“Kiss me,” she breathed, sinking her fingernails into Damien’s shoulders, and his answer was to do exactly that, caressing his lips over hers again and again as he moved deeper, faster, until they fell off the precipice of ecstasy together.
“We are going to miss the party,” Caroline murmured.
Yet even as she said so, she snuggled deeper into Damien’s chest. She smiled against his taut flesh as she felt his deep chuckle vibrate through his chest, and his arm tightened around her waist. She was not sure if it had been hours or mere minutes after their intense lovemaking, but the pleasure that it had released had been so heady that she had fallen into a deep sleep. She had awoken only moments ago to the delicious feel of Damien’s fingers stroking down her naked back, his soft lips caressing over the column of her neck and down her shoulder.
“You never did tell me,” she murmured against his chest. “How you found me.”
Damien’s hand stilled on her back. “I put my men on it the morning after the wedding. Every coaching inn, every village within a hundred miles. It took weeks. You hid yourself well, angel.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “When that turned up nothing, I started asking after you myself. Eventually, someone remembered you.”
Caroline felt a tremor of regret move through her bliss. She had wasted so much time not accepting Damien for who he truly was, and now, as they finally got over that, an old problem had resurfaced. Her stepmother. She had threatened them, and Caroline knew her well enough to know that Agatha never made false threats.
“I feel you tensing,” Damien murmured against her ear before he kissed the shell of it. “What is wrong? Are you in pain?”
Touched by how well he sensed her discomfort, Caroline looked up and gave him a comforting smile.
“No, that faded long ago,” she promised, reaching up to caress his cheek.
His answering smile had her heart swelling with affection, and it nearly burst when he nuzzled into her touch and kissed her palm.
“What is it then?” he asked. “Something is amiss.”
Caroline drew her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying it. It only lasted a moment, though, before Damien dipped his head and suckled her lower lip into his mouth, soothing away the small sting of her teeth with his tongue.
She whimpered and blushed as he pulled away and playfully scolded, “Do not do that. If anyone is going to be biting yourlip, it is going to be me. And I promise it will only bring you pleasure.”
His grin was handsome and devious, and again, even as she smiled, she mentally kicked herself for wasting so much time apart.
“Talk to me,” he coaxed, drawing her fingers up to his mouth.
“Something my stepmother said,” she confessed as he feathered kisses along her knuckles. “About George. She said she knew about him. But I do not know how. We have kept him a secret.”
Damien’s handsome features creased as he frowned.
“That is impossible,” he agreed, “The only ones that know about George are you, Jeremy, my staff, and the woman that brought him to me. I trust my staff, you, and my brother implicitly.”
After a moment of thinking, Caroline asked, “Do you think it would be possible that his old nurse, Mrs. Burns, would have told someone? She was not at all happy with the way she was dismissed.”
“I doubt it,” Damien replied. “Mrs. McClain said the woman changed her tune quite suddenly after the small fortune she was paid.”
Caroline murmured her agreement and thought some more.
“This woman who brought George. What did she look like?” she asked after a few moments.
Damien chortled as he moved to sit up, bringing her with him and setting her on his lap.
“I genuinely cannot remember,” he confessed as he caressed his hand tenderly down her neck and over her breasts. “I have notgiven any woman other than you much thought or notice for over five years.”
Caroline’s brows drew up in surprise.
“You cannot be serious!” she insisted, and Damien smirked.
“I did try to tell you that I was serious about making you mine,” he replied dryly.
Happiness bloomed in Caroline’s chest as pleasure continued to tingle through her body everywhere Damien’s roaming hands touched.
“But five years? You did not even—”
“No,” Damien whispered, sliding his hand back up to her throat as he met her eyes with great seriousness. “I have nottouchedanother woman.”
