Page 122 of Married to a Frozen Duke
"I mean everything I'm saying. That's the problem with drunk honesty—it's still honesty." He studied her face as if memorizing it. "Heavens, you're beautiful. Have I mentioned you're beautiful?"
"A few times."
"It bears repeating. Beautiful. Annoying. Perfect. Terrible for my self-control."
"Your self-control seems pretty thoroughly destroyed already."
"Completely decimated. Obliterated. Other words meaning destroyed that I can't think of because you're sitting in my lap and my brain has stopped working properly."
She kissed him again and he made a sound that was almost a whimper.
"That's not helping my brain work better," he mumbled against her lips.
"Good. This is happiness,” she added.
“But I do not know how to be happy.”
The admission was so quietly sad that Ophelia's heart ached. She cupped his face in her hands, making him look at her. "Then we'll learn together."
"Together again. You're very insistent on together."
"Because we're married. Together is rather the point."
"I thought the point was securing my inheritance and ending the feud."
"That was the beginning. This is the middle."
"What's the end?"
"I don't know. But I'd like to find out with you."
He stared at her for a long moment, then pulled her into another kiss, this one desperate and needy. "I want that too. Which is terrifying."
"There's that word again."
"It's a very applicable word when it comes to you."
They stayed like that for a while, trading kisses and touches, the fire dying down to embers. Alexander's hands had found their way under her hair, massaging her neck in a way that made her melt against him.
"We should probably stop," he said eventually, though he made no move to actually stop.
"Why?"
"Because I'm very drunk and you're somewhat drunk and we should probably have our first... whatever this is... when we can remember it clearly tomorrow."
"You won't remember this tomorrow?"
"Oh, I'll remember. I'll remember too much. I'll wake up mortified at everything I've said."
"Don't you dare take any of it back."
"I won't take it back. I might hide in my study for a week avoiding you out of embarrassment, but I won't take it back."
"No hiding. We should stop hiding."
"Bold words from someone who literally hid in the servants' hall to avoid me last week."
"That was different. I was being strategic."
