Page 109 of A Night of Desire with a Duke
They lay quietly for a while, hands roaming gently, both lost in thoughts of the future.
"We should probably sleep," Catherine said eventually. "It's nearly dawn."
"Probably."
Neither of them moved.
"Or," James suggested, his hand sliding down her back, "we could celebrate properly."
"Haven't we been celebrating all this time that we are together?"
"That was just the prelude."
"James, I don't think I can..."
He proved her wrong, thoroughly and delightfully wrong, until the sun was fully up and they were both completely spent.
"Now we really need to sleep," Catherine said, barely able to keep her eyes open.
"Agreed." But he pulled her closer rather than letting her move to her side of the bed. "Stay right here."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise?"
"I promise. For the next eight months, I'm going to get rounder and waddle like a duck and you're going to have to help me out of chairs."
"I can't wait."
She laughed against his chest. "You're impossible."
"I'm yours."
"Yes," she agreed sleepily. "You are."
As she drifted off, Catherine thought about how different her life was from what she'd imagined that night at the inn. She'd been running from one prison, never imagining she'd find freedom in another kind of bond entirely. Marriage to James wasn't the cage she'd feared...it was wings.
"Stop thinking so loud," James mumbled against her hair.
"How do you know I'm thinking?"
"You get a little line between your eyebrows."
"You can't see my eyebrows. Your eyes are closed."
"I know you, Catherine. Every expression, every tell, every thought."
"That should be frightening."
"Is it?"
"No. It's perfect."
And it was. Here in their bed, in the soft morning light, with their bodies still humming from passion and their first child growing inside her, Catherine knew she'd found exactly where she belonged.
Not as the Duchess of Ravensfield, though she wore that title well. Not as society's darling or the ton's most envied wife. But as Catherine, just Catherine, loved by James, just James.
The storm that had brought them together had passed, but what they'd built in its wake was strong enough to weather anything.
