Page 74 of The Undaunted
She threw herself into his arms. “Oh Bertie, I was imagining you waking up in the morning because just now, with your hair mussed and your black eye, you look very much like a pirate. We were in Venice.”
Lord Bertridge pulled her close and nuzzled her neck. “Am I now to understand you favor pirates?Venetianpirates?”
“Only this pirate.”
Richard kissed her deeply. His lips were soft, yet forceful. His arms were gloriously strong, just as she imagined they must be, and he pressed her against his broad chest. She could barely breathe, but she did not care. Most delightfully, she realized that he was not the stickiest of the sticks inallareas.
“You must say it all over again,” Caroline whispered. “Exactly how you asked me to marry you so I can hear it properly.”
“I said, marriage seemed the most sensible course.”
“Oh Bertie, you didn’t. Say something else.”
Richard tipped her chin up and stroked her hair. “What would you have me say? That I am mad for Miss Upton? That she unsettles me and is always in my thoughts? That she makes my heart pound and I have been wondering for the past ten minutes what her hair smells like and now I know it is a rather delightful lavender. That I had to knock my aunt’s butler out of the way to get to her?”
“Yes, all of that,” Caroline whispered.
She winced just a little as he pressed against her bruised arm. He pulled back ever so slightly and lifted her arm, kissing it from wrist to shoulder. As he reached her neck he whispered, “There is something you should know about me. You’ve already seen it. I have a temper.”
“Indeed,” Caroline whispered back.
“I keep it well under control though. At least, usually.”
“Yes, the man that pummels a cruel hackney driver to save a horse and pounds a scoundrel like Mr. Landon. I am entirely undaunted by it.
“I won’t ever be cruel to you. I have been, with that ridiculous speech I made that caused you to faint. But I will never be again. That I swear.”
“Swear away, Bertie,” she said, unknotting his cravat and kissing his neck.
He groaned and she looked up and traced the outline of his black eye. “But rather than make such a promise, I think you’d better let your temper out now and again or you will pop like a champagne cork at inconvenient moments.”
“I really do not like to let it out,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “I boxed it up long ago and I try to keep it boxed.”
She kissed his lips gently and whispered, “But you might shout at the sky or lecture a fence post, and nobody minds.”
“I suppose the sky and the fence post won’t mind.”
“Bertie,” she said, pulling his neckcloth ever looser and kissing around it, “perhaps I might button up and you might button down and we can be buttons meeting somewhere in the middle. We should do, I think, or you will be forever scolding and I will be forever cross at your scolding.”
“I do not wish to scold you, ever again.”
“Then you must try, do try! I have undone your neckcloth, perhaps keep it undone in your mind.”
“I imagine you’re right. Just this evening I was wondering if I was becoming a bit of a stick.”
“Only just now becoming?” Caroline said laughing. “Oh Bertie, you are the stickiest of the sticks. I quite adore it.”
The door crashed open and Lady Easton was followed in by Lord Easton, the duchess, and Lady Heathway.
Seeing the state of her nephew and her charge, Lady Easton cried, “What in heavens!”
“We are to be married, Aunt.”
“Married?” Lady Easton said breathless.
“You cannot think I would compromise Caroline in such a manner for any other reason,” Lord Bertridge said cheerfully.
“I should say not, but Richard, marriage?”
