Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lily was so startled at the suddenness of Gabriel’s appearance in front of her that she came to a halt before falling back a step. “Gabriel…? I mean, Your Grace—Gabriel!” The second gasp of his name was made as he took a firm grasp of the tops of her arms so that he could claim her lips with his own.

Lily was so stunned, and she had ached to be with him again for so long, that she kissed him back.

Only to come to her senses seconds later when she realized they were standing outside on the street in broad daylight where anyone might see them.

She tilted her head back at the same time as she placed her hands against Gabriel’s chest and attempted to push away from him. Attempted, because Gabriel remained unmoving and as steady as a rock.

Lily glanced about them self-consciously before hissing, “Someone might see us.”

“Let them.”

“But—”

“Let them all see,” he dismissed again. “Lily, contrary to what you might believe, I am not ashamed of, nor do I have any wish to hide, my…feelings for you.”

“I— But—”

“There are no buts to that statement,” he assured.

“Why are you here?” Lily kept her gaze lowered as she attempted to change the subject to something she found less confusing. “Have you come to tell me the earl’s secretary has been found?”

“Found and arrested,” he stated with satisfaction. “But that is not the reason I have sought you out today.”

“No?”

“No. Darling Lily.” He held both her hands in his own. “When I offered you more a week ago, I do not believe I made myself clear. With your permission, I should like to do so now.”

It had been the most miserable week of Lily’s existence, knowing she would never spend another moment alone with Gabriel. Never be kissed by him. Made love to by him.

She was almost afraid to hope what he was going to say next. “You have my permission.”

He nodded his satisfaction. “Lily, you are the most beautiful, intelligent, kind, and passionate woman it has ever been my good fortune to know, and I am deeply sorry if I ever allowed you to think or believe I felt or thought otherwise.”

Her smile was shaky. “I think we might both be guilty of having done that.”

He eyed her hopefully. “We are?”

Lily took her courage in her hands and continued. “I, in turn, believe you to be the most handsome, intelligent, kind, and passionate gentleman it has ever been my good fortune to know, and I am deeply sorry if I allowed you to think I ever thought otherwise.”

“I love you, Lily,” he told her forcefully. “All of you. Every single part of you. I know I will continue to love you until the day I die. This past week without you has been hell on earth.”

Tears blurred her vision. “I love you in the same way, and this past week has been so horrible. I have always loved you, Gabriel,” she added shyly.

“Always?”

She nodded. “I fell in love with you the night of the ball when Chloe was introduced into Society. You, and the love I have always known I felt for you, are the reasons I knew I would never be able to love another man.”

“Dear God…!” He shuddered. “If I had not overheard you all talking that day— If I had not kissed you or made my scandalous suggestion— I cannot believe how close we came to missing each other!” He released a shaky breath before falling to one knee in front of her, unconcerned with the dampness of the cobbled road beneath. “Lily, you are already the greatest love of my life, but the ‘more’ I wished to offer you, to plead with you to agree to accept, is to consent to becoming my duchess.”

Lily was overwhelmed to see this haughty gentleman down on one knee in front of her in the middle of the wet street, proposing marriage to her . She had never dreamed… Never dared to hope…

“Please, Lily,” he encouraged gruffly.

She swallowed before speaking, still too stunned to believe this was really happening. “Do you truly promise to love me always?”

“I do,” he vowed.

“Will you remain steadfast and true to only me and our marriage?”

“There will never be anyone else for me but you, my darling Lily,” he promised.

A blush warmed her cheeks. “Will we have children together?”

“As many as you wish.”

She winced. “What will my friends in the Spinsters’ Alliance say if I defect so soon after we formed our association?”

“I will tell them that I cannot live without you, and then I shall ask their permission to marry you.”

Her eyes widened. “You will?”

“I shall.”

And as Lily knew only too well, no one would dare refuse the Duke of St. Albans.

She was right. No one did.

Her friends, even Georgiana, were all pleased she had found love and was to marry the Duke of St. Albans. Chloe found it hilarious that Lily had fallen in love with her father, teasing her as to who was the “perfect angel” after all.

Lily hadn’t liked to tell her friend that she hadn’t fallen in love with Gabriel because he was an angel, but because he was the opposite.

Nor had her own father dared to refuse his permission when Gabriel asked for Lily’s hand. She had also made Gabriel promise before he approached her father that he would make no concessions to her parents, that they had already received enough from him, even if they were unaware of it.

Their wedding was spectacular and attended by the Prince Regent himself, amongst many other illustrious guests.

Their honeymoon was a passionate affair that did not see the newly married couple leave their bedchamber at St. Albans Park for the first week. A time when Gabriel’s curiosity was also satisfied as to the length of Lily’s hair. Once released from its confines, it did indeed reach fully to the soft curves of her bottom.

They eventually stirred themselves enough to travel slowly through England up to Scotland, their destination Inverness, so that Lily might be reunited with her sister and introduced to her sister’s husband and baby son.

The reunion had gone so well that the Comte and Comtesse de Villere, accompanied by their son, were invited to join the duke and duchess at St. Albans Park for Lily’s birthday that December, and they had remained afterward to share in the Christmas celebrations. The Earl and Countess of Truro were not invited, nor were Lily’s brothers and their wives.

The de Villeres had happily returned to Scotland in the New Year, having refused the invitation for them to stay and attend the London Season, stating they preferred the quieter life they led together in Inverness.

Lily’s position in Society was now such that she could choose to have as little to do with her parents and her brothers and their families as possible. Which she did.

Being Gabriel’s wife was her honor and her privilege. It was one she intended to cherish for the rest of her life.

As she intended to love and cherish her husband, her darling Gabriel, during all the happy years of their married life together.

Five Years Later

“Take note of those five precious young ladies over there, my son,” Gabriel murmured to his six-month-old heir, Henry George Fitzhugh Lord.

The baby gurgled happily, sitting on his father’s strong thighs as the two of them sat beneath the shade of an old oak tree in the gardens at St. Albans Park.

“All of them, and you, and your older sister Chloe, are the sole purpose of my existence,” Gabriel continued warmly. “I consider it my privilege and priority to love and protect all of you. One day, in the future, you and I will protect them together. But for now, I alone consider it my greatest honor to be allowed to keep that vigil.”

He gazed fondly across the manicured lawn to where his beloved wife and their two sets of twin daughters, four-year-old Daisy and Dahlia, and two-year-old Poppy and Primrose, were chasing butterflies.

Five years ago, Gabriel had thought he had settled for the realization that his family would only ever consist of himself and Chloe. But just a few short years later, he not only had his adored soulmate, Lily, but four more daughters and a son.

Gabriel’s cup of happiness, literally, runneth over, and he knew Lily felt the same way about him and their children and the life they had built together.

Fire ignited in Gabriel’s gut, and his cock stirred as he gazed at the barely visible swell of Lily’s abdomen where their sixth child, or possibly their sixth and seventh, considering their penchant for twins, nestled safely beneath breasts that were already growing larger. Breasts Gabriel did indeed love to suckle on, to draw nectar from, as much as his daughters had and Henry still did. As far as Gabriel was concerned, Lily only became more beautiful and desirable with each pregnancy.

Gabriel freely acknowledged he loved his wife obsessively and possessively. But he was happy to share her, and her body, with their offspring, knowing that when darkness came, she would become his wild and passionate Lily. That she had learned how to “secure his interest in her” in the most basic and erotic ways possible. Pleasures the two of them indulged in fully and often. With a desire which burned so strongly between them, it only grew deeper with every day, every week, every year that passed.

Against all the odds, he and Lily had found each other, had fallen deeply in love with each other, and now they were living together in what they knew was their own paradise on earth.