AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh. Other things. I wantother things, too, Gina.”
She grinned. “I can’t wait to find outalltheother things.”
EPILOGUE
Emmett wascertain he’d have smiled when he saw Gina in the entrance to the church. Her white dress was utterly tasteless. It dripped with silver and gold threads, was subsumed with ruffles, and featured more ribbons than he’d ever seen. The waist was high, the décolletage a little low for a church, her cleavage covered by fine Honiton lace. It was hideous.
He grinned so wide his cheeks ached as she walked toward him on Duke’s arm, a bunch of white Camellia flowers in her other hand, wrapped in yet more ribbons that streamed over her fingers.
“That,” he whispered as he took her hand from Duke, “is quite the ugliest gown I have ever had the privilege of seeing you in.”
She beamed. “I thought you’d like it.”
“I love it.” He brought her hand up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles and stared into the hazel eyes he adored so much. It had taken just three weeks to arrange their marriage. They’d called the bans and arranged for both of their families to be here in the village church closest to his Herefordshire estate.
The priest coughed.
“Ready?” he asked Gina, and she nodded.
Emmett turned, her hand in his. It was time.
Their vows rang out in the church, but all Emmett could think of was what was to come. This blur in a cold stone building was only the beginning.
Tonight he and Gina would be together in a bed. His bed.
He slipped the simple gold band onto her finger. She returned the favor, and the unfamiliar weight of it, the symbol of her love for him, took his breath away. Emmett’s grin went even wider as the priest pronounced them husband and wife.
His heart squeezed. She was his.
Finally.
Emmett drew Gina to him and pressed his lips to hers. Memories of Christmas eve and Christmas day flooded him as she responded to him. This was just one kiss of many, so many, that they would share. Their kiss was longer than civilized, and Emmett didn’t care. This wasn’t a fashionably practical match. This was him loving her, and her loving him, so intensely that they both knew they would compromise and find a way at every point. Be it difficult or impossible or easy. They would find a way.
They left the church, laughing, to raucous applause and sprays of rice. The wedding breakfast took forever, and the questions about what they would be doing next were endless. But eventually it was their wedding night and although he knew it was the done thing to drink whiskey and wait for one’s wife to be readied by her maid, Emmett couldn’t. As soon as dinner was finished, he grabbed Gina’s hand, laced their fingers together and led her upstairs.
They had to stop at every landing to kiss, and immediately the door to his rooms closed, he pressed her to him and kissed her, deep and thoroughly.
“I am the luckiest man alive,” Emmett murmured into her ear as he pulled her onto the bed and found the fastenings of her gown. “And you are the most beautiful woman, except for this terrible dress.”
“If you dislike it so much,” she laughed, “You should take it off me. I have no objection.”
“I will.” He kissed down her neck. “Right now. Wife.” He loved that word. “My wife.”
“My husband.”
They undressed each other with greedy intent. It had been three long weeks since he’d lain with her, and he couldn’t wait any longer.
There was a fire in the grate, but still the room was chilly, so Emmett drew her under the covers to keep her warm. There would be many opportunities to look at every inch of her when they were in a hot country during the summer, lazily making love all afternoon. Right now he wanted it to be as warm and intimate as lovemaking could be.
He had a French letter this time, and Gina helped him with it, seemingly fascinated by both it and his body. Her curiosity was insatiable, and he would feed it every day of their lives.
She groaned as he pushed into her. Tight and warm and wet and his. He held her gaze as they both found their pleasure, familiar and yet so new. It cracked open his soul when he felt her shake beneath and around him.
She was his best friend. She’d been his antagonist, his co-conspirator, his friend, his obsession, his lover. She was all of those things now, as well as simply, his.
Forever, his wife.
Fancy a peekat Gina and Everett’s life, six years later? Catch up with them on the 24 June 1823, when Gina has some news in the exclusive extended epilogue when you sign up for my newsletter.
How didMiss Chilson end up living in London and faking embroidery, and why is she so skeptical about love? Find out in her second chance romance,The Mistletoe Trap.
