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H e… He had not… He could not possibly have…

Amethyst tried to remember how to breathe, how to stand upright, and how to arrange her face into an expression that was not entirely gormless.

It was rather a challenge.

“You… Now ?” she whispered.

The hand that still held hers was warm, and there was a pulse there—hers or Robert’s, she could not tell—and it was quickening with each passing second.

“Well, I could not seduce you then. But I can seduce you now.”

Robert—Robert, seducing her. Surely not. Surely, he would not go so far beyond the bounds of propriety—he was the son of a baronet.

He was a duke!

“You are a duke,” Amethyst found herself murmuring.

Robert gave her a wicked grin. “Are not dukes supposed to be rakehells?”

“Yes. I mean, no, but—”

“And I can think of no one with whom I would rather be a rakehell than you,” he continued, his voice low, almost a growl, as he moved through the water to stand before her, her hand still clasped in his own. “You move me, Amethyst, you always have, and now I am moved to say—”

“Robert—”

“That I very much wish to seduce you,” he said calmly, his eyes fixed on hers. “The question is…do you want to be seduced?”

What sort of a question was that to ask a young woman!

A young woman who had longed, ached for this moment. A young woman who had given up all hope, now that she neared thirty and her nieces and nephews, or whatever they were, aged before her.

A young woman who could practically see the heat pouring off the gentleman before her.

It was a wonder that the lake did not start to steam!

Amethyst tried to think, but thinking was for when one’s blood did not hum with need, and one’s knees were able to be steady, and one’s thoughts did not meander off into wanton directions.

“You have to tell me. Damnit, Amethyst, I need to hear the words from your lips,” Robert breathed quietly, and there was need in his tone, a need and a desperation that was simultaneously new and devastatingly attractive. “I need you, yes, I need to taste every inch of you—”

Her breath caught in her throat, her gaze unable to tear away from his lips.

“—but you have to tell me. I cannot just take your innocence, though by God, I’d like to,” he continued, leaning close now—so close, she could almost taste him on her lips. “Right here, right now, where we have been so happy…let me make you the happiest you have ever been.”

Amethyst swallowed.

Oh, she knew the rough mechanics of what occurred between a husband and wife. Her cousin Sapphire had once attempted to explain it to her, but Amethyst had managed to find an excuse to leave. The last thing she’d wished for was to hear that!

But now, standing here hand in hand with Robert—when had he taken her other hand?—there was only one thought on her mind.

Well, two thoughts.

Well, three.

She’d experienced some rather erotic dreams about Robert over the last few years, now she came to think about it, and there were several things she would like to try…

“Amethyst?”

Amethyst blinked. The real Robert Peterson, now apparently Duke of Thraxley, appeared before her. He looked nervous, and longing, and eager. He looked handsome and unchanged, unweathered by the years…and yet there was greater wisdom there, greater experience of the hardships of life.

And he had done it all alone.

“If you don’t seduce me,” she breathed, hardly able to believe that she was saying such a thing, “I shall be most displeased, Robert Peterson.”

His kiss caught her by surprise, but then should she not have been expecting it the moment that he had appeared before her? Almost a mirage, as though she and the lake together had dreamed him up.

It was passionate, and it was slow, his lips savoring her as the kiss deepened, Amethyst welcoming him in and trying not to moan at the sweet familiarity of the kiss that had been so long in coming.

This was how he had kissed her before: with reverence, with a great sense of holding back.

The holding back did not last long.

Amethyst gasped in the kiss as Robert’s tongue trailed a tantalizing line across her lips. She parted them, and he took immediate advantage, plumbing the depths of her mouth and imparting such sweet heat that she hardly knew how she was still standing.

And then she wasn’t standing.

“Robert!”

Just managing to grab his shoulders to make her unexpected descent a little easier, Amethyst immediately relaxed as she felt his strong hands cup her buttocks and lower her down.

She was not falling. She had been carried.

Her back was wet as Robert lay her down in the shallows of the lake, but looking up, all she could see was his face.

His adoring, handsome, devilishly eager face.

Amethyst hardly had time to ask what on earth he was thinking of when he was kissing her again, and the trouble was, it was rather a challenge to think when Robert was kissing her. It had always been that way, two years ago, but the sensations were far more intense now.

With the water of the lake beneath her and Robert’s body pressing against hers, Amethyst arched her back into him, desperately wishing he were closer, that these unnecessary clothes weren’t in the way.

Why on earth hadn’t they taken off his jacket, his waistcoat, his shirt—

“Oh, Amethyst,” Robert murmured, pressing kisses down her from her lips to her jaw, nuzzling her neck, imparting whispered kisses against her collarbone. “You don’t know—you cannot know how much I’ve dreamed of this.”

“I dreamed of you.” Amethyst had not intended to reveal this truth, but now that they were together, truly and completely, what was the point of holding back? “I dreamed of this.”

Robert lifted his head to stare down at her, his cheekbones and dimples prominent as he grinned. “You did? Of us being intimate together?”

For some reason, the expected blush never came. “Of course. I love you.”

The curse word he uttered under his breath did not appear to be directed at her, and besides, Robert was kissing her again, which made wondering utterly impossible. Amethyst clung on to him as ripples of pleasure roared through her, her whole body quivering with the unexpected furor of it all.

How could one person feel this much? How could any person be expected to live the rest of their life knowing what could be shared between two people and not experiencing it all day long?

Amethyst whimpered with uncontrolled bliss as Robert’s hand meandered to her breast, cupping it and gently squeezing through her now-sodden stays. The sensation was electric, sparking through her like lightning, and once again, she arched her back.

“More, more…” she murmured, hardly knowing what she was asking for.

But Robert knew. His hand disappeared from her breast, but it was fumbling somewhere near his breeches, and he kissed her hard before looking deep into her eyes. “Are you sure?”

Amethyst did not even hesitate. “Yes.”

It took merely a breath for Robert to move her skirts, to nestle between her legs, where he so clearly belonged, and he gave her a look of such adoration as he gently slid into her that Amethyst forgot the momentary tension and tightness.

It was gone as swiftly as it came…and now all she could feel was—

“Oh, Robert!” Amethyst clung on to his shoulders, half-expecting to lose herself in the lake at such heady heights.

“Tell me if I’m hurting you.”

“Don’t stop.” Amethyst moaned, her eyes hardly able to remain open as the roaring pleasure burned hot through her, waves of it, waves of it as the man she loved slowly thrust into her.

The thrusts did not remain slow for long. Robert built a rhythm with his hips that he paired with murmured sweet nothings and kisses across her lips, her eyes, her neck, her décolletage, and all Amethyst could do was give herself up to it.

Give herself up to the pleasure.

The peak, when it came, built slowly and then suddenly cascaded through her.

“Robert!”

His name was ripped from her lungs as Amethyst was pushed over the waterfall, her whole body jerking in uncontrolled ecstasy as Robert thrust powerfully into her, grinding out her name as he poured himself deep within her.

Amethyst could not see, could not think, could only cry out a wordless cry of elation until the feelings faded, slowly, and Robert withdrew himself and practically collapsed as he lowered himself to lie on his back beside her.

As the ripples faded within her, even as the ripples of the lake continued around her, Amethyst tried to remember who and where she was.

Robert’s voice, from where he was lying beside her in the shallows of the lake, was quiet. “So. Shall we tell them, then?”

Amethyst stiffened. “‘Tell them’?”

“Yes. My family. My mother, my aunt—the dowager duchess, I mean—”

“Robert!”

“Oh, we can tell your family too,” he said cheerfully, sitting up and looking down at her with such a radiant glow, it was all Amethyst could do not to pull him back into her embrace. “I think everyone should know.”

He could not have been serious! Tell them they had—well. That together, they had shared—that she had let him—that they had—

“That we are engaged to be married, obviously,” said Robert with a wicked grin. “I cannot think what you are considering, Amethyst de Petras, but I hope it is not anything salacious.”

Relief flooded through her—before it was interrupted by shock. “En-Engaged?”

“You don’t think I’m going to let you get away a second time, do you?

” Robert stood up in a shower of sparkling droplets and leaned down to extend a hand.

“Amethyst de Petras, there is not going to be a day that goes by that I am not by your side, and I intend for that to start now. I want to marry you, and love you, and demonstrate that love to you in this lake every day.”

“‘Every day’?” Amethyst could not help but laugh as she accepted the hand he offered and stood up in a rush of water. Goodness, her gown truly was soaked. “Even in winter?”

“Perhaps not in winter,” Robert accepted with a shrug as he led her to the shore, his hand strong and certain in hers. “But in the spring and autumn and summer, definitively.”

Joy was rushing through Amethyst like…well, like a lake. “That sounds rather pleasant. Except for one small problem.”

His face fell, and his immediate disappointment that he had not suggested something that would make her happy only made Amethyst all the happier. “A problem?”

“This isn’t our lake,” Amethyst pointed out, trying not to giggle at his expression. “It belongs to Cabochon House, to my Aunt Opal.”

“Oh. Right.” Momentarily stymied, Robert rallied with, “Then I shall build a lake on my property— our property.”

They had reached the shore now, her toes scrunching into the sand. “What property?”

“Every property, even the London townhouse,” said Robert magnificently, extending his hands as Amethyst laughed. “Everywhere we shall go, we shall have a lake, and a lake house.”

“A lake house?”

“Somewhere that I can enjoy amorous congress with you in winter,” Robert said with a wicked smile as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

Amethyst lost herself in his kiss, in his wild plans, in everything that Robert was. She had been lost here before, of course, but this…this was like swimming in the lake. You could go deeper or you could stay in the shallows. There was always more lake.

“Are they all here? Your family, I mean.” Robert pulled away. “Or do I need to send a letter to Jarvis Avenue?”

Amethyst’s smile faded. No. No, it couldn’t have been as simple as that…

“What is it?” His face looked concerned. “What did I say?”

“‘Jarvis Avenue’?” she repeated, hardly able to believe it.

Robert nodded. “Yes, that’s where you live in London.”

Oh, it was so simple. So simple, and yet it had changed the last two years of their lives. Well, there was nothing to be gained by looking back.

“We live on Joyce Avenue, Robert,” said Amethyst quietly, trying not to smile. “Please do not tell me that you have been sending all your letters to me to Jarvis Avenue.”

The way his body stiffened told her the answer.

“You dolt!” she said.

“How was I supposed to know I’d gotten it wrong?” he argued. “You said, I distinctly heard—”

“You heard our old butler mumble the address, I dare say. His Welsh accent twists vowels as though they were toffee! You mean there are dozens of love letters written to me somewhere out there in the world that I’ll never get to read!” Amethyst laughed, hardly able to believe it.

“I’ll write you dozens more,” Robert said, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’ll write you all the love letters you could ever want.”

His kiss was like a promise, a seal upon her heart— their hearts, now united as one and never to be parted again.

“I suppose we’re going to be happy forever, are we?” she teased when the kiss had finally ended and they were forced to pause for breath.

“‘Forever’?” Robert shook his head slowly, his ardent gaze never leaving her. “No. not forever.”

Amethyst swallowed. “No?”

“No.” The man she adored, her lakeside suitor, pressed another swift kiss onto her lips before he murmured, “A great deal longer than that.”

The End