Page 6 of The Scent of Snow
She ate blinis and caviar from his fingers, and a sigh escaped her lips. "Our guests will swoon with this food."
He had brought the chef from their estate in Compiegne to please her. She wanted a perfect Christmas, and he would give it to her.
"Won't you tell me what happened?"
"It's nothing to do with Cris." That was all he would reveal. The Duke of Titano wouldn't crack the dome of their happiness. Pedro wouldn't allow it. Grief and unwelcome memories had no place in their meadow.
She knelt between his legs and searched his eyes. "I thought we had battled your shadows."
He kissed her palm. "We did." He would not be the malingerer who clung to his wounds after they were supposed to be healed. Even if the wounds had left scars, scars that weren't quite smooth. He could be the man she had hoped to marry.
"We are happy, are we not? Perhaps if we started a —"
Pedro kissed her lips and then her eyelids. Her taste, honeyed and layered, drew him to her, and he settled her between his thighs, her spine resting on his chest. The robe gaped open, revealing the valley between her breasts. The glow of candlelight lapped her skin. Pedro drew his fingertips from the hollow of her throat to her navel. The silk, already a flimsy barrier, gave way after his first foray, pooling by the sides of her torso. Slowly, he pulled the sash from around her waist. Her breath caught when he ventured further, leaving her sex bared to his gaze.
His cock pressed against her lower back, and she shifted, arching her hips, trying to lure him inside.
Unwilling to be rushed, Pedro bit the side of her neck and nudged her legs apart, forcing them to straddle his hips. With his thumbs, he massaged her mound and then opened the lips of her sex to reveal her pearl of desire. He found it glistening, eager for him, and pulled her closer.
She moaned when he penetrated her from behind, her derriere straining against his groin. This time, he allowed her hands to roam, healing and grounding him in her.
The climax took them to their meadow of love.
Afterward, she lay on his chest, her eyes heavy-lidded, her lips swollen from his kisses. Pedro accommodated her on his left side, away from the old wound on his shoulder, freeing his right hand. He caressed her back in the soothing way he did every night before she slept.
"Your family arrives tomorrow for Christmas. You still didn't tell me what you want for a gift." He bought the Star of the South for her and had the cushion-shaped diamond set in a necklace. The new coach and the whitest Lusitano horses to pull it had arrived yesterday. If she wanted something else, he would bring her the world and splay it at her feet.
Anne kissed his chest and then placed her hand above his heart. "I want a baby."
Pedro stilled. "We discussed this before. You are too young—"
"Beatriz is my age, and she will deliver next month."
Pedro had to look away from the pleading in Anne's eyes. The need to tear up a limb to please her warred with the absolute necessity of protecting her from what she wanted. He, a father? The Duke of Titano, a father? Never.
"Don't you want a child?"
"There's plenty in the countryside. You can take one to foster here."
Her gaze clouded, and she shifted away from him. "Really, Pedro, I try to ignore the newspapers, but sometimes you scare me with—"
"None of them is mine. I don't have bastards."
"I know you don't. But can't you see? I want our own baby. A boy with your hair and strength…"
"We won't have this discussion now. I protect you. You and the country because you are in it. I cannot protect you from things beyond my control. Go to sleep, Anne."
Chapter 3
WhenAnnewokeup,her bed was empty. She stretched, lifting her arms above her head. While the sheets were cold, her body tingled in places and ached in others. Pedro's lovemaking was never the same. While he couldn't always express his feelings in words or through his kaleidoscopic eyes, she could sense his moods through the way he made love to her. Gentle, rough, reverent, explosive… She had experienced all the palettes of Pedro's emotions. And yet, something about him last night had scared her… Anne stood, flinging the covers off herself. No, he was happy. They were happy. And soon, they would be even more overjoyed when a child became a part of their family.
A groan escaped her chest. What had possessed her to breach the subject yesterday? He hadn't been in the right mind to talk about children. Why couldn't she learn strategy from the country's greatest strategist? Sighing, she stood and inspected her appearance in the mirror. What was done was done. Plus, Griffin, Julia, and the others would arrive today. When Pedro partook in the bliss of infants, he would change his mind about having a baby. Certainly, spending time with Tony would give him a glimpse of the pleasures of parenting a boy, and Clara, Julia's toddler, was simply adorable. Anticipating seeing them, Anne dressed quickly and opened the door.
Dante guarded the bedchamber.
"You are back shadowing the corridor?" Pedro had dismissed the practice of leaving his aide-de-camp to guard her when she convinced him she was perfectly safe inside the house. The relapse made her pause, but she ignored it. Pedro was being overzealous.
Dante bowed. "Hemera quickens, My Lady, and the count went to ride Erebus before the stallion demolished the stables."
