Page 33 of A Duchess Disciplined (Dukes of Dominance #1)

CHAPTER 32

C atherine strongly suspected that Elias had rearranged his entire life around her sudden appearance in London. She knew that he must be quite busy to have left Dorothy and Bridget in the country and to have come to London alone, but Elias acted as though he had no obligations at all outside of being her companion in London.

They went to the theater and the opera. He took her to the shops on St. James and Bond Street. When she mentioned offhandedly how lovely the weather was, he immediately suggested a promenade.

Couples milled about on the path, enjoying the sunshine and warm air. Catherine found that she observed them more than she previously had. Since marrying William, it seemed as if she had learned to watch people more closely and to behave more like a proper lady.

“I am surprised that you did not ask Lady Mathers to join us,” Catherine said slyly. “I am certain that she would have been delightful company.”

Elias cast her a sideways glance. “You seem far too invested in my fondness of Lady Mathers.”

“I find it interesting how much you admire her,” Catherine replied. “You are so sentimental.”

“I am not sentimental,” Elias said.

Catherine shook her head. “I believe that you conspired to keep the young lady away from me, for fear of what I might tell her about you. Did you worry that we might gossip overly? I could tell Lady Mathers some very interesting stories.”

“Perhaps, you ought to spend more time thinking about your own romantic prospects,” Elias said.

“I have no romantic prospects!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I am a married woman!”

Elias hummed. He halted abruptly, forcing Catherine to stop with him. Grinning roguishly, he gestured around the bend in the road. “I think you do have romantic prospects.”

Catherine inhaled sharply. Time seemed to halt around her, for her own husband William stepped from beneath a sprawling weeping willow. Her eyes eagerly searched over his handsome form, taking in his broad shoulders down to his waist and his legs. William’s blue jacket and trousers emphasized his masculine form and heated her blood.

He was there. Catherine could not even determine all the precise thoughts that flew through her head as she beheld him. Why was he in London? How had he even known that she had gone to London? In the next second, Catherine realized that his staff must have told him, but still, she had not anticipated him coming to London.

“Why is he here?” Catherine murmured, clinging to her brother. “He did not inform me that he would be here.”

“There is only one reason why,” Elias said. “You.”

William approached them, his manner casual. Catherine moved nearer to her brother. She was not afraid of her husband, but the threat of this confrontation filled her with a deep-seated dread. What if William had come to tell her he wished their marriage to be annulled?

Maybe he was not coming to suggest that their marriage be annulled but instead to express how much he missed her. Catherine’s pulse jumped. Did he want her still?

“Catherine,” he said. “My dear Catherine.”

“Oh, am I Catherine , Your Grace?” she asked.

And did that mean he was once again William , rather than Your Grace ? Catherine curled her fingers into her skirts and inhaled deeply, trying to force her scattered thoughts into some order. She had long since learned that if something seemed too good to be true, it often was. But oh , she wanted this to be true!

She wanted William to come with an apology and a declaration of love. Catherine bit the inside of her cheek. William was near enough to touch, and her fingertips twitched with the desire to trace the plains of his chest.

“Yes,” William replied, his brow furrowed. “Yes, Catherine. I am so sorry for how I have treated you.”

“ Oh ,” Elias said slyly. “This will be interesting. Am I to learn what has distressed you, after all?”

“This does not involve you,” Catherine said.

“If it involves your happiness, it does involve me,” he pointed out. “You are my beloved sister.”

Catherine shot him a venomous glare, which only received a smirk. She untangled her arm from her brother’s and took a tentative step toward her husband. They were only a hairsbreadth apart, and Catherine had to crane her head up to see him.

“I was a coward when I told you to stay away. I was such a fool, Catherine.”

Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Catherine did not know if she believed him, but everything inside her ached with the need to believe him. “And what are you now?” she asked.

He chuckled and gave her a helpless look. “A lovesick fool,” he replied. “Catherine, I have thought of nothing else, except for you. I have gone mad since you left.”

She gasped and put a hand over her mouth, scarcely able to believe those words. “Do you really mean it?”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I want you. I love you, all of you and nothing less.”

Tears formed in Catherine’s eyes, hot and stinging. “What changed your mind?” she asked.

“I never changed my mind,” he replied. “I have loved you for a long time. It is only that I was afraid to admit it. I have lost so many people in my life, and I could not bear to lose you, also. But I lost you for just a moment when you left, and I realized that I never want to lose you again.”

Unthinking, she launched herself into his arms, and he drew her in for a deep kiss. Dimly, she noticed that other couples in the park were staring at them. She suspected that Elias was one of them, but Catherine found that she did not care.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him until her lungs burned from a lack of air. And he kissed her back with equal fervor, as though he was determined to let that one long kiss make up for all the time that they had lost.

When they broke their kiss, they remained standing close to one another, their chests heaving as heat surged through their bodies. “I love you, too,” Catherine said.

“You have made me the happiest man in the world,” William said.

She smiled. So much happiness filled her that she felt as if she might burst. “Quite a feat, indeed.”

“While I understand your desire to stay with your family, I wondered if I might persuade you to return home with me,” William said.

“I might be persuaded,” Catherine replied, her face warming. “I have missed you, after all.”

William kissed her again. “That makes me happier than you can possibly know.”

Catherine looked over her shoulder and grinned at her brother, whose eyes shone with mischief. “Am I to assume that the matter is resolved?”

“You may,” Catherine said. “I believe that I will be returning home, Elias.”