Page 33 of Dukes All Night Long

A year later.

T he bath smelled of eucalyptus and rosemary. Her hair was clean and pinned up in a braid that wound around her head. She wore a gold lace mask and nothing else. The warm water lapped at her body—plumper now—and her full breasts were only half-submerged.

“What else would you have me do?” Archie growled from behind her. “A bath is one thing, but I have more at my disposal.”

He kissed her neck, just behind her ear. She felt the brush of his black leather mask—the same one he’d worn the night they’d been discovered.

“What other services could you offer?” Sibby asked, wanting to hear his creativity.

His tongue licked her earlobe. “All of my undivided attention.”

She was ready to jump out of the bath and run for the bed, but that was not the point of the game for either of them. It was to finish the bath where they’d been interrupted. To give them the fantasy of finishing out that night together before the whirlwind wedding.

They’d had to seek permission to marry, of course, and then the trousseau and contracts.

Feltonbrough had been generous, and while she did not get the full of her dowry, Feltonbrough withheld it on the promise of their children.

Archie seemed to accept this as insurance for his future offspring that they would not suffer as he had at the hands of a spendthrift father.

And as they were fixing up the Grabe estate, Feltonbrough offered to pay for a survey of the land, opening up the possibilities for railways or new mineral rights.

And in fact, they’d found some, which meant a new, modern income for the Grabe title, which their future children would inherit.

It was a blessing, and helped in installing hot water and bathing closets in the old manor home.

Archie gently tilted her head back and kissed her eyelids, and then her mouth. He ran his hands down her shoulders, tantalizingly close to her breast.

She opened her eyes and stared into his one blue and one green. “Archie?”

He stopped and sat back, pausing their game. “Yes?”

The water slapped against the porcelain tub as she turned to face him. “I would live a year in a cave all over again for you.”

He smiled and kissed her. “My darling, you don’t want to know what I would do for you. Because I don’t have any shame.”

She laughed and wrapped her wet arms around his neck. “I’m glad we don’t have to find out.”

The End