Page 22 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

H ugh Margolis, Duke of Brighthollow, stood with his arm around his wife, Amelia as they watched a finely appointed carriage rumble from the drive of their London estate. Amelia looked up at him and smiled.

“We’ll both miss Lizzie, you know,” she said, voicing his very thoughts, as she had come to do in the short time they’d been wed.

“We will,” he agreed before he leaned down to kiss her gently. “Though I know she’ll have a wonderful time with Ewan and Charlotte.”

“I think so, too. Her quiet demeanor matches his well. And she adores the baby.”

He nodded as he thought of his dear friends. “Yes. And I must admit, I’m happy to have some time alone with you.”

Amelia’s face lit up and the joy he felt was almost overpowering. They had been wed just weeks before, at first under false pretenses, and their marriage had been fraught to say the least, even dangerous when Amelia’s life had been threatened. He shivered just to think of it .

But that was over now. The lies out in the open, forgiveness asked for and received. And love so powerful that he could hardly breathe sometimes when he looked at her because it brought him so much joy and peace.

She took his hand as they entered the house together. “I look forward to this time, as well. It feels like starting over, in a way, after all the drama of the past weeks.”

Hugh followed her into the parlor and watched her as she prepared tea for both of them.

“Ewan and Charlotte are heading to the country, and I know Meg and Simon, Adelaide and Graham and Isabel and Matthew are hauling Robert off to the party at James and Emma’s country estate to keep him from blowing up his life. ”

Amelia pursed her lips. “Yes, I was just talking to Meg about that yesterday when the ladies all met for tea. They did invite us, but…”

He moved toward her with a little smile. “Am I to infer from your very pretty blush that you told them you’d rather be a cloistered newlywed, Your Grace?”

She nodded and set the teacups down. She crossed to him a few long steps and wrapped her arms around his neck, staring up at him with those blue eyes that had captivated him from the first moment he saw her across a garden.

He was even more lost in them now because there were no more walls between them.

“I don’t want to share you right now, Your Grace ,” she said softly and then lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

He met her mouth halfway and settled his hands on her hips. God, but kissing her could be a vocation, one he wanted to do the rest of his life. She tasted so sweet and she gave so effortlessly of herself. She traced his tongue with hers and he was drowning and never wanted to resurface.

But at last she did with an unsteady smile. “As much as I’d like to continue that, we do have one more gathering to attend before we can truly hibernate together.”

“Ugh, leave this house? That is maddening,” he teased and bent to kiss her again .

“Hugh,” she laughed against his lips, her voice muffled between kisses. “Oh, you make this hard.”

“So do you, my love,” he teased back, but cupped her backside and let her feel just how hard when he ground his cock ever so gently against her stomach.

“That is so unfair,” she whimpered, her hands clenching against his shoulders.

“It truly is.” He pressed his mouth to the side of her throat. “But you were saying?”

He kissed her soft skin, feeling her pulse quicken against his tongue.

“I-I-I was saying-” she stammered. “Oh, right there is very nice. I was saying…what was I saying?”

“Something about tonight?” he whispered, letting his mouth come lower, along the ridge of her collarbone, then down to the neckline of her gown.

“Yes, tonight. We were invited to have supper with Lucas and Diana.”

He unfastened one button along the back of her dress. “Cry off. Tell them tomorrow is better. Or next week. Or next year.”

She dragged her fingers into his hair and lifted against him as he unfastened another button and pressed his mouth to her breast through the silky fabric of her gown.

“They’re leaving for some…I think it’s an assignment with the government tomorrow morning. So tonight is the last night we could meet with them.” She gasped as he stripped two more buttons and started to tug her dress forward. “Is the door locked?”

He lifted his head and glanced over his shoulder. “A very good point.”

He kissed her once more and then released her to cross to the door and lock it. When he turned back, he found her closing the blinds so that no one on the street could see. She smiled at him in the dim light of the fire and then slipped her arms from her gown, tugging her chemise down as well .

“You make my head spin,” he whispered as he reached for her, cupping her bare breasts and massaging there. She tilted her head back with a shaky exhalation of breath.

“I want you,” she whispered. “Please, please.”

He cupped the back of her head and tilted her face so that he could take her mouth again.

They kissed as he drew her to the settee.

They continued to kiss as he fell back into a seated position and drew her over him.

They moved as one, without needing words then.

She arranged her skirt so it wasn’t pinned between them, he unfastened the fall front of his trousers and his hard cock was freed.

She murmured her approval when she caught him in hand and stroked once, twice.

Then she maneuvered over him, gliding him to the slick heat of her sex before she took him in one stroke that had them moaning together in pleasure.

She rocked against him, softly whimpering as he brought one her breasts back to his mouth and sucked the sensitive nipple while she rode him.

The pleasure came almost immediately, hot streaks of sensation that seemed to flow to every part of his body.

He fought for control, watching her as she, too, quickly came to the point of crisis.

Her gorgeous face contorted slightly and she gasped out his name and then she was clenching him, grinding over him, gripping him in a hot glove of wet heat that stole all vestiges of control.

He came with her, claiming her mouth like a hungry animal as he spilled himself deep inside her.

For a few moments they sat that way, her forehead pressed to his, their panting breaths harsh, then slower, then matched. She smiled at him and once again he was lost.

“Oh, how I love you,” she whispered.

He could never hear those words enough and he gently traced her bare side with his fingertips. “I continue to endeavor to earn that love.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “You don’t ever have to earn anything, Hugh. You have it. Forever. But we do have to get ready for this supper. ”

He nodded and groaned as she climbed off of him, leaving him bereft without her. He didn’t stand but watched her fix herself. It was only when she turned her back to him that he got up to button her dress and then tucked himself back into place.

Her face was shining as she looked up at him and it put him to mind of something she’d said before they gave in to the powerful passion that always seemed to link them.

She’d said something about starting over.

Those words rang in his head now. He had such an opportunity to do just that.

To make up for everything he’d done and not done before they married.

And he had no idea how exactly that could be accomplished.

A melia smiled across the supper table at her friends Lucas and Diana, the Duke and Duchess of Willowby.

She was such a new addition to the powerful group of duchesses that made up their friend group, but Diana always made her feel at ease.

Not to mention that the couple had saved her life.

They would always hold a place in her heart.

Still, when she glanced at Hugh, she wanted to go home.

To take her time and continue what they’d started in the parlor earlier in the day.

Her cheeks flamed when she thought of how this man touched her.

How he moved her both physically and emotionally.

These next few weeks together were something she truly longed for, as they got to spend time as man and wife with their love declared.

It felt like she’d get to know him all over again and that was a thrilling idea.

“Will you two be the only ones left in London, then, now that Ewan and Charlotte have departed with dear Lizzie?” Diana asked with a little smile toward Lucas.

Amelia nodded. “I think so. We already talked about those going to the Abernathe party and you’ll be gone to whatever secret investigation you’re involved in. ”

Lucas laughed at the head of the table. “I’d lie and say it wasn’t anything so nefarious, but I think that might break your lovely heart. So believe as you will.”

Amelia laughed. “Thank you, I appreciate that.”

“Baldwin and Helena are also out touring,” Hugh said. “He seems to be more and more involved with Grayson Danford and his investments. It appears to be paying off already.”

Lucas nodded. “And I’ve heard Kit has returned to his father’s side as his illness progresses.” Both men frowned at that. “It will be a great loss when he is gone.”

“Yes.” Hugh glanced at Amelia. “Perhaps later in the year we could go visit him. He’s a wonderful man, I’d love for you to meet him.”

She reached out to take his hand and squeezed gently, as she knew his friend’s father had been of great help to him when he took over his position all those years ago. “I would love to do that.”

“But, indeed, it does leave my lovely wife and I alone in London, at least as far as our 1797 club members go,” Hugh said and his finger stroked across hers, causing her to shiver in its wake. “My poor Amelia will only have me as company.”

“Tragic, indeed,” Lucas said and then rose. “I’d love to have a game of billiards then, before we’re parted for a while. Would you join me and then we can have drinks with the ladies afterward.”