to make sure we take after Archie and Oliver, my boy. Lots of brothers for you.”
He looked down on Lizzie’s sleeping form, taking in her larger breasts and beautiful skin. His cock stirred and he sighed. He would always want this woman, no matter what she looked like or what they had gone through.
Rupert rocked his son to sleep still laughing gently. He would give Lizzie the large family she wanted, come hell or high water.