Page 65 of The Duke's All That
“I cannae begin to know how you got through that, Seraphina,” he said thickly, and it was only then she saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry, mo ghraidh.”
My love.Her heart, which had already been full, nearly burst at the endearment. “You are not disgusted by what I’ve told you?” she asked quietly, needing to hear it in plain words from his lips.
“Disgusted?” He looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “Of course I am nae disgusted. How can I be?”
“But society will destroy you if it’s ever found out. You will be shunned.”
He let loose a derisive bark of laughter. “As if I care about all that. Society can hang for all I care. The only thing that matters to me is you.”
He pulled her into his arms, drawing her against him. And Seraphina felt as if she had truly come home. “You are the bravest, the most amazing woman I have ever known, Seraphina.”
Tears, those blasted tears, would insist on blurring her vision just then. She blinked them away, not caring if they tracked down her cheeks, only needing to see his beloved face.
“I certainly hope so,” she said thickly, “because there is something infinitely braver I am about to do, that is much more difficult than telling you the truth about my past.”
She cupped his face in her hands. “I love you, Iain MacInnes. I have always loved you.”
“Ah, God, lass,” he choked, lowering his head to hers.
This kiss was unlike anything they had shared before. Even when they had loved each other all those years ago, the love of two young people with open hearts who had dared to defy the world, it was nothing like this. No, this was the coming together of two souls who had walked through the fires of hell itself and come out the other side, who had been burned and damaged but were stronger for it, who had found a healing in each other.
She opened her mouth under his eagerly, running her hands up his broad shoulders, marveling in the strength under her hands, in the tenderness in his touch as he cradled her like the most precious treasure. They drank of each other, a new beginning in the act, and she did not think her heart could be more full.
Until he pulled back and gazed down at her with a love stronger than any she had ever seen. And then he lifted the chain around his neck to reveal that simple silver ring he had slipped on her finger all those years ago.
His own hands shook as he removed the chain from the ring, but his voice was sure and strong when he spoke.
“I know our marriage has been dissolved,” he said gruffly. “But you have always been the wife of my heart. And I have nae stopped loving you for even a moment. I love you, mo ghraidh. Will you marry me again, and make my heart whole?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Then, stronger, “Yes, Iain, I will marry you.”
And as he slipped the ring on her finger and pulled her close for another kiss, this one filled with all the promise of their tomorrows, she knew no one would ever separate them again.
Epilogue
Haud yer wheesht.”
“Haud yer wheesht!”
“Nae, you feathered menace. Dinnae be copying me.”
“Dinnae. Dinnae. Haud yer wheesht.”
“Damn it all to hell. Nae! Dinnae you dare repeat that, you blasted pigeon. Seraphina!”
Seraphina, who had been diligently writing out the latest chapter of the newest S. L. Keys serial in her spacious sitting room, looked up from the stack of papers before her, trying her damnedest not to laugh as Iain came storming in, Phineas bobbing happily along on his shoulder. Her pet had taken quite a fancy to her husband once he saw how happy the man made her, and when he wasn’t with her, he was with Iain.
Probably because the man had the horrible propensity of teaching the parrot a whole slew of new—and completely inappropriate—things to say.
Phineas, seeing her, took off from Iain’s shoulder and landed on her desk, where he proceeded to pick at her quill with his sharp beak.
“That bird,” Iain said in a highly offended tone as Seraphina worked at removing the quill from her pet’s grasp, “is the devil incarnate.”
“Oh, nonsense,” she said, giving the parrot a good scratch behind his head. He tilted his head to one side, in obvious ecstasy. “He is an angel.”
When Iain merely stared at her in disbelief, she laughed. “Very well, not an angel. But you have to admit he’s a sight better now than he was when you first met him.”
“Well, aye,” Iain admitted grudgingly, his hand going to his ear, an old habit he hung on to out of pure wicked glee. “At least he is nae about to give me a piercing any longer.”
