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He clasped the hand she had laid over his heart. “I am yours, and I always have been. I do not see how I could be anything else.”

“Rogue!” she softly admonished him, lightly slapping his chest.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Come back with me to Ashton Hall, and I will show you just how much of a rogue I can be.”

Her eyes widened at the dark promise in his voice. The way his breath caressed the sensitive shell of her ear had her shivering even under the warm afternoon sun.

And through all that, she could feel his hardness pressing into her belly—the clearest evidence of his desire for her.

She looked up at him and smiled jauntily at him. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I most certainly hope that your brother can learn to tolerate my presence in his residence. Although,” he added with a thoughtful look, “I daresay he might kick both of us out after he hears how loudly I can make you?—”

“Hush!” she reprimanded him, heat rising to her cheeks. “Have you no shame at all?”

“Not when it comes to you, apparently.”

He truly was a rogue and an unrepentant one at that. However, that mattered very little to Evie, for he washerrogue and no one else’s. He could be as naughty as he wanted to be, and she would only love him all the more for it.

“Come back to Ashton Hall, my Duchess,” he coaxed her, his voice low and soft as he whispered in her ear. “Come back with me, and I shall make you the happiest of women, for that is the only way I can find happiness for myself. All my days shall belong to you, as all your nights shall belong tome…”

And she wanted it. Dear God in heaven, she wanted it all!

She looked up at him, at the desire that swirled in his eyes. Evie leaned into him as his mouth slanted hungrily over hers in a kiss that robbed her of reason and any remaining resistance.

She kissed him back with all the pent-up yearning she had endured in the days of her loneliness.

There would be no more of that now.

“For the love of God, please do not stand there defiling my gardens!” an incensed voice pierced through the air. “If you must, then take your display of affections back to your own residence, you scoundrel!”

Evie jumped at the sound of her brother’s voice, but Daniel only tightened his arms around her, shielding her from her brother’s censure.

“Does this mean that you have no objection to my takingmy wifeback to our conjugal home?” Daniel asked him with a raised eyebrow and an impenitent smirk.

Evie frowned up at him and murmured, “Darling, I do not think we should provoke him further.”

His eyes absolutely lit up when she called him that, his smile growing wider and more unabashed.

But Colin merely waved his hand dismissively at the both of them. “Of course, I have not forgiven you, but we have the rest of our lives for me to torment you for marrying my beloved sister behind my back. Rest assured that the moment you mess up again, I shall take her back posthaste, and you will never see her again.”

“That will never happen,” Daniel told him solemnly. “I would rather take my own life before I allow Evie to suffer even the slightest grievance.”

“Oh, for the love of God, go!” Colin groaned. “Before you make me sick!”

Daniel laughed and smiled at Evie. “It appears that we have overstayed our welcome, dear wife. Let us go back home.”

Home.

At that one word, Evie felt all the sadness and the anger, the helplessness and resentment, fade away. She leaned into his arms and smiled back at him.

“Yes,dear husband. Let us head back home.”

CHAPTER 36

The journey from Blackthorn Estate to Ashton Hall took half the time it normally did, much to Evie’s amusement, and even in the carriage, Daniel could not stop holding her and kissing her.

“Must I restrain myself in my own carriage?” he growled in complaint.