Page 104 of Wedded to the Scottish Duke

“Well, it took me a while to realize it. I also saw that I had become the very man I didn’t want to be. Aye, I stole yer decision. I stole yer freedom.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“It should have been yer choice to be with me or not. From now on, it will be.” He held his arms open wide. “I’m here on my knees, begging ye to give me a chance. I’ll try to be the best husband I can be to ye, but if I become overbearing, if ye grow tired of me, then it will be yer decision to send me away or to keep me by yer side. Ye have the power, Celia.”

Celia couldn’t move. This was the stuff of dreams to have Keith come back to her and declare such things.

“Keith…” she whispered.

He could clearly sense her relenting. He stood up quickly and took her hand in both of his. With the rain falling between them, it made their palms damp.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered again. “But let me make it up to ye. Let me try and be a husband. A real husband, not just in name.”

“You… you are such a fool,” she whispered, though she was smiling now.

He must have seen hope, for he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

“You’re insufferable. I can’t stand you,” she said, though her smile grew impossibly wider as she said it. “There is so much that infuriates me about you.”

“But?” he said with hope, turning her hand over.

He placed his lips on the inside of her wrist. Rather than kissing it, he nipped it and then soothed it with a lap of his tongue. It made her breath hitch.

“But… I fell in love with you anyway.”

“I love ye too.” He moved forward so fast, taking her lips with his own, that she nearly fell over in surprise.

She clutched at him, her hands gripping his biceps tightly as she anchored herself to him. He wrapped one arm firmly around her waist, making her body melt into his chest.

To feel his body against hers again, to know the sensation of his lips on her own was a thrill. It made her warm, so happy, for she had once thought this feeling an impossibility.

She pulled away a little, though he seemed in no hurry to let her go and kept trying to steal more kisses.

“I’m going to make you my mission,” she whispered between his kisses. “After five nights with me, I’ll make it so you’ll never want to leave me again.”

“There was a part of me that wanted ye forever the moment I saw ye naked at that lake.” He kissed her again.

When his words registered, she pushed him hard in the chest. He laughed, though he didn’t release her.

“You said you didn’t see anything that night!”

“Well, sweetheart, ye’ll never quite know the truth.” He winked at her, and she tapped him on the arm in reprimand again.

“Insufferable,” she whispered playfully.

She looked at the carriage. She didn’t want to go back into the house just yet. The moment they went in, Elizabeth and Frances would descend on them with questions.

She wanted to spend more time with Keith. Perhaps she should drag him into the carriage to spend a few more minutes alone with him.

“Where were ye going?” he asked, noting where she was looking. “Were ye going to yer parents’ house?”

“Might have been there, might have been to Scotland.” She turned back to look at him with triumph, then repeated his words back to him. “You’ll never quite know the truth.”

He chuckled deeply and leaned toward her. “Ye were coming to me?” he asked, his lips hovering over hers.

“Perhaps.” She grimaced. “A little desperate?”

“Not as much as me,” he whispered, then kissed her again.