Page 96 of The Duke's Second Bride

A sound of clapping rose from nearby.

They broke apart and turned to look. They both smiled and laughed at the sight of Luke, still a few paces away. He had dropped his sketchbook and was clapping and cheering, a look of delight on his face.

“You aren’t s-sad anymore!” he exclaimed with delight. His maid smiled next to him.

On the bench, even Pudding was purring.

“No,” Ava said, looking back up at Christian. “No, I am not. In fact, I could not be happier.”

Christian smiled. Ava had missed the sight of that smile more than anything. Happiness suited him better than any other emotion.

“I am going to take that as a challenge,” he said.

Ava arched a brow. “Oh, indeed?” she asked.

Christian nodded. “In fact, I am going to make it my duty to make you happier every day than you were the last,” he promised.

Quick as a flash, he dipped down, and before Ava realized it, she was in his arms, in a bridal carry.

“Christian!” she exclaimed, batting at his chest playfully. “What on earth are you doing?”

“What I should have been doing all this week,” he growled, before pressing another kiss to her mouth.

Without any further preamble, he began the walk back to the house.

CHAPTER 35

“Christian,” Ava chided him gently. “It is rude to leave Luke all alone outside.”

As soon as they entered the house, Christian made a direct line for his bedroom.

“He is happy with his maid and with Pudding,” Christian replied, carrying her up the stairs as though she weighed nothing at all.

He could not help but stare at her.

He had been so terrified to lose her to death, and then so terrified he had lost her forever due to his own carelessness.

But seeing the light return to her eyes after he had confessed his true feelings—that was a joy better than any he could have dreamed up.

The way she looked at him now was too beautiful to believe. Her eyes glistened with happy tears, her soft lips parted in a gentle smile. Christian couldn’t help but lavish kiss after kiss upon her as he carried her up the stairs and down the hallway to their chambers.

As soon as they got to the room, he was swift to close the door behind them and kiss her properly, their tongues plundering each other’s mouths with eager, hasty greed.

Their mouths met, and every thought he’d clung to dissolved in a rush of heat and need. Her lips were soft, insistent, and every brush of her tongue against his sent a spark through him that set every nerve on fire.

His hands roamed her waist, pulling her flush against him, memorizing the curve of her back, the weight of her pressed into him. He could feel her shivering beneath his touch, hear the ragged catch of her breath, and it only drove him harder, fiercer.

Every second apart from her was unbearable, every second together was a blaze he never wanted to end.

Then, Christian gently lowered her to the bed with a hungry look in his eyes.

It felt like an eternity since he’d felt her touch, rather than one week.

The dress she was wearing today was a lovely light pink silk, which brought out the color in her cheeks—even more now that she was looking at him with that lustful flush across her face.

She looked ravishingly beautiful in the dress, and yet he knew he would not be able to get it off of her soon enough.

“I am, undoubtedly, the least intelligent man alive,” he said, kissing her mouth and then kissing his way down her neck as he worked at her dress and then the laces of her stays beneath. “To have thought I could give you up for a lifetime.”