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Brombale Park
Seven Years Later
The springtime garden was lush and fragrant. It was the perfect place for Matilda to work while Lucas was out with the boys. Seated in the refurnished pagoda that held so many memories of her and Lucas, Matilda sewed a bumblebee into the cloth of another handkerchief.
She dropped the needle for a moment to look around. Everything was so familiar but different at the same time. The shingles on the roof of the pagoda had been changed, just like the water fountain that used to be there. Instead of Hestia holding a basket, Cupid took her place.
The flowers, once all roses, were now a hodgepodge mix of fragrant wildflowers, and the even down to the seats she was used to, once Ashwood benches, she now sat on rosewood.
“Change should be normal,” she smiled. “One day, Duncan will change this place too.”
An aggravated squawk—her son’s Oliver’s voice had her placing the cloth up and away and rushing to the front. There she stopped as there was no reason to fret, as Oliver had only tripped. The five-year-old only brushed the dirt off his knee, while Duncan, their oldest at six, came rushing to her.
“Mother, Grandpa Harry got a new horse and he said that when I am older, I can ride it. Can I get riding lessons?”
“Duncan,” Lucas said sternly, while holding their youngest sleepy son, Nathan in his arms. “We have spoken about this. You will get riding lessons in a few years at Eton.”
Going to him, Matilda kissed his cheeks. “Why not give him a head start, dear? I don’t think learning the basics will harm him too much.”
“I want to learn too,” Oliver said, crossing his arms. “It’s only fair.”
Lucas gave Matilda a mock glare. “See what you started?”
She laughed while taking Nathan from him. “How was London with our fathers?”
“The same as always, them still griping that we had not chosen any of their names for our children,” Lucas said. “But this time it was more teasing than complaining. Boys, go upstairs.”
The two scrambled and ran upstairs with Oliver chasing Duncan until they disappeared around the corner. Matilda pressed her nose to the youngest’s flyaway hair and smiled. Barely two and a half, he was still chubby from his baby weight, and he had tufts of hair that never settled right on his head.
“And Noah?” she asked while retracing her children’s steps. “How is he doing?”
“Very well,” Lucas said. “His twin boys make our hellions look sedate in comparison. But they played well together and gave me and Noah a chance to talk business.”
“And I got a chance to finish Lady Portland’s order,” Matilda said.
A few years ago, when she had been pregnant with Duncan, Matilda had found it utterly mind numbing to do nothing with her time, and though Lucas did not want her to work, he had not objected to her taking on a few projects for some lady friends in the ton. It had become a nice way to keep busy while earning some money on the side.
“Good,” Lucas said. “I know you love sewing.”
“Oh, Cat’s still travelling the continent, but she told me that she would come see us this Christmastide, with presents for the boys,” Matilda said excitedly. “I’ve longed to see her and now we can. I got a letter from her this morning.”
“Ah, the industrious Lady Bergstrom,” Lucas said, “I would love to see her too. Have I told you I meant to thank her for watching over you for all those years I was away?”
Giggling, Matilda said, “I think you’ve told her a time or two, but I’m sure she won’t mind hearing it again. Let me take care of the boys and we can talk,” Matilda said as she went to the children’s rooms, to see the boys both asleep on their beds. They had managed to pull their shoes off but still wore their travelling clothes.
Smiling, Matilda placed Nathan on his trundle bed, fixed Duncan’s head on the pillow, and peeled a lone sock off Oliver’s left foot, then went back to Lucas.
His cravat and waistcoat were gone, as were his boots. A glass of sherry was in his hand, and he looked up. “Let me assume, both boys are dead to the world on their beds.”
“Yes,” Matilda said. “I expect an hour or so of peace for us to talk.”
“Hmm,” Lucas rested the glass down and came to her side, looping his arms around her. “I was not thinking about talking.”
Sliding her hands up his arms, she rested them on his chest. “Oh, is that so. You would not be telling me that you are in the way of wanting another child, are you?”
“What’s to say it’s another child?” Lucas grinned. “I have Frenchman Letters, love.”
She grinned. “You randy beast. We made love this morning.”
Instead of speaking, Lucas softly guided her backward until her back pressed against a wall. “My darling, wonderful wife,” he kissed her ear, “All you have to say is yes or no.”
“Yes,” she sighed, while leaning into his touch. “A thousand times yes, and a thousand times more.”
His mouth landed on her, and the moment his lips touched hers she began to float, adrift in sensations that only Lucas could give her. Then the chaste kiss deepened, and the undercurrent of lust stirred within her. Lucas’s lips were hot and demanding against hers. Pressed up against the wall, Matilda felt trapped, in the best way.
Her captor could do what he wished with her any way he wanted to, and she would let him. Their tongues twined, twisted, and stroked the other, while lulling, she began to drift away from the present and drifted off into a dream.
Enraptured in the haze, she felt her clothes began to pull and drift away. She could not get enough of the taste and feel of him and craved more. She moaned as his hands moulded her breasts, teasing the tight nipples with his clever fingers.
The contrast of the smooth, cool wood against her back and shoulders against this warmth made her shiver.
“I love your breasts,” he growled. “I want to suck these pretty nipples so hard you’ll come apart only by them.”
“I suppose you would, but, I want more than your mouth, dear husband,” she whispered. “I want you deep inside me.”
She found herself on the bed with him sliding down her body, stopping briefly to suck at her breasts before licking a strip down her belly, propping her knees over his shoulders as he began to pleasure her nether region.
Any words she might have said were overtaken by a high keening cry, as he continued to lick and suckle at her, coaxing more pleasure from her than she could imagine possible. He had a warm hold on her thighs and held her down.
She felt a wash of white overcome her mind while he lapped at her vulnerable bud, pulling with gentle suction and using the tip of his tongue to draw maddening circles on her flesh. Matilda’s climax shattered her without warning, and she rocked against him, shuddering and moaning as the spasms shook her body.
“Lucas, please!” Matilda begged, her hands reaching out and clutching at him.
Propping himself on an elbow, he positioned himself at her entrance, nudging himself against her swollen flesh. With a solid breathless stroke, he entered her, and she felt tight as she stretched over him.
Balancing himself with the wall strap, Lucas drove his hips forward, and she peeled her eyes open to see the heat in his golden eyes and his nostrils flaring at the sight of her in the throes of ecstasy.
He moved gently at first, but soon found a pace that kept them teetering on the edge of surrender but a hairsbreadth away from it. The aroused sounds of his gasp and their slick joining took possession of her.
In this moment, there was nothing but Lucas. The hardness of his body, the tense grip he had on her hips, the musky smell of his cologne. She titled her head back and keened as he drove into her, giving her what she needed, even as he took all of her.
His pace slowed to a subtle but deep motion inside her body. His mouth found hers and never left except to catch quick breaths.
“I love you, Matilda. Every part of you,” he said while reaching between them as he found and rolled her knot between his fingers.
She sank her fingers into his shoulders as he flexed his hips powerfully, plunging so deep that he brushed her womb. His finger on her bud sent sweet, biting pleasure up her spine and until she began to tighten around him. As he pumped steadily into her, driving her higher, his dew-slickened manhood unmercifully goading her to surmount her peak.
“Lucas!”
He rubbed her harder as she began to convulse around him
Matilda grabbed his head and pulled him in for a kiss to muffle her scream as a shattering climax racked her body.
“You are mine, forever,” Lucas groaned, his mouth an inch away, as wild pleasure swept through him like wildfire.
He exploded in an endless release that had Matilda gasping. When the shudders left him and he parted from her, he fell to her side and lazily managed to pull her to sprawl atop him.
Resting her head on his chest, Matilda sucked in long, steadying breaths. “Lucas….”
“Hmm?”
“If I am pregnant again, you will be sleeping with the boys for the next nine months,” she murmured sleepily.
He snorted. “I don’t think I can fit in a trundle bed, dear. You’re jesting.”
When she didn’t say anything, he craned his head to look at her. “You are jesting, right?”
Her fingers drew a circle on his belly, and her words were laced with mysterious promise. “We’ll have to see then, won’t we?”
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OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Secrets and Passions of High Society", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hello there, my dearest readers! I hope you enjoyed the book and the Extended Epilogue! I will be waiting for your comments here. Thank you 😊
A love treasured from childhood, but threatened by a vicious, scheming seductress intent on stealing the hero from his forever love. Thankfully, all came right in the end. A wonderful love story and a true, honorable, single minded hero.
I am humbled my dear Ann! Thank you so much for your kind words and support. I truly appreciate it! So glad to hear that you enjoyed the story! Make sure to stay tuned because I have more coming!
A really lovely love story that starts when they are young children and continues over the years in spite of class differences, a family rift, war and a malicious scheming woman. They are both such nice people but they get caught up in situations created by other. Eventually their love prevails and they sort out everything. The title lists him as a sinful colonel but there is nothing sinful about him. He is nobler than some of the nobility he is dealing with. I caught a couple of minor errors but they are so minor that they do not affect the story. I am pointing them out so that they can be updated since I know Amazon does send out updates to their kindle customers. The first was at the beginning where you say Lucas has not seen England in 10 years but then later in the book you talk about how many women in Brighton were interested in marrying him last year. Since Brighton is in England, maybe you meant he had not seen London in 10 years instead of England. The other thing I noticed was towards the end Matilda asks her father about the rift between him and Mr. Lucas but I think you meant Mr. Connors. The last thing I want to point out is that I found it odd that people addressed him as my Lord in the first part of the book. To be called My Lord, he would have to be awarded a title by the royal family. He should have been called Colonel Conners since retired army officers keep their title or he could be called Mr. Connors as you have him listed in the rest of the book. Anyway apart from those minor things it is a well written book and I think your readers will like it as much as I did.
Thank you so much dear Madhu!
I really appreciate your detailed review! You are raising some valid points and I will check them with my editor.
Make sure to stay tuned because I have more coming!