Epilogue

One Year Later

It had been a relatively uneventful crossing, but Ariel was still relieved when the English shoreline came into view. The hazy green line lying atop the horizon was a welcome sight after so many months away. While the bracing, briny sea air was pleasant, her heart longed for the familiar scents of London and the countryside.

A strong arm slipped around to hold her beneath her breasts and warm lips pressed a tender kiss to the side of her neck. She leaned back into her husband's embrace, allowing herself to melt against him, knowing he would hold her steady.

"Are you looking forward to returning home?" Charles' low voice rumbled through her back, making every inch of her hum with awareness. This hadn't stopped for a single day of their year-long marriage, and she doubted it ever would.

"Boston is home now," she replied truthfully with a contented sigh.

It had been difficult and the adjustment hadn't been effortless, but she'd managed with Charles' love and support to carve out a place for herself in America.

At first, Society and the local papers had taken an unnerving amount of interest in the American duke and his unconventional English duchess. Though Charles was struggling to adapt to fit his new title into his old life, he took great pains to ensure Ariel was as comfortable and confident as possible. Not once did she ever doubt that she'd made the right decision in accepting his offer of marriage and embarkment upon a new life across the Atlantic.

Gradually, the stories shifted from one of sensationalized wonderment and highly critical assessments of everything Ariel did, wore, said, and how she looked to flowery accounts of the American duke's unabashed adoration of his wife. Coming from a man who had once been a child beaten for too frank a show of emotion, Ariel never took Charles' love for granted and she returned it with as much open affection as she was capable of displaying without causing a scandal.

As he'd anticipated, Charles' partners at the firm requested he take on a less prominent role in the company. His presence had attracted attention- and story-seeking clients rather than the earnest business they required to stay afloat. Though it had pained Charles, he'd transi- tioned to a less public-facing role. It wasn't that he needed to work any longer—the Ryton duchy had surprisingly deep pockets—just that he'd always had to do so. To go without the constant bustle of employment left him a bit aimless.

Ariel immediately recognized her husband's distress and, at her urging, he decided to promote the business by hosting events and promoting fundraising efforts in the company's name. Using her experience from being raised in London's upper class, Ariel assisted him in creating foundations and charitable endeavors. They discovered new passions and set about creating a more conscious Boston.

With Charles at her side, Ariel had finally found her niche. Not a day went by that her heart wasn't full to bursting, and her soul glowed with happiness.

"It'll be a few hours yet until we're docked," Charles murmured against her hair. "We should go below so you can rest a bit."

"You mean, you want to get me alone before we're inundated by friends and callers," she replied with a smile.

"Is that so wrong of me?" Ariel could hear the smile in his voice.

Ariel turned in his embrace and wound her arms around his neck. "Not at all." Her voice was sultry with promise.

Hardly five minutes had elapsed before Charles and Ariel tumbled into their cabin, mouths meeting greedily and fingers working furiously at buttons and ties.

Twin hissed breaths of relief filled the small chamber when their flesh finally met. Hands skimmed familiar hills and valleys and ridges, the places where they knew the other ached to be touched.

Charles reclined on the bunk and pulled her to straddle his hips. Bracing herself on his chest dusted in crisp dark hair, she rocked her hips to caress the underside of his turgid cock with her already wet and needy sex. Her arousal came swiftly and powerfully as of late, and both of them were pleased to take advantage of it.

"God, Ariel…" Charles groaned, sinking his fingers into the flesh of her full hips and thighs, rocking her harder and pressing her body more fully to his.

She chuckled huskily, curling her fingers so her nails bit lightly into his pectoral muscles to remind him she was in control this round. "So desperate for me…as if we hadn't just done this before breaking our fast."

"It could be ten seconds after I finish inside of you and I'll already want more," Charles ground out when she rewarded him with another glide of her flesh on his. "I'll always want more of you, Ariel." He reached up to cup the back of her head and bring her down for a lingering kiss. "I'll never be sated."

Ariel smiled against his lips, her heart soaring at the praise she knew with everything in her was the purest of truths. She rocked forward and canted her hips to just the right angle to accept his thick, rigid arousal into her body. They groaned in satisfied unison when he was seated fully within her, connected as deeply as two beings could physically be.

Her body screamed for more and Ariel quickly began to move. She ground down against him, rolling and tilting her hips so each motion brought her sensitive pearl in contact with his firm flesh.

"Yes," Charles hissed. "Just like that." His large hands grasped her sensitive breasts and caught her ripe berry nipples between the knuckles of his two longest fingers, pinching him in just the way he knew made her squirm in delight. "So beautiful," he murmured, bucking up to meet her. "So damn beautiful." His hands trailed down to cup her rounded abdomen, channeling his love through her to the blooming life within. "And mine forever." His dark, hungry eyes met hers. "How did I get so lucky?"

Many men in Charles' position might have said that about inheriting a lofty title, power, and an enormous fortune. Charles, however, only said it when looking at her…when holding her…when she told him she was expecting seven months into their marriage.

For a man who liked to say he'd been miserable during his time in London, he'd been very quick to book their passage to England when Ariel said she wished she could deliver their child among her family and closest friends.

But that was Charles.

He'd proven to be a selflessly loving man. Beneath the hardened shell formed out of necessity under his father's cold eye was a man with so much love to offer…and he enjoyed nothing more than showering Ariel with it at every opportunity.

She rocked herself faster and faster, the glide of their flesh creating the most delicious friction, their bodies working in tandem to race to the pinnacle. She'd leaned forward to change the depth of the strokes and Charles caught her nipple in his teeth, sucking it deeply into his hot mouth. She cried out at the firing of sensations lancing through her from where his lips and teeth and tongue teased her down to her very core where he stretched her to delicious fullness.

He sucked her hard and grasped the globes of her bottom, holding her tightly so she remained still as he braced his heels and pounded up into her body.

"Charles!" She gasped and whimpered in delight, her body so full of sensations she thought she might shatter into a million pieces. His deep growl of approval around her sensitive nipple sent her over the edge.

Ariel's vision fractured into a kaleidoscope of brilliant lights; her body clenched around Charles and he held himself to the hilt as he, too, reached his climax.

Sweat-slicked and sated, they curled into each other's arms to listen to their pounding hearts and panting breaths.

Charles buried his nose in her hair and exhaled the words, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Ariel replied, absently running her nails up and down the muscles of his arm.

"I've been thinking…"

"Hm?"

"How different things might have been if I hadn't knocked upon your door the night before your birthday last year." He tilted his head to meet her eye. "If you hadn't been brave enough to hire a working man for the evening." A playful smile danced across his lips. "If you hadn't mistaken me for that man." Ariel swatted at his chest, but there was no stopping her giggle at his teasing. He caught her hand and pressed her fingers to his lips."If the men of London weren't such imbeciles, unable to see the treasure right in front of them…I don't like to think too hard about what might have happened to me." A large ball of black fur and eerie green eyes bounded atop the bed to nestle squarely in the center of Charles' bare chest. "Well, us," Charles grumbled and huffed before gently removing Barnabus from his perch and enfolding Ariel once more in his embrace.

"I hope you know I would do anything for you, Ariel." Charles tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Anything?"

"Of course. You have already given me everything." He reached down and palmed her abdomen once again, tracing the curve of it and cherishing every inch of flesh—banded with marks from her womb's growth though it may be.

"What is the likelihood of us extending our stay in London?" Ariel bit her lip as soon as the words escaped her. She loved her life with Charles and she knew her home would be wherever he was, but England called to her.

"How long?"

"Not forever," she replied hastily. "Maybe…instead of three months after the birth, we consider staying the first year of her life."

"Her?" Charles asked, latching onto that one word.

"Or his," Ariel answered with a blush. "I don't wish to ask you to give up everything in Boston. But my friends…"

"Are in England," Charles finished for her. Barnabus returned to the bunk and curled up beside his head, but Charles didn't so much as blink. "Why do you wish to live in a place that treated you so poorly."

"Because I know I can weather anything with you by my side." Ariel cupped his face and watched the apprehension melt from his eyes.

"For you, my love, I would move to the moon." He leaned in and captured her lips once again. "Just don't expect me to bite my tongue anytime these peacocks snigger and hide behind their thinly-veiled barbs. Heads will roll."

"You're a duke," Ariel threw her head back and laughed. "You cannot behead anyone."

"Well, this title has just been rendered utterly useless."

Their joyful laughter filled the cabin, earning them a very disgruntled eye-roll from one overly-indulged cat.

Thank you for reading When the Duke Comes to Play… I hope you love it as much as I do!