When Felicity woke it was not yet dawn, and she did not recognize the room she was in. Startled, she jerked upright, her hands instinctively sweeping out to the side.

“Bloody ‘ell,” Felix grunted when she caught him square in the mouth. “I know ye’ve gotten a taste for violence, but next time jest give me a shake.”

“I’m sorry.” Immediately contrite, she folded her arms over her belly. “I did not know where I was.”

“In my bedchamber.” Twisting to the side, he fumbled to light a small oil lamp before he sat back on his elbows and regarded her with the faint tracings of a frown. “Ye fell asleep in front of the fire and I didn’t want ye to get a crick in your neck.” He flexed his jaw. “Although given your newfound penchant for punching I may be inclined just to leave ye there next time.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Aye, that ye did. By ye know what they say.” Beneath a tousled hank of tawny hair his eyes lit with a rakish gleam. “Nothing says sorry like a kiss.”

Her gaze inadvertently dipped to his chest, and she let out a loud gasp and covered her eyes with her hands. “Mr. Spencer! You – you are not wearing any clothes.”

He lifted the blanket. “I’m wearing my drawers. See?”

Felicity certainly did see. Peeking through her fingers, she saw a taut stomach lined with muscle and a black arrow of hair leading straight down to a pair of white cotton drawers so short they might as well have been nonexistent. In the soft glow of the lamp his skin was the same dusky gold as his eyes and it was with marked difficult that she managed to wrench her gaze away.

“A pair of drawers hardly constitutes clothing,” she said with a prudish sniff.

“I’ve all the important bits covered, haven’t I?” Clasping his hands together behind his neck, he fell back onto his pillow. “And I left ye fully dressed.”

That he had. With the exception of her cloak, shoes, and missing gloves, she still had on everything she’d worn to the theater, including her heavy blue gown, now wrinkled beyond repair.

“Do you know what time it is?” she asked, glancing out the window. The double curtains were tied open with satin cord, affording a glimpse of a small courtyard below where everything was still and dark.

“An hour or two shy of sunrise, if I had to hazard a guess.” His gaze steady and unblinking, he said, “Do ye want me to escort ye home, Miss Atwood?”

“No.” She returned his stare, her expression solemn even as her heart began to race and heat warmed her belly. “No, I don’t.”

His eyes darkened with awareness. “What is it ye want, then?”

What did she want? Now that Felix knew her deepest, darkest secret – and it had done nothing but strengthen the love he felt for her – what did she really want? For him. For herself. For them both.

“You,” she said without hesitation. “I want you.”

“Ah, love,” he groaned. “Do ye know how long I’ve been waiting for ye to say those words?”

“Nearly as long as I’ve been waiting to say them, I imagine.” Yet despite her desire, she couldn’t help but feel a prickling of bashfulness. What if she did not meet Felix’s expectations? He’d said to let him worry about it, but how could she possibly do anything except worry? Grasping the blanket, she pulled it up to her chin as she sank lower into the bed. “It – it has been a very long time. I do not know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Nothing.” He angled his body towards her and brushed a curl back behind her ear. “Just enjoy it, and if at any point ye want me to stop ye just say the word.” His mouth curved in a wolfish smile. “Even though I can promise ye that stopping will be the furthest thing from your mind.”

He began by kissing her. Just a soft, lingering brush of his lips across her lips. She attempted to kiss him back, but the self-doubt rushing through her head made her stiff and clumsy. Their noses bumped, then their teeth. Miserable and embarrassed she started to turn away, but Felix merely slid his hand behind her neck and deepened the kiss until she wasn’t thinking, she was only feeling.

The blanket slid out of her grasp and fell to her waist when he began to nibble at her ear, and her head fell back onto the pillow when his mouth skimmed down her throat. She did not panic when he began to tug at the bodice of her gown. Instead she rolled onto her side so he could pull at the stays, and then sat up with her legs dangling over the edge of the bed so he could peel her dress and chemise from her quivering body.

When her clothes were piled on the floor in a heap of satin and silk, he rose to his knees behind her and brought his hands around to her front, cupping her breasts and gently flicking his thumbs across her hard, pointed nipples. 

A spark of bright, brilliant heat ignited between her thighs and on a throaty sigh she tilted her head back, sending her dark hair spilling across Felix’s bare chest. He kissed her throat. Her shoulder. When he twisted her around and kissed her mouth she yielded beneath the pressure of his tongue, and welcomed more heat as he slowly lowered her onto the mattress.

Pillows and blankets were pushed mindlessly aside. She arched her spine on a sharp, thrilled gasp as he drew first one aching nipple between his teeth and then the other, suckling and teasing until her gasp became a muffled cry.

Her body burned with need wherever he touched her, and when he kissed her on the lips against it was her fingers buried in his hair that dragged him there. He shifted his weight, sliding a leg across her silken thighs. His tongue swirled inside her mouth, tasting, possessing, claiming her with every stroke.

When his hand eventually found its way down to the curls that guarded her womanhood she did not even think of resisting. Nor did she lay passively beneath him as he dipped a single fingertip into the honeyed depths of her core, but rather dug her nails into the clenched muscles of his back and urged him on with tiny whimpers of pleasure.

She’d never felt sensations like these before. It was like feeling the warmth of the sun for the very first time. Or looking up at a midnight sky and seeing it lit with a million stars.

Every kiss was new. Every touch held meaning. Every glide of his finger in and out of her body brought her closer to a precipice she’d never even known existed.

He murmured wickedly carnal things in her ear as he mounted her, and with each word spoken her desire heightened until she was throbbing with need. All but sobbing with it. And then he was inside her, his long, hard length filling her, and she was clinging to him, and he was kissing her, and on the same desperate breath they both plunged over the cliff into stunning oblivion.

 

“I saw ye before I ever met ye.” Dawn was just breaking across the horizon as Felix toyed with a silky lock of Felicity’s hair. She laid tucked into the crook of his arm with her eyes closed and one slender arm thrown across his chest. “Did I ever tell ye that?”

“No.” She blinked drowsily up at him. “When?”

“Eight years ago at a ball.”

“Eight years ago…” Her eyes became more alert and he could all but see that quick mind of hers ticking back through the years. “That would have been before I was even married.” She frowned. “How did you know it was me?”

“Do ye really think I would ever forget this face?” He leaned down, nuzzled the side of her neck. But when his ardor stirred and he licked her earlobe the arm over his chest became noticeably heavier.

“Wait,” she protested, pushing him back when he would have begun nibbling along her collarbone. 

“Wait?” he smirked. “That’s not what ye were saying ten minutes ago.”

She gave him a withering look before she sat up. “Where are all the blankets?”

“Dunno,” he said cheerfully as his gaze skimmed unabashedly across her naked breasts. “But I can’t say as I’m going to be looking for them anytime soon.”

Bloody ‘ell, but the woman was a vision. All long, graceful limbs and ivory skin still flushed red in places from their lovemaking. Her hair was tangled around her shoulders, the pins scattered across the floor. She was a mermaid brought to life. A fairy queen coaxed from the woodlands. A goddess descended from the heavens above. 

“I cannot sit here in the nude,” she said, glaring at him as she hunched forward over her thighs and looped her arms around her bent knees. “It is not seemly.”

Felix did not bother to contain his snort. “What difference does it make if ye have on ten dresses or none a’tall? I’ve already seen every inch of ye.”

“But that was when it was dark.” She looked past him out the window to where the sun was slowly rising into a dull, gray sky. “It is daytime now. Or nearly.”

“I’ll let ye in on a secret, love.” Leaning towards her, he angled his head and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “I have excellent night vision.”

Her sigh was long and suffering, but she couldn’t quite disguise the amused twitch of her lips. “Have it your way, then. But I must know…what were you doing at a ball?”

“I was looking at Lady Dunmore’s jewelry.” 

“Looking at it? Or stealing it?”

“Just taking a look.” His mouth stretched in a sly grin. “And maybe tucking a few of the finer pieces in my pocket for a rainy day.”

“Mr. Spencer!”

“Miss Atwood.”

“You really are incorrigible, aren’t you?”

He stroked a finger along her bare arm. “I can show you just how incorrigible I am right now if ye’d like.”

She ignored him. “I remember that ball. It was one of the first ones I ever attended. You really saw me there?”

“Aye. I was on my way out the door when I caught sight of ye across the room. Four dozen women and my eyes went straight to you.”

“I find that rather hard to believe.”

“Ye had on a white dress.”

“All of the debutantes were wearing white,” she pointed out. 

“Ye had on a white dress,” he continued, undeterred by her skepticism, “with little pink roses on the sleeves and your hair was piled up on top of your head. Ye were wearing pearl earrings. And ye were the loveliest girl there.”

“You – you really did see me all those years ago.” She looked at him with amazement. “I can hardly believe it. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Felix shrugged. “I suppose I was waiting for the right moment. And this seemed to be it.”

“I cannot believe our paths crossed all those years ago.” She shook her head. “How odd.”

“Ye can call it odd if ye like, but I prefer to think of it as fate.”

“Do you?”

“Aye.” Bracing his hands on the mattress, he leaned forward again and kissed her nose before he stood up. The last thing he wanted to do was leave Felicity – especially when she was naked in his bed – but his presence was required on Bow Street and he was already late. With the Slasher still on the loose the Captain was requiring all of his men to pull double shifts and he’d begun cracking down on tardiness. If Felix did not get moving quickly he was going to arrive just in time to receive a blustering reprimand. “Ye never stood a chance when it came to me, love.”

He felt Felicity watching him as he pulled a clean pair of trousers out of an antique chest of drawers and a linen shirt out of his closet. Dressing without fanfare, he splashed cold water on his face from a washbasin in the corner of the room before sitting down in a chair to pull on his socks and boots.

“Stay here for as long as ye like. When ye are ready to go there will be a hackney waiting outside.”

“I wish you did not have to leave,” Felicity said wistfully. “I wish – I wish this moment could go on forever. The both of us. Here. Isolated from the rest of the world. Although I do rather miss Henry and Anne.” Her pretty brow creased. “I’ve never been away from them before for more than a few hours.”

“It’s early yet. I’ve no doubt they’re still fast asleep dreaming of sugar plums and kittens.” 

“Kittens? Why would they be dreaming of kittens?” Taking note of Felix’s guilty expression, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Mr. Spencer, what did you do?”

He rose from the chair and unhooked his coat from the back of the door. “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he said evasively.

“Mr. Spencer…”

The woman was like a bloody dog with a bone. Were their genders reversed, she would have made a damn fine Runner. “I may have promised them a kitten.” 

“Mr. Spencer!”

“Each,” he muttered.

“A kitten each?” Felicity’s brows shot up. “Without consulting me first?”

“In my defense, they’re sneaky little buggers.” And when they’d looked up at him with their big eyes and innocent smiles, how could any man on earth not be expected to give them whatever it was their little hearts desired? If they’d asked him for a stable filled with prancing gray ponies he would have found a way to make it possible. Because he’d not only loved Felicity. Somehow along the way he’d fallen in love with Henry and Anne as well.

It was a different sort of love than what he felt for their mother. It was warm. Protective. Paternal. He loved them as if they were his own blood, and if they wanted the moon he would happily drag it down for them. Compared to a celestial orb that controlled the tides, two kittens were hardly a lot to ask for.

“A friend of mine has an entire litter, born just last week.” He slid his arms through the sleeves of his jacket and pulled it snug around his shoulders. “They’ll be ready to go by the end of the month. The children can have their pick.”

“You really should have asked me first.” Felicity frowned at him over her knees. “Now I am going to be the one who has to disappoint them when I tell them they cannot have the kittens.”

“And why would ye go and do a foolish thing like that?”

“Because there is hardly enough room in my mother’s house as it is!” A lock of hair flew up in the air when she huffed out an impatient breath. “Not to mention Mr. Darcy is quite content being the only pet.”

“Which is why the kittens are going to live here.” He leaned back against the door and slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers. Like shooting fish in a barrel, he thought smugly. This was precisely the opening he’d been looking for.

“Why would – can you hand me a blanket, please?” Exasperation sparked in her eyes. “I cannot have a serious conversation while I am devoid of clothing.”

“Those are my favorite sort of conversations to have,” Felix said with a wicked grin, but he went to the closet and pulled out a thin cotton blanket in soft blue. God only knew where the first one had gone. Under the bed, most likely, or it had burned up from all of the heat they’d made between them.

The devil knew he had slept with more adventurous women. More experienced women. More daring women. But not a single one of them had ever set his blood on fire and put stars in his eyes like the way Felicity had. From the first kiss to the last he’d been a man possessed, and even their sweat was not yet dry on the sheets he wanted her again. He would always want her. And he was determined to ensure he always had her.

Fashioning the blanket around her slender body as though it were a Grecian toga, Felicity padded barefoot to the window and peered out through the glass. “You’ve a lovely view of the courtyard.”

“Aye,” he said impatiently. “About the kittens–”

“If you really want to keep them here, there is nothing I can do to stop you. My parents had one once. A stray they made the mistake of feeding, thinking it would go away.” She turned away from the window with curved lips. “It lived quite happily in my father’s study for the next seven years. Although it was rather destructive on occasion. And that was just one cat. I cannot imagine what two would be capable of.”

“I’m sure the children will keep them busy.”

“Yes, when they come to visit. But they will not be here all of the time.” Her smile faded and was replaced by a frown. “It does not sound as though you’ve thought this out very well, Mr. Spencer. Animals, even small ones, are a very large responsibility.”

If only she knew how much he’d been thinking about it.

“What if Henry and Anne were here all of the time?” The floorboards creaked beneath the weight of his heavy boots as he crossed the room and gently took her hands. Squeezing, he looked down at her in earnest. “What if they lived here?”

Felicity looked up at him blankly. “Without me? Mr. Spencer, I have no intention–”

“You’d live here as well.” For a woman with such a quick, clever mind she could be terribly dense. “I want ye to marry me. I want ye to marry me, and live here with me, and share your life with me.”

Her cheeks paled. “Are you – are you proposing marriage, Mr. Spencer?”

“No.”

“No?” she said, confused. “But you just said–”

“I’m tellin’ ye that I am going to ask ye to marry me and live here with me and share your life with me. I thought I’d give ye time to get used to the idea first.”

“Because you think I am going to decline?”

Felix snorted. “Because I know ye are going to decline. Just as I know that I’ll eventually wear ye down. At least this way I’ve given myself a bit of an advantage.” He glanced out the window. The sun was rising higher by the minute. He should have left for Bow Street half an hour ago. The Captain was going to have his head. “I’ve really got to leave, love. But if ye want, I can come calling on ye this evening.”

She hesitated. Bit her lip. Looked down at her bare toes peeking out beneath the hem of the blanket. “Yes,” she said softly, and Felix released the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Yes, I should like that very much.”

Hands diving into her tangled mane he kissed her, hard and fierce and long. The sort of kiss that would carry them both through the day until they saw one another again. When it was finished he cupped her jaw and drank in every blessed, beautiful inch of her flawless countenance. “Tell the little ankle biter’s to mind their mother.”

“I will,” Felicity said dazedly.

Knowing if he lingered another second longer he wouldn’t be able to leave, Felix gave her one last kiss before he left his bedroom, and the woman he loved.