Chapter 23: A Family at the Table

"A goodbye isn't mine to give," I told the lawyer.

"Mrs. Draper..."

"It's hers. Ask me again after she's slept."

He bowed his head and stepped back.

I watched Cillian across the ballroom with the puppy chewing his cuff and Hattie climbing onto his shoulders, and my chest hurt in a good way.

By eleven the housekeeper had Hattie asleep in the adjoining suite with Biscuit the rabbit, the puppy and a pile of ribbons.

The door between the suites stood ajar.

I closed it softly.

When I turned around, Cillian was leaning on the wall behind me with his tie already loose.

"Mrs. Draper," he said.

"Mr. Draper."

"I've been waiting all day to say that in a room with a lock."

"Then lock it."

He did.

I crossed the carpet and put my arms around his neck.

The first kiss was slow and long, and his hand went into my hair.

This time neither of us was angry, and I felt it in my knees.

"Your leg," he said.

"I left the cane at the door of the ballroom."

"I know. I watched you walk to me."

"Did you like it?"

"I nearly fell over."

I laughed against his mouth.

He undid my dress one button at a time, and he kissed each piece of skin he uncovered.

He kissed my collarbone, the curve of my shoulder and the ridge of my ribs.

The dress slid down, and he knelt and kissed the long pink scar on my calf.

"This is the one I'll never stop loving," he murmured.

"It's ugly."

"It's the road you took to me."

I put my hands in his hair and didn't answer, because I couldn't.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Let Our Daughter Die, I Became A Tycoon's Bride from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.