Page 50 of The Duke In My Bed (The Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels #1)

And ruin’d love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.

“Your Grace.”

A soft voice stirred Bray’s slumber, but he mentally batted it away like a pesky fly.

“Your Grace?”

Bray’s lids fluttered open, and he was looking at a pair of six-year-old blue eyes leaning right over his face. Startled, he jumped up. Bonnie jumped back, too. He quickly pulled the sheet up to his neck to cover his bare chest.

“Bonnie, what are you doing? How did you get in here?”

She pointed behind her. “I walked through the doorway.”

He looked. Sure enough, the bedroom door was open. Damn! He must have forgotten to lock it last night when he and Louisa came to bed. That was a lesson for him to be more careful, no matter how eager he was to get his beautiful wife under the sheets.

He glanced over at Louisa. She was still sleeping soundly beside him. Her beautiful hair was spread across the pillow. Her softly rounded shoulders were bare, so he eased the sheet over her skin.

“Bonnie, what’s wrong? Why are you in here?”

“Louisa doesn’t usually sleep this late, so I came to wake her up.”

He cleared his throat and thought on that a moment. “Ladies sleep later once they are married. So you won’t need to check on her anymore in the mornings. You wait until she comes looking for you, all right?”

Bonnie nodded.

“Good. Go back belowstairs now and close the door on your way out.”

She nodded again and turned away and stumbled and fell. Her feet had gotten tangled in his trousers. Damn! His and Louisa’s clothing were scattered from the doorway to the bed. They had not been careful in their haste to undress last night.

Bonnie untangled her feet, picked herself up, and laid his trousers on the bed. She smiled sweetly at him. And he thought, for the first time in his life, that he blushed. She quietly walked out and closed the door behind her.

That should not have happened, he thought.

Bray rose and stepped into his trousers and then threw his shirt over his head just as the bedroom door burst open. Sybil and Bonnie came skipping inside.

“Damnation,” Bray mumbled under his breath. He’d barely gotten his trousers buttoned.

“Louisa, look what just came for you and the duke.”

Louisa woke with a start and she jerked the sheet up to cover her nakedness as she sat up in bed. “What’s going on?” she asked, brushing her long tangled curls away from her sleepy eyes. “Sybil, Bonnie, why are you here in our bedchamber?”

“I came to give you this,” Sybil said, and tried to hand the envelope to Louisa. “A man at the door gave it to me and said it was from the Prince and very important. He said I should give it to the Duke and Duchess of Drakestone right away.”

“Sybil, you know you are not to answer the door,” Louisa admonished.

The little girl gave her sister an annoyed look and continued to hold the envelope out to her.

“You take it, Bray,” Louisa said, since she couldn’t let go of the sheet covering her to open the envelope.

Bray grinned at her, a bit amused that she was caught in the same situation he was in just moments ago. He reached over, took the envelope from Sybil, and opened it.

“What does it say?” Bonnie asked.

“It says that the Prince is inviting us to attend a private showing of the Elgin Marbles with him next week.” Bray looked at Louisa.

“Can I go see the marbles?” Bonnie asked.

“I want to go, too,” Sybil said. “I have some marbles. Do you think the Prince would want to see my marbles, too?”

“We’ll take all of you with us,” Bray said, “but for now, out. And girls, from now on, when that door is shut, knock and do not open it to come inside until you have received an invitation. Understood?”

They both looked up at him with big blue mischievous eyes and nodded.

“All right. Now, get out of here and wait for us belowstairs.”

Bray locked the door behind the girls. With those two, he might be safer putting two locks on the door, just to be sure. He had a lot to get used to about family life, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.

He sat down on the bed and pulled Louisa into his arms and kissed her warm lips.

“Thank you for not getting angry with the girls for coming into our room without knocking.”

He laughed and squeezed her. “I did get angry. But I can handle it.”

“I love you for that.”

“I love you, too.” He kissed her again and then laughed. “I really can’t blame them. It’s my fault. I should have locked the door last night, but I was in too big a hurry.”

She laughed. “I believe I was in a hurry, too,” she said, laying her head against his shoulder and snuggling into the crook of his arms. “I guess that the invitation means we were married in time to save the Prince and England from certain embarrassment.”

“Yes, and we didn’t even try. I married you so fast because I didn’t want to spend one more night without you in my bed.”

“But the Prince doesn’t have to know that, does he?”

Bray shook his head. “No, and he never will. We can let him think he was the mastermind behind me finally living up to my vow.”

Louisa looked up at him. “But we know it was love.”

He looked back at her with all the love he was feeling for her. “Yes, it was the love of a woman and the love of family.”

Louisa pushed Bray down on the bed and rose up over him. “Perhaps I should show you just how much I love you.”

“Perhaps you should.”

Louisa settled her body on his.

Bray thrilled to her touch.