me when Patrick brought her down to the canal. I think she knew that she was on her way home. To her real home, I mean. Here.”
Ainsley looked so damned pleased with herself, and Cameron could only look at her and bathe in her smile.
Daniel laughed. “And Pierson fell for it?”
“Lord Pierson was happy to sell Jasmine to Patrick McBride, the rather naive businessman.” Ainsley approached Cameron, the bundle of papers in her hand. “The next morning, Patrick McBride sold Night-Blooming Jasmine to me—for one pound sterling. We had it legally drawn up and everything.” She pressed the papers to Cameron’s chest. “And, now, my Lord Cameron, I give her to you.”
Cameron stared at the pale ivory sheets against his coat. “Why?”
“Because you want her so much,” Ainsley said.
Cameron was so stunned he could barely breathe. He wanted to reach for her and pull her to him, to crush her to his body and never let her go.
He couldn’t move.
A crunch of wheels outside interrupted, and Cameron heard a familiar piercing whinny. Ainsley whirled from him in excitement. “She’s here.”
Cameron grabbed Ainsley’s hand. She couldn’t go. Not now. Not yet.
Daniel laughed and raced outside, calling to Angelo as he went.
Cameron tugged Ainsley back to him, relaxing as she came. She was home, with him, where she belonged. His world took on color again.
“You can’t be angry at me for buying Jasmine.” Ainsley’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “I can always send her back, you know.”
“I’m not angry with you, devil woman. I’m madly in love with you.”
Ainsley looked startled, then her smile blossomed. “Are you? That’s splendid, because I love you too, Cameron Mackenzie.”
The words went straight to his heart.
The papers fell, unheeded, to the floor as Cameron kissed her. He needed the taste of her, needed it every day of his life. Ainsley’s lips were hot, her mouth wonderful. She slid her hands down his back, working under his coat to cup him in his tight riding breeches.
“Vixen,” Cameron said against her mouth.
“The others are giving us a moment alone. We may as well take advantage of it.”
“No.” Cameron’s voice went savage. “I want you for far more than a moment. I want to take you slowly, for a long time, in a place where no one will interrupt us.”
“We’d better try your bedroom, then. That door has a stout lock, and as far as I know, I’m the only one who knows how to pick it.”
Before she finished, Cameron had her in his arms, carrying her up the stairs. He wanted to hurry, but he couldn’t resist stopping on the landing to kiss her, nibble her neck, nip at her lips.
When the bedroom door slammed behind them, Cameron set Ainsley on her feet and began stripping off her clothes.
“Never go away again,” he said. “Whenever you leave this house, I go with you. I can’t stand to be away from you. Understand?”
He peeled away her layers—pelisse and bodice, skirt and petticoat, bustle and corset, combinations and stockings. Ainsley’s beautiful body came into view, dusky nipples tight, the brush of gold hair between her thighs sweetly damp. She was so beautiful that Cameron ached with it.
“I shouldn’t travel very far anyway,” Ainsley said as Cameron wrenched off his own clothes, his nude wife looking so demure. “I shall grow quite stout soon, but I can look upon it as an excuse to eat as much cake as I please.”
Cameron flung off his shirt and stripped out of his underwear. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Daniel’s little brother or sister. I wasn’t certain before I left, so I didn’t want to mention it, but I became much more certain during my visit to the queen. Her doctor confirmed it.”
Cameron stopped. Ainsley smiled that secret smile, her cheeks flushed, while she stood before him stark naked. Lovely, impossible Ainsley.
“Don’t look so shocked, my husband. It was inevitable, the way we carry on. I am only surprised it didn’t happen sooner, but there’s no predicting these things.”
“Our child.” Cameron’s voice became an awed whisper. His dark world whirled around him one last time then dissolved into sunshine. “Our child.”
“Certainly.” Ainsley’s smile faded, but the love in her eyes did not. “I am ecstatically happy, and honored, to carry her—or him.”
Cameron read worry in her face, fear that hadn’t quite faded from the death of her first baby. He cupped her face in his hands.
“I’ll take care of you,” he said. “You can be certain of that. You’ll not have to fear.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Damn you, Ainsley, I love you so much I hurt with it. I fell in love with you the night I first caught you in my bedchamber, my little thief. I was so drunk, and you were so lovely, and I wanted you like I’d never wanted a woman before in my life. How the hell did I live so long without you?”
“About as well as I lived without you.” Ainsley touched his face. “Let’s never live without each other again, all right?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say.” Cameron straightened from her. “Bed. Now.”
Her brows rose. “My, aren’t you commanding?”
“I am about this. March.” He slapped his hand to her backside and half shoved, half walked her to the bed, Ainsley laughing all the way.
While he laid her down, he growled those naughty things that she loved to hear. Ainsley kissed him, and Cameron slid into her, completing their joining, completing himself.
He loved her until they were panting, sweating, shouting their joy. Cameron held her hard through it all, and still held her as they wound down to exhaustion.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, Cam.” Ainsley’s voice was soft, tender. He believed her.
Cameron snuggled down beside her, pulling the covers over their nakedness, knowing that he could drift to sleep in complete safety and solace. He knew that he’d wake again in the peace she’d taught him, no more blackness, no more grief.
“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for giving me back my life.”
“There will be much more of that, my Cam.” Ainsley touched his cheek, breathed her cinnamon-scented breath on him. “Years upon years of it.”
He intended there to be.
Cameron started to whisper that tender thought when he jumped, feeling a very determined hand close around his still-hard cock.
“Devil,” he growled.
Ainsley laughed, her mirth ringing to the ceiling as Cameron rolled her into the featherbed and loved her all over again.
Epilogue
ASCOT, JUNE 1883
Hooves pounded on the track, mud flying, jockeys bent over brown and black and gray backs.
Ainsley whooped and flung her fists in the air as Night- Blooming Jasmine pulled ahead in the last furlong
