Page 31 of The Rake and the Muse
“Sweetheart, you didn’t need to get me anything.”
She rolled her eyes. “Will you just remove the sheet and see what it is?”
He eyed her curiously and stepped close to the present. He glanced back at her one last time and then clasped the side of the sheet and carefully removed it, and it fell from his hand as he took in what was on the easel before him.
“Jules,” he whispered. “This is…this is…I love it.”
She stepped up beside him to look at the painting with him. It was a full body painting of Theo in his finery,looking every bit the aristocratic marquess. She believed she had captured him perfectly, with just a hint of the mischief that always lurked in his eyes.
“I began working on this right after I first showed you the painting of the woman with child.”
He smiled as if recalling the memory. “And we were soaked from the rain.”
She nodded. “Somehow, I knew then that you were going to be important to me, and I had to paint you. I wanted you to see yourself the way I see you.”
“Does this one have to go to the gallery, or can we keep it here?” he asked, but she already knew which he would prefer.
“I painted it for you. It is yours to display wherever you wish. I get to see the real version every day.”
He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “I’d like to hang it in my study, right next to the painting of Thomas.”
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes, understanding what that placement meant to her husband. “Perhaps you should check the name of the piece. I wrote it on the back.”
He picked up the painting and turned it around and read it out loud. “Father to our…child.”
Theo looked up at her. His eyes shone with nothing but love and joy. “You are? We are?”
She nodded, grinning back at him as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. He set the large canvas down carefully and then pulled her into his arms. “I love you so much, Jules.”
“I love you, Theo.”
He placed his hand on her stomach. “I don’t think there is anything in this world that could make me happier.”
“Perhaps if the babe is a boy?” She laughed.
He shook his head. “I don’t care. As long as we are a happy, healthy little family, that is all that matters. Speaking of which, when should we tell your father?”
She nudged him towards the settee by a line of windows. “No more talking, unless your words are dirty, husband.”
She turned so her back was to him and clasped his hands to pull his arms around her. Once she felt that familiar bulge against her bottom, she rubbed her cheeks harder against his member in the way that always got her what she wanted. It hadn’t been difficult to figure out the simple things she had to do to get him in any manner she wanted him.
“Jules,” he ground out. She grinned and her core throbbed, anticipating what he would do next.
He urged her to lean over the settee. She rested her knees on the cushions and gripped the back, spreadingher legs apart, a position she had been in countless times on the sturdy piece of furniture.
She glanced over her shoulder to see him working his falls. She laughed, noting they hadn’t even bothered to close the door.
Theo moved closer behind her and leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck, lifting her skirts to rest high on her back. He inserted two fingers inside of her sheath.
“You have been planning this, my beautiful siren,” he said, smirking. “You aren’t wearing any underclothes, and you are dripping.”
She wiggled her bottom to move against his fingers. “I’m wanton for my husband.”
He released a low growl and removed his fingers, replacing them with the head of his cock, then pushing into her with agonizing slowness.
She moaned, loving the way he felt inside her from that position. She rocked back against him, gripping the wood trim of the back of the settee. He clasped her hips and thrust into her.
“Touch yourself,” he ground out, thrusting into her again.
