Page 46 of To Steal a Lyon’s Heart (The Lyon’s Den Connected World #85)

Six weeks later

T he small chapel at Sam’s estate, Alston Abbey, burst with the lively voices of far more guests than Sam had anticipated.

His new mother-in-law, Mrs. Cordelia Blakewood, filled the pews with her friends and family—absent Lady Claystone.

He had Daisy, Amelia, and Blakewood, and that was all he truly needed to feel whole, but it was nice, if still a little strange, to think he had a mother and father once again.

His children would have grandparents. He rubbed his chest at the thought, a peculiar sensation of warmth spreading there.

Amelia had left two spaces empty on the family pew.

Reserved for their own mother and father, present in spirit.

Aunt Ruth and Nelson had not been invited and, according to Sam’s man of business, had left London, as well.

Wherever they intended to go, they wouldn’t be on Alston land.

Sam didn’t have the heart to leave them destitute and still allotted Aunt Ruth a livable allowance, as he’d told Nelson he would, but they knew better now than to ever grace his doorstep again.

Candles lined the stained-glass windows and deep-pink rose petals, the color of Daisy’s blushes—his request—littered the floor.

Garlands of roses and leaves hung from the rafters, and there in front, Amelia and Blakewood sat together, smiling at him.

Amelia dabbed at her eyes. Even Blakewood looked—

“By God, are those tears? Can statues cry?” Sam whispered.

Blakewood rolled his eyes. “Try to be serious on the day you wed my sister.”

“I’m deadly serious,” Sam said.

The organ began, music filling the rafters as the door at the front of the church opened, and there she stood.

His Daisy, his dream, his sunshine, moon, and stars.

The light of his life in every sense of the word.

She wore a wreath of flowers around her head, a lace veil flowing down her back.

Her pale pink gown glowed, the riot of colors from the stained-glass windows casting her in dreamy shimmers of light.

Had he died? Sam wondered. He must have.

Because there was no other way that he could be standing here, about to marry the most beautiful woman alive, unless he was in heaven.

Somehow, his soul had been deemed worthy of a woman like her.

He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her, but as a wise doctor once said, every second is a gift, and he’d spend them worshiping her without question.

She now stood before him, and he couldn’t hear a single word uttered as her hand was placed in his. She was his. Finally. At last.

Mr. Blakewood patted him on the shoulder before taking his seat.

Sam couldn’t pull his gaze away from her radiant beauty as Reverend Eckles droned on and on about the Lord and some other things he couldn’t bother to hear. Not when his heart, his soul, his eyes, his ears, and every breath he took were all for Daisy.

He spoke when he needed to, stood, kneeled, stood, and finally, after all that bothersome nonsense, they were pronounced husband and wife. Their guests cheered as he tugged her down the aisle and pushed open the doors.

“Sam,” she laughed. “Sam, wait!”

“I can’t wait.”

She continued to giggle as he pulled her around the corner of the church, to the small courtyard. He backed her against the wall, and he took her mouth in a savage kiss that he could never have done in that church, not without offending God and, worse, her father.

But now, for this small moment of peace before the crowd descended, he took her very breath into himself. His wife. His .

She cradled his face, her hungry mouth meeting his and her tongue teasing him the way she knew that drove him mad. He pressed his hips to hers, his cock already battering at his breeches.

Daisy tore her mouth away. “We must go back. We have to do the breakfast and all the things my mother specifically requested.”

“We’re married. We can do whatever we want, and all I want is to toss you over my shoulder and take you to our room and ravish you.”

She nuzzled her nose to his and grinned. “I want that too, but we promised.”

“Did we?”

“We did. The moment I told my mother and father I wouldn’t be marrying Cliffton but you instead. My mother wept and you promised, quite fervently, that she’d have the wedding of her dreams—and mine.”

“I vaguely recall,” Sam said with amusement. “Blakewood was holding your father down by the shoulders as he threatened to unman me. He’d assumed I seduced you with my wicked charms and devilish good looks.”

“But he didn’t.”

“His eyes did.”

She cupped his jaw. “They got over their shock and confusion quickly.”

“It helped that Lady Claystone made no fuss about ending the marriage contract, that rotten gorgon. I almost feel bad for Cliffton.”

“Me, too. But it’s over now. We made it. We’re married.”

“I still don’t understand why she cried,” Sam admitted. “Perhaps because I’ve never had a mother.”

Daisy cupped his cheek. “She was disappointed. She had imagined a future that would not come to pass. But once I told her how I really felt, about Cliffton, about Lady Claystone, and how ardently I loved you, she understood. A mother always wants their child to be happy above all else.”

Sam smiled down at her, his gorgeous, sumptuous wife. He groaned. He wasn’t going to make it through the wedding breakfast.

“One more kiss,” he begged.

She pulled his face down to hers, sealing her mouth to his, and this time, it was her—her taste, her soft lips, her eager moaning—that swept his mind clean of thought and sense.

“I can be quick,” he panted into her neck.

“Er-hmp.” Someone cleared their throat. Amelia. Thank the Lord it wasn’t Blakewood.

Sam lifted his head, and Daisy pressed her face into his chest. Blakewood stepped around the corner, frowning with impatience.

“The festivities are not done yet,” Amelia said, arms folded and tapping her foot.

Sam scowled. “You didn’t have to have a wedding breakfast and spend hours talking to people.”

“Then you can share yours with us, brother. It’s only a little while longer. An hour, and then you can sneak away.”

“Thirty minutes now, and then I’ll give you two hours at breakfast.”

Blakewood grumbled and turned away. “I don’t want to hear this.”

Daisy slapped at his arm. “Sam!”

“Deal.” Amelia said. “But first we get to shower you with flowers, and you’ll toss the coins, and then you better run back to the house. I’ll slow them as much as I can.”

“I love you, Amelia. Have I told you that lately?”

“No. Now hurry up.” She paused. “I love you to, Sam, and I’m so happy for you. After all—.” She put a hand to her mouth and Blakewood put his arm around her. “We almost didn’t have this.”

Sam’s throat tightened.

Chase popped around the corner. “What’s taking so long? I told you he wouldn’t make it through the ceremony.”

“But you didn’t make a bet with me. You would have won,” Amelia tossed over her shoulder.

“I don’t gamble,” he returned.

Sam took Daisy’s hand, and they rejoined their guests.

His new mother and father-in-law didn’t look pleased at their brief absence, but they’d forgive him.

He gave them a wink. In the carriage he tossed the coins, the crowd cheering.

Then he bent to the coachmen to whisper.

“If you get us back to the house in two minutes I’ll double your pay for the month. ”

The whip cracked, the guests jumping back as the open carriage lurched forward.

Sam fell into his seat and Daisy grabbed hold of him.

Later that evening, Sam kissed a path down Daisy’s stomach, stopping at her sensitive navel.

He’d done as promised after the ceremony.

He settled for thirty minutes of taking Daisy in their shared bedroom—against the door, since time was of the essence, and they didn’t have time to undress.

Then they met their guests back downstairs for the elaborate wedding breakfast Amelia had planned.

She giggled now. “Sam, stop!”

He grinned into her skin, but he did stop, because his dear, delicious wife was still out of breath from their first round of love making. The first of many on this night, their wedding night, the beginning of their shared life.

“This feels like a dream,” she said with a sigh.

Sam crawled up her body and settled at her side, propping his head on his hand. “The best dream,” he said. He made lazy circles on her breast with his hand. “I hope we never wake up.”

She turned her face toward him and smiled. “Do you think they know this isn’t our first time together?”

Sam frowned in thought. “Blakewood and Amelia? Absolutely. Your parents? God, I hope not. I had hoped for a warmer reception when we announced our engagement to them.”

“Well, it didn’t help that you did it immediately after I told them I’d ended my engagement with Cliffton. They were still stunned.”

He shrugged. “I thought it would help if they knew there was a much better, cunning, exceedingly handsome, exceptionally talented earl, already waiting to marry you.”

Daisy rand her hand lazily down his chest. “I don’t think my father views you that way.”

“He should. I’ve known them both for four years. What is there not to like about me?”

“ I love everything about you.”

Sam smiled as he leaned close, stealing a kiss. His heart had never felt so light, his body so relaxed and strong. His rib was finally healed, and he’d taken to his hobbies carefully once again. He didn’t just feel like his old self—he felt better. Better because he had Daisy. He was complete.

But never more than when he was inside her lush body. “Are you sore?”

She giggled. “No.” Her eyes widened. “Again?”

He looked down at his hard cock. “I’ll never have enough.

” He rolled her on top of him and she sat up, her eyes blazing with delight at this new position.

He adjusted her hips, his tip nudging her slick heat and she rose, just enough to sink down onto him.

They both groaned as she took him deep, swiveling her hips.

She learned fast, his little insatiably curious wife.

Sam held her hips, thrusting slow and deep as Daisy arched her back, her ruby hair falling around her shoulders, her ripe, full breasts taunting him with their rosy tips. He wasn’t going to last long. Daisy was a feast for every sense.

“God, Daisy,” he panted.

“Yes, Sam. I’m here. I feel it. I feel you.”

He pumped harder, her grinding her hips as she dug her nails into his chest and used him to reach the heights of heaven. Her mouth popped open with a soft cry, her body going weak as she collapsed to his chest.

Sam flipped them and rolled her onto her stomach.

He pulled her hips up as he got to his knees behind her and entered her in one smooth push.

She groaned his name, and Sam drove hard and fast, his own release shimmering like the sun on water, cascading through his body, tightening every nerve and muscle until his body drove inside her one last time, holding himself deep as he spent himself inside her.

His mind fractured with rapture, his lungs dragging in a gasping breath.

He withdrew and collapsed beside her, then pulled her against his chest.

Her dazzling green eyes stared into his soul, her cheeks flushed, her lips damp from his kisses and curved in a soft smile.

“I love you,” he murmured. They were the heaviest words he’d ever uttered, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from saying them.

Because Daisy had not only stolen his heart, she was his heart, and he’d never let her forget how utterly in love, obsessed, consumed with need he was for her.

He needed her. Like air. Like the blood in his veins.

She placed a hand over his heart. “I love you, Sam. I never dreamed that I could feel like this. I’d... resigned myself to my future. Given up on the hope that... that I’d feel love or be loved.” She swallowed and the emotion in her eyes made his heart ache.

“You will never go a day without my love. Never. If I had to fall off my horse and escape death again just to have you, I would. I’d endure it all over again.”

“Don’t say that.” She moved her hand to his vicious looking scar. “I don’t want to think about you getting hurt. I just want us to have this—our life, our love, forever.”

He leaned in to kiss her again, pausing just before his lips touched hers. “Our life, our love—it began the day you walked into my room. It’s already ours, Daisy. Ours forever.”