The Affair (Entangled Scandalous) (6 page)

“I’ll be happy as long as I have you. But if it pleases you, I know better than anyone there are plenty of orphans who need families.”

“But they wouldn’t legally be yours.”

“They would be
ours
,” he said softly. “In every way that mattered.”

She’d thought she had already shed her last tears over him, but she found herself blinking as her eyes blurred, and she struggled to speak through an aching throat. When she did, her voice was small and hoarse. “Do you really mean that?”

“Every word,” he said, finally reaching for her, finally cradling her face with warm, gentle hands. “I love you.”

“I know,” she said, laughing through her tears and wondering how a single human heart could possibly contain so many emotions. “I know you do.”

And she did. Nothing short of love would have made Cale Cameron,
bookseller and rake, the man who plucked the highest fruit from the tree, and who, for most of his life, had lived heartbreakingly alone,
propose marriage.

He laughed. “
That’s
all the response I’m to receive?”

She grabbed his cravat and pulled him down and kissed him with three months of pent-up frustration, longing, and love. She drew back only far enough to whisper, “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Another fierce kiss. “Yes, I love you.” And then she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her body to his. “Yes, to everything.”

His hand slid into her hair, ruining her chignon. His other arm wrapped around her waist. And he held her like that, like something infinitely precious, for a very long time.

“Much better,” he said.

Epilogue

Five Years Later

Cale didn’t have many memories of his parents or his brothers and sisters. Just the flash of an image—his parents reading with him by the fireplace, the laughter of a sibling, whispers of emotion…love and safety and joy. After his world had changed irrevocably, he’d worked tirelessly for years, doing all he could to bring back the feeling of safety.

Now, Elizabeth had reintroduced him to everything else he’d been missing in his life.

They made new memories, and he never took any of them for granted. He captured each one, soaked them all in like dry roots after a spring rain.

He was too protective of her, and their children, but she took it in stride. She would tell him when he was being an ass…albeit more nicely.

Right now was one of those moments when he struggled with protectiveness. Their youngest child, Violet, had decided to climb to the very top of one of the tallest trees surrounding the cottage, a pear tree laden with fruit. And had been too frightened to climb back down.

Cale had to fight the urge to climb up and retrieve her himself, but the limbs wouldn’t hold him.

“There, dear, you’re doing fine,” Elizabeth called up as Violet put a shaky foot on the branch below her. The pockets of her pinafore bulged with fruit, and Cale feared the weight would topple her.

He was amazed his wife could remain so composed. He wasn’t feeling anything close to calm.

She slipped her hand into his. “You’re doing fine, too,” she whispered.

He watched with his heart in his throat as Violet made her painstaking way back toward the earth. When she was on the lowest branch, he reached up and scooped her into a fierce hug. But before he could tell her never, ever, to scare him like that again, the sound of a dog barking caught their attention and she twisted in his arms.

“Look!” Violet shouted in his ear. “Lucas and Andrew brought home a puppy!”

She wiggled down, paused for a second to turn back and press two golden pears into his palm, then scampered down the hill toward her brothers.

Cale watched as a dog the size of a small pony nearly knocked her over with its exuberant licks. “A puppy,” he said, sending a disgruntled glance at his wife. “It’s a bloody mastiff.”

“Can we keep him?” Lucas yelled.

“Can we?” Elizabeth asked him, laughing. Her eyes matched the color of the cloudless sky.

“They’re going to overrun us with unwanted pets,” he pointed out, wanting desperately to be grumpy but was unable to muster the requisite displeasure. This wasn’t the first creature their sons had brought home. Secretly, he reveled in their tenderheartedness.

“We have room,” she pleaded.

“Hell,” he finally muttered, rubbing a thumb over the smooth, sun-warm pears he’d been gifted with by his intrepid little daughter, and hiding a smile. “The more the merrier.”

“He said yes!” Elizabeth called back to their brood.

His wife sidled closer to him, pressing against his arm. When she kissed his cheek, he turned to catch her lips, brief but fervent. “Tell the children to look away,” he murmured, only half in jest.

She slipped out of his grasp, stealing one of his pears and taking a bite. She cast him a teasing wink over her shoulder before heading down the hill, her hips swaying provocatively in her poppy-red gown. His very favorite color.

“You’ll pay for this later,” Cale said, glancing up hopefully, checking for signs of rain.

“Is that a promise, Mr. Cameron?” she asked huskily, making him laugh.

“Count on it,” he murmured softly.

She knelt down by the children and their newest pet. The unruly animal doused her face with slobbery kisses until she had to push its massive head away.

“Are you coming, Papa?” Violet called to him.

They all turned to look at him expectantly—his family.

He followed Elizabeth’s path to where they were waiting, biting into the sweet, spicy fruit as he went.

Life didn’t get any better than this.

Acknowledgements

Much thanks to my editor Nina Bruhns and everyone at Entangled.

About the Author

Lily Maxton grew up in the Midwest, reading, writing, and daydreaming amidst cornfields. After graduating with a degree in English, she decided to put her natural inclinations to good use and embark on a career as a writer.

When she’s not working on a new story, she likes to tour old houses, add to her tea stash, and think of reasons to avoid housework.

Are you feeling…

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