“Oh, Catherine, dear,” Nellie murmured in a broken voice.
“Now, don’t cry, please, Charles is coming. He mustn’t see your tears.”
Nellie hastily smoothed them away with her hands.
“Well, what have we here?” Charles crossed the lawn to them.
“We thought we’d have tea outside, it’s such a lovely, warm day,” Nellie said with a smile.
“After such an unusually cold spring,” his mother said. “So cold, and those keen east winds!”
Charles sat on the blanket beside them. He raised Nellie’s hand and kissed her inky fingers. “Another poem, my love?”
“No, I’m writing an article for the newspaper. I am concerned about the lack of constables on the streets around Covent Garden. The prostitutes are not protected well enough from men’s violence. Something must be done.”
“Mm? A little controversial, perhaps?”
“Now, Charles,” his mother said with laugher in her voice. “You know you shall allow it, as you have all the others that Nellie sent off to the press.”
“Too true, Mama.” He cast Nellie a lazily seductive look, which always made her want him.
“Bart has fallen asleep.” She rose to pick up her sleepy son.
“Mama?” Charles held out his hand to his mother. “Shall we go in?”
She took his arm and leaned heavily against him. “These have been such happy times, Charles.”
“Yes, indeed, Mama.” His gaze found Nellie’s, and she saw the sadness in them. Happy times and sad awaited them. She sighed. But that was life.
*
At the conclusion of the evening, Charles entered Nellie’s bedchamber. She turned to look at him from her seat before the mirror.
“You may go, Lucy,” he ordered Nellie’s new maid. He stood for a moment, his eyes meeting hers in the mirror. She cast him a playful smile while continuing to brush out her long locks. She began to plait it.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t?” Nellie asked huskily.
He slowly shook his head. “Uh-uh.”
His love and devotion for Nellie was rooted in his soul. As the hot need rose in him, he released a slow breath. He could never get enough of her. When he was away from her, he thought about this. The special time they had together, when he could assuage the passion he felt for her, which brought him alive. Made life worth living.
“I find myself in urgent need of you, Your Grace,” he said, eyeing his provocative, passionate wife, who was always intent on pleasing him, as she did now.
She pushed back her heavy tresses and rose, casting him a wicked look. “Do you, indeed?”
He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed and placed her on the turned-back bedclothes. While watching the pleased smile teasing her lips, he stripped off his cravat and shirt. He was aware of being much aroused as he removed his breeches. “I’ve been thinking of this all evening.”
“That’s why you let me win at cribbage.” Nellie’s eyes were warm with delight and affection.
His gaze roamed over her. The neckline of her nightgown slipped down over one creamy shoulder, and her full breasts jutted through the satiny material.
“You won,” he said, his voice a low growl, as he placed a knee on the bed. “Because I was distracted by lustful thoughts.”
“That should happen more often.” Her grin, cheeky and inviting, heated his blood. “I enjoy beating you at cards. It happens so rarely.” She ended the words on a little cry as his teeth grazed her collar bone. “And the end result,” she said breathlessly, as he gently rolled her over onto her stomach, “Is most certainly to be wished for.”
His hand moved slowly down her delicate spine and swept over the flare of her hip to take a firm hold of her rounded bottom. He lowered his head and took a small bite.
“Charles!” Nellie wriggled.
He chuckled. A quick gesture and her nightgown and peignoir were on the floor. She lay in an abandoned pose beneath him, on her back now.
Charles drew a nipple into his mouth and then took the other as she clutched his head and moaned. His kisses trailed down, he dove into her navel, producing a delighted shriek, then kissed a path over her rounded stomach to her soft, damp core.
As he kissed and teased her hot center, Nellie arched and screamed, her body convulsing.
He pushed her legs apart and slid slowly into her warm, slick body with a sigh of satisfaction.
With a mew of pleasure, Nellie gripped his shoulders.
Charles withdrew, then surged back, fighting to keep it slow and steady while his need for her became almost unbearably intense. He could hold on no longer, murmuring her name, he thrust hard and came in an explosive climax.
As he settled at her side, their breaths slowing, he acknowledges the love he felt for Nellie was deep and true. Nothing he felt in the past could come close to this. It scared him a little, and he fought to push away the feelings of vulnerability, knowing how blessed he was. He’d never expected this gift.
“I wonder if we made another baby?” Nellie’s voice sounded heavy and sated. She nestled against him, half asleep.
“A daughter who takes after my beautiful wife.”
He stroked her hair away from her cheek and pressed a kiss there. Nellie pregnant again would worry him, but the concern was soon lost in the flood of joy coursing through him at the thought of his son. They would have more healthy children, God willing.
About the Author
A USA TODAY bestselling author of Regency romances, with over 35 books published, Maggi’s Regency series are International bestsellers. Stay tuned for Maggi’s latest Regency series out next year. Her novels include Victorian mysteries, contemporary romantic suspense and young adult. Maggi holds a BA
