They stripped off their clothes in great haste. He helped her with buttons and undergarments before throwing their discarded items on the bench.
Holding hands, they walked down to the river’s edge; the moon’s incandescence casting a silvery sheen over their bare skin. As Alexander helped her down into the water, swimming was the last thing on his mind. But the cold was biting, his desire momentarily overshadowed by the sharp shock and he pulled her into an embrace to ease her shivering limbs.
“We should move if we’re to keep warm,” he said as desire burst forth again with its usual intensity and he poured it all into a devilishly sinful kiss.
In the water, they were weightless, and she wrapped her legs around him with ease. “Don’t wait,” she whispered against his mouth, her thigh brushing against the only part of his anatomy impervious to the cold. “I want to join with you—now, tonight, forever.”
“Your happiness is all I seek,” he said, as he positioned himself and pushed inside her, giving her everything she needed. “I love you.”
She threw her head back, her perfect breasts ripe for the offering, and he took her nipple into his mouth as he thrust deeper.
“I love you,” she said between breathless pants.
As she cried his name in the wild throes of her pleasure, one thought pushed to the fore.
He was no longer a lost soul wandering the darkness.
He had found his way home.
Epilogue
“It took a little mind manipulation,” Alexander said, “but the bishop had no choice when faced with the wrath of an earl. He insisted that I call the next morning, although he soon understood that the evening suited me much better.”
“And now she’s your wife.” Leo nodded over to Eve as she chatted with their guests. “You’re a braver man than I.”
Elliot patted him on the back. “You’re definitely lucky. I doubt there’s another woman alive who would choose to marry a man plagued with our afflictions. Your wife is a true original.”
Alexander glanced at Eve with pride. Sensing his gaze, she looked up and smiled. “She’ll always be unique in my eyes, but there’s nothing original about love.”
Leo shivered visibly. “Just hearing the word makes me want to run for the hills.”
“Have no fear,” Elliot said with a chuckle. “The day either of us declares love will be the day the sun fails to rise.”
“I used to be
just as cynical.” Had Eve not thrown the stone through his window, he’d most likely still be brooding in his chair. “Nothing can prepare you for such a delicious form of agony.”
Leo’s eyes widened. “It’s the agony that terrifies me. That constant pining I hear so much about.”
“Trust me, your day will come. Although I have a strange feeling, Elliot will be the first to fall. And I shall look forward to the day with eager anticipation.”
Elliot scoffed. “You’ll be waiting an exceedingly long time, my friend.”
Alexander sipped his brandy, but it still made the muscles in his throat spasm.
“If you drank it more often, you’d soon get used to it,” Elliot said. “I’m assuming it was your idea to have an informal supper as opposed to dinner.”
“My wife thought it would save me having to explain why I’d not touched a morsel. I did nibble on a sandwich, but I spat it into the plant pot when no one was looking.”
Although that wasn’t quite true. Mrs. Shaw had witnessed the whole thing, but it seemed nothing could erase the smile she’d worn for days.
Leo’s eyes bulged. “Who’s that?” he said nodding to a pretty lady with honey-gold hair. “She is trying to act all demure though I swear she keeps looking over here.”
“That is Mr. Hartwood’s niece and she is strictly off bounds.”
“This penchant for golden hair worries me,” Elliot said. “If I’m not mistaken, I’d say you have unresolved issues from your traumatic experience in Bavaria.”
Leo screwed up his nose. “Don’t be so ridiculous. I have no preference when it comes to women. I’ll take them any way I find them.”