Page 26 of Enchanting the Duke
Nomansland laughed, the sound erupting unguarded.“I intend to.Every single day, if you’ll let me.”
She reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his.Her skin was still cold, but the grip was strong, confident.She leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder, and let out a contented sigh.
He turned to face her, unable to resist.“Are you sure?”he asked, and for a moment his vulnerability was naked.“I am—well, you know what I am.”
She kissed the corner of his mouth, a whisper of contact.“You’re mine,” she said, with a certainty that startled him.
The room was soft and safe, the world outside temporarily irrelevant.Nomansland let himself relax, truly relax, for the first time in years.He slid his arm around her waist, drew her gently closer, and kissed her again—slow, careful, and increasingly improper for a house where walls had ears.
This time, when he pulled back, her eyes were bright and shining.
“Will you do that every morning?”she asked.
He pretended to consider.“I’m told breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
She giggled, and the sound was so pure that Nomansland wondered how he’d ever survived without it.
He was about to reply—something clever, or maybe something profoundly stupid—when the drawing room door swung open.
Dinah entered first, hair in a riot from a hasty pinning, her gown a simple morning dress.She was followed by Abingdon, whose expression could have cowed an entire regiment.
Nomansland and Chrissy sprang apart, but not quickly enough to hide the evidence of their affection, the proximity, the intertwined hands, the flush on both faces.Nomansland, ever the tactician, didn’t release Chrissy’s hand.Instead, he squared his shoulders, as if daring anyone to try to separate them.
Dinah froze mid-step, eyes darting between the two, her mouth an O of shock and—Nomansland thought—delight.
Abingdon was slower, more deliberate.He took in the scene, the closed space between betrothed, the shared gaze, the fact that his sister-in-law had just been thoroughly kissed.
No one spoke.
Chrissy broke the silence, her voice half-laugh, half plea.“Oh, Dinah—please be happy for me.I think I might burst.”
Dinah looked at Abingdon, then back at her sister.She tried for stern, but her face crumpled, and she let out a wild, scandalous giggle.
“Of course I am,” Dinah said, and in a blink she was at Chrissy’s side, wrapping her in a breathless embrace.She squeezed Chrissy, then turned and did the same to Nomansland, who tolerated it with dignity.
When she stepped back, her cheeks were wet with happy tears.“You are a menace, Nomansland.But I suppose we can tolerate you, now and then.”
Nomansland inclined his head.“I’ll try not to let you down.”
Abingdon, meanwhile, hovered in the doorway, arms crossed, face unmoved.He regarded Nomansland with all the severity of a magistrate sentencing a criminal.
After a pause that threatened to tip the moment into farce, Abingdon uncrossed his arms, walked over, and, to everyone’s shock, pulled Chrissy into a one-armed hug.Then he offered his hand to Nomansland.
Nomansland took it, the shake firm and final.
Abingdon’s mouth twitched, almost a smile.“Welcome to the family,” he said, and it was clear to all present that no further words would be required on the subject.
They lingered together, the four of them, in a rare peace, as sunlight edged across the drawing room floor and the world outside began to wake.
It was not the ending Nomansland had expected.It was better.
He looked at Chrissy, and in her eyes he saw every day that would follow: laughter, yes, and sometimes pain, but always together.Always hers.
He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back.
Outside, somewhere, the city teemed with rumors and judgments and the endless machinery of society.
But here, in this small, sunlit room, nothing could touch them.