Page 9 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

Until, that was, Graham stepped to the front and the seat reserved for him. He took his place and her entire body relaxed, calmed as she watched him turn slightly, resting his arm on the back of an unused chair beside himself and talk to their friend Diana behind him.

“Are you ready?” Melinda asked as she slipped up beside Adelaide and put an arm around her waist.

Adelaide squeezed her friend a little tighter. “Oh yes. Does Toby have the other arrangements ready?”

Melinda grinned at her. “He does, indeed! All will be waiting for you in your chamber tonight.”

“Very good. I appreciate him playing along.” She sighed. “I’ll motion for the bell to be rung and the lamps turned down. ”

She almost danced away and signaled for the play to begin.

They had roped Charlotte, the Duchess of Donburrow, into playing the music for the event and when Adelaide motioned her hand, she began to do so.

The crowd of their friends and family members settled and the curtain was drawn back by servants.

Adelaide strode out onto the stage, to the front of the carefully crafted half a pirate ship that she and Graham had been painting until late the night before.

“A pirate’s life for me,” she said and winked down at Graham. He was staring in rapt attention below. “Where are my merry crew?”

Her children rushed and stumbled onto the stage, waving wooden swords. Edwin was whooping at full voice and the crowd laughed. Her heart swelled as she turned toward them.

“Avast, my maties! I’ve heard told of a fine treasure awaiting us on…Devil’s Island.” That elicited a wonderful oooh and ahhh from the crowd before Maddie said her next line, then nudged Harry for his.

She lost herself in the play, in her part, in watching her children’s joy. And it was the best gift she could have ever been given.

G raham was almost floating as he made his way up the stairs toward his bedchamber.

It had been a wonderful night. Although the play they’d presented was not so professional as what Adelaide had once performed in, he had been enraptured by her regardless.

Even in a silly story about pirates, with their children waving wooden swords as they made her walk the plank after a terribly dramatic mutiny, she was mesmerizing.

He was brought back to the very same feeling he’d had the first moment he’d seen her walking the boards.

The same awe and desire and draw. It was wonderful.

And she was wonderful, though after the play had ended, they’d been somewhat parted.

She had accepted her congratulations from their large group of loving friends and they’d all had to wrangle overly excited children to their nursemaids at some point.

So now he made his way through the finally quiet house toward their bedchamber.

She’d gone up some time before and he hoped she would be waiting for him.

Though if she was sound asleep after her busy night, he wouldn’t blame her for it.

Just wake her for a very different kind of Christmas gift in the morning.

He entered the room and frowned. She wasn’t in their bed. Was it possible she’d taken to the one in her adjoining chamber? She had only ever used that bed if one of them was ill or if he had to depart very early in the morning for a hunt or a business engagement in another town.

He slipped from his jacket and was about to ring for his valet when there was a knock on his door. Not the one that led to her chamber, but the one from the hall. He wrinkled his brow and went to it.

Toby Westin stood outside, clipboard in hand even though his duties as stage manager had ended hours ago. He should have been down at his cottage in his own bed.

“Westin,” he said and was sure he looked as confused as he sounded. “Is everything well?”

“Very well, Your Grace.” Toby pushed his spectacles up. “You have a visitor, sir.”

“A visitor?” he repeated.

“Indeed.” Toby tilted his head. “You’re a new playwright, so you may not be aware, but occasionally after a show, admirers desire a moment to compliment. May I show her in?”

Graham blinked, understanding dawning. He smoothed his hands along his waistcoat and nodded. “I would never turn away what I hope is an adoring fan.”

“Very good, Your Grace.” He turned and left and Graham closed the door. He crossed to the window and waited there, hands actually shaking.

The door opened again and this time it was Adelaide who stood there.

She was no longer in her stage garb as fetching pirate queen, but in one of his very favorite gowns, a wine colored velvet that skimmed her wonderful curves.

She also held a bouquet of flowers, which she held out as she sauntered into the room.

He flashed back to another night in another dressing room, when he’d come to her much the same. To compliment her acting. To do more than that.

He swallowed. “The Duchess of Northfield graces my rooms. An honor.”

She smiled, clearly pleased he had recognized this new role she was playing. “I so enjoyed your work tonight, Mr. Everly. I had to come and give my…compliments.”

He took the flowers and set them on the table beside him. God, how he wanted to step up to her, stop playing around and get down to what he really wanted to do with his wife.

But any time he could watch her in a role, he didn’t want to look away.

“It’s a little shocking, Your Grace, to have you here. Alone. Do you not worry about propriety?”

“Surely a man like you is accustomed to visitors after his great works are presented?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Most who come back to visit me after a play are trying to seduce me."

Her face lit up. She recalled saying that to him all those years ago. Would she recall how he had replied?

"Don’t mistake me, I am very much trying to seduce you,” she whispered and there was a waver to her voice.

Oh yes, she definitely recalled. Now he couldn’t help but reach for her, drawing her closer. “You’ll succeed,” he whispered roughly and then delved his fingers into the softness of her hair and kissed her.

She flattened her hands on his chest, murmuring her approval and desire and love with wordless moans.

He pushed her toward their bed, unfastening her gown as he did so.

Together they shoved it aside and then she went to work on his waistcoat.

Fingers flew between heated kisses, fabric pulled aside.

He cupped her backside and squeezed and she lolled her head back with a gasp of his name.

Finally, they were each naked and he stepped back and looked down at her. His goddess. Time never seemed to change her, only improve her like the finest wine. He longed to drink.

She seemed to have the same idea for she cupped his hard cock in her hand and stroked him as she brushed her lips along his jawline, across his cheek. She kept herself from kissing him and the pleasure was too sharp for him to do the same.

“Adelaide,” he grunted at last and she smiled.

“Unmanning you, Your Grace, is still one of the greatest joys of my life,” she murmured, all wickedness. “I wonder how close I could come to doing it before you retook control?”

She slid down his body as she spoke, dropping to her knees before him.

He muttered a curse as she glided her tongue around his tip, watching him with bright blue eyes filled with passion and need and everything wonderful about her.

He gripped the edge of the bed behind himself, digging his fingers into the soft surface as he drowned in pleasure.

She knew what he liked, she gave it effortlessly and if her moans were any indication, with a great deal of pleasure of her own.

She took her time, edging him slowly to crescendo and as he neared it, he forced himself to refocus on her upturned face.

“You are doing a very good job of seducing me, Your Grace,” he murmured while he reached down and caught her beneath the arms, drawing her up his body slowly. “But I want to end this night a very different way.”

She laughed, the most beautiful sound in his rather gorgeous world and her mouth met his with fire and fever. He turned her, leaning her where he had stood. She opened her legs, he stepped between them and aligned himself to her. The stroke of filling her made them both gasp in pleasure.

Their eyes met as he took her, slowly at first, reveling in the slick grip of her, the way her chest flushed as her pleasure mounted. When he reached between them and began to circle her clitoris with two fingers, she mewled with pleasure and arched against his chest.

“Graham,” she breathed. “God, I love you.”

He buried his face in her shoulder at those words, ones he could never hear enough of.

Ones that moved him in a different way tonight because the play had reminded him of how they’d begun.

Reminded him of what his life had looked like before her love.

He drove faster, breathing her in, feeling her hitch against his cock and fingers.

When she came, it was in a burst, her head falling back, a wail escaping her lips, her body milking him and sending pleasure of his own streaking up his sensitive cock.

He came with her, finding her mouth, merging everything about them in the starburst light of pleasure and love and the future and everything they had and would have.

When it was over, she tangled her arms around him, smoothing his back, kissing his throat.

It was quiet then, gentle in the firelight, and he drank it in.

“Do you want to move onto the bed?” she murmured, her voice soft and sleepy against his neck.

He nodded and they did so, curling into each other, their arms and legs intertwined and mouths close together. She smiled up at him, glowing in pleasure and joy.

“You gave me the best gift tonight, Graham,” she said.

He laughed. “I am very good at what we just did, thank you.”

She swatted at him playfully. “You are, but I wasn’t talking about that. I meant the play. I loved doing it and watching our children in it and our friends take it in.”

“You were wonderful, Adelaide,” he said, all seriousness now. “Truly wonderful.”

She sat up on her elbows. “What do you think about…about making it a family tradition? Every Christmas we put on a show like this for our friends? You and I write it, with Maddie’s help if she’d like to continue down that path.

Our children could all have parts in it , just as they did this year.

With more time, we could even invite the other children in the family to take part. ”

She glowed with the idea and he beamed up at her. “I love that idea. I can see you planning it already.”

“I am,” she admitted. “I mean, we did a very good job with only a few weeks notice, think of what we could do with a year to plan. We could start plotting out a story now, creating set pieces and do rehearsals. It could be two acts next year and-”

He dug his fingers into her hair and pulled her down to kiss him. She sank into him with a laughing sigh. When he pulled away a fraction he said, “I’m absolutely sold on this idea, my love. But why don’t we start tomorrow? Tonight I have other plans and a very different role I’d like to play.”

She rolled to straddle him and her hair fell around them like the curtain they had hung in the ballroom. “I assume you are talking about your role as the love of my life?”

He smoothed his hands along the lines of her body with a shaky sigh. “That is a role I play with great happiness and honor, Adelaide. And I always will.”