“I’ll eat your cooking for the rest of my life if it means having you by my side.”
“Then you will have to get used to being hungry.”
“I will find us a bigger house, someday soon, once I’ve bought the shop from Jack. We’ll find a place nearby, where I’m not far from work, yet will have many more bedrooms.”
She stared up at him, unable to help the large smile that spread across her face. “Bedrooms we will fill?”
“I can’t wait to do so. A house near green space, where I can teach my children to fall in love with the game of football, just as I did as a child.”
Minnie focused only on his face, one that she hoped to now have a lot more time getting to know, with all of the threats on their lives behind them.
“I like the sounds of that,” she said. “Is this it now? Are we truly safe?”
“I’m still a bit concerned about Arthur Bellingham the Third,” Tommy said wryly, “but I did tell Inspector Finch about him. I’m not sure the police take kindly to foreigners trying to barter for women on their shores.”
“I will breathe easier once he’s gone, that is for certain,” she said, comforted by the warmth in his gaze. “And while we wait? What now?”
“Now, you should have a bath and go to bed,” he said sternly.
“Will you help me?”
“Not sure how I could resist that request.”
Drawing the bath was not quite as quick as at her parents’ house, Tommy’s soon-bare back muscles straining with the effort of carrying the buckets up the stairs, but Minnie didn’t mind watching him. Not at all.
She actually would be perfectly happy to sit here and watch him fill the tub, especially if he was planning on joining her in it afterward.
She finally moved enough to remove her clothing, putting it away in the wardrobe as Tommy stood, brushing his hands together in satisfaction. Sensing her movement, he turned, surprise flaring in his eyes when he watched her walk toward him, before they narrowed at her approach.
“What is it?” she asked as he bit his lip.
“However long we spend together, I don’t think I will ever fully understand how a woman like you decided to marry me.”
She stopped in front of him, lightly running her fingers over the muscles protruding from the tops of his shoulders, down his sinewy arms until she laced her fingers in his. She stood on tiptoe to come as close to him as she could, her lips but a breath away from his.
“I think the same thing every day and will forever be grateful that you risked everything to save me. To marry me.”
“I’d do it time and again.”
“But only for me,” she said sternly, and he laughed before he leaned in and nipped the end of her finger.
“Of course.”
Finally, he took her mouth, but just when Minnie began to sink into the deepening kiss, he pulled back, surprising her by picking her up, one arm under her knees, laughing at her gasp of surprise.
“First, time to bathe.”
The warm water wrapped around her like a blanket, andMinnie groaned as she sank into the tub. She opened her eyes to find Tommy watching her hungrily, and she crooked a finger at him.
“Come here.”
He followed her command, kneeling beside her and dragging his fingers in the water.
“That’s not quite close enough,” she said with a grin.
“How close do you want me to be?”
“Inside the tub would be perfect.”
