Page 119 of Married to a Frozen Duke
"And?"
"Softer than I imagined. Everything about you is more than I imagined."
"You've imagined me?"
"Constantly. Another very annoying habit you've given me." His thumb traced her cheekbone. "I imagined kissing you during that disaster of a wedding breakfast. Just to make everyone stop talking."
"That would have certainly given them something else to talk about."
"I imagined it at the inn, when we were sitting by the fire and you looked golden in the light."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I'm a fool with excellent self-control. Or terrible self-control, depending on how you look at it." His hand was in her hair now, loosening the pins she'd hastily put in after her bath. "I have no self-control right now."
"Good."
"Good?"
Instead of answering, Ophelia leaned down and kissed him. It was awkward at first but then Alexander made a sound like surrender and pulled her properly into his lap, and suddenly everything aligned perfectly.
The kiss was nothing like she'd imagined a first kiss should be. It wasn't gentle or tentative. It was desperate, weeks of frustration and loneliness and want poured into the connection. Alexander kissed like he did everything else, with intense focus and determination, but there was something else too, something vulnerable and needy that made her heart ache.
When they finally broke apart, both were breathing hard.
"That was..." Alexander started.
"Don't overthink it."
"I overthink everything. It's another very annoying habit."
"Then I'll have to distract you." She kissed him again, shorter this time, sweeter.
"Very effective distraction," he murmured against her lips. "Though the brandy is also helping. Have I mentioned the brandy is excellent?"
"Several times."
"It bears repeating. Excellent brandy. Excellent wife. Terrible decision-making skills currently, but excellent everything else."
"Why terrible decision-making skills?"
"Because I'm about to say things I'll probably regret when I'm sober."
"Such as?"
"Such as I'm falling in love with you, which is absolutely ridiculous because we've been married for weeks and I've spent most of them being horrible to you."
Ophelia's heart stopped. "You're what?"
"Falling in love with you. Possibly already fallen. Definitely somewhere in the falling process. It's very inconvenient and entirely your fault."
"You can't just announce you're falling in love with someone and blame them for it!"
"I can and I am. If you hadn't been so persistently yourself, I could have maintained my comfortable emotional distance. But no, you had to be kind to servants and save sick children and organize village mutual aid societies. You had to have opinions and challenge me and make me think about things I'd successfully avoided thinking about for years."
"Alexander..."
"I'm not finished. I'm drunk and finally saying things, so I'm going to say all of them." He pulled her closer, his arms wrapping around her waist. "Your brothers were right. You deserve better than me. You deserve someone who knows how to be warm and open and human without needing most of a bottle of brandy to manage it."
