How to Propose to a Prince (19 page)

“There will be no grieving. There is no need, for I will not marry Princess Charlotte…” He drew in a deep, fortifying breath. “…because I am
not
Prince Leopold.”

Elizabeth blinked several times in succession, releasing her tears in steady streams down the side of her face. “What did say? I vow, I must not have understood you. I could not have.”

“You did, but I will say it again so you may be certain. I am not Leopold.”

Confusion was plain in her eyes as she stared at him, as if she was seeing him for the first time.

“When I first met you and your sister in the jewelry shop, I was on an errand for Prince Leopold, my cousin. I introduced myself as Lansdowne, the Marquess of Whitevale. I am he. Sumner Lansdowne, Lord Whitevale.”

Perplexed eyes peered up at him. “But I saw you—everyone knew you to be Prince Leopold. How can what you say possibly be true?”

“Not everyone knew me to be Prince Leopold.
Princess Charlotte, Mercer, and of course the Prince of Wales himself all knew me as Leopold’s cousin, his confidant, and his guard.”

Elizabeth had long stopped struggling against him, but holding her this way as they talked was far preferable to the way he had imagined this moment, with her hugging herself for comfort against the cold rail of the Serpentine bridge.

“H-His guard?” She furrowed her brow, but as the moments passed, gradual understanding smoothed her features. “Are you telling me that you posed as Leopold…to draw off the attacks from your cousin?”

“Yes.” Sumner’s response came as a relieved sigh. He closed his eyes briefly and then continued. “On our first day in London, a shot was fired from a crowd. We couldn’t be sure it was meant for the prince, but he had received letters in Paris, before we journeyed here, warning Leopold that if he persisted in his quest for Princess Charlotte’s hand there were those who would ensure he would never be successful.”

Her eyes were large and round. “The backers of William of Orange?”

“Yes.” Sumner felt the faceted emerald in the ring in his pocket pressing between them, distracting him. “But there were no further letters.
No words of warning. Still, for the sake of Saxe-Coburg, Prince Leopold’s safety became my only priority in London.”

Elizabeth lowered her eyes from his.

“Until I met you,” he added.

Her green eyes swept up to his, and he knew at last that she would forgive him.

E
lizabeth squeezed her eyes tightly closed, inadvertently pressing from her damp lashes a single remnant tear.

This was a dream. It had to be.

In her boredom, she had fallen asleep on the settee—and now she was dreaming. But…once, she had been told that if you realize you are dreaming, the dream ends at that moment. As far as she knew, however, it hadn’t. She could feel Sumner’s warm body against hers even now.

She opened her eyes quickly to be sure, knowing that if this was just a dream, Sumner would be gone and she’d likely find Mrs. Polkshank’s huge, marmalade cat sleeping against her, sharing his furry warmth.

But Sumner wasn’t gone.

He was leaning over her, kissing her softly, passionately. She felt him nudge her body as he slid his hand between her back and the carpet, and then pressed his palm against the small of her back, pulling her body firmly against him.

He broke their kiss then, and though she hungrily pursued his mouth with her own, he escaped her and instead swept his lips across her cheek and then down her throat to the shallow hollow beneath her shoulder bone.

She sighed as his mouth moved lower still, tantalizing her with his achingly slow progression as she realized his ultimate destination.

Sumner lifted his head to see as he pulled at the thin satin ribbon that cinched her bodice closed. She couldn’t endure this any longer. She could not.

Elizabeth slid her fingers through his thick, dark hair, then cupped her hands behind his head and struggled to urge his mouth back to hers. “Kiss me,” she whispered as she pressed her lips to his.

She felt him smiling against her mouth as his fingers at last released her ribbon cinch and her simple cambric gown opened to his touch.

His hands were rough but warm against her
skin as he lowered her chemise and a slight chill of pleasure drew goose bumps across the skin he had bared. Her nipples hardened in her anticipation.

Being slender of form, she rarely wore a corset for a day at home, and now, as his lips moved over the swells of her breasts, she was grateful there was not another layer of clothing between her and his moist, searching lips.

Laying her hands on the muscled slope of his shoulders, Elizabeth blindly trailed her palms down his chest and fumbled between them to catch the lapels, hoping to coax his coat, and more, from his body.

Sumner received her silent message and leaned up to shrug his coat from his broad shoulders. His desire for her pressed up hard against his breeches, forming a tautly drawn tent. Her body responded with a rush of heat between her thighs.

But then, to her great surprise, given his ardor and obvious state of arousal, he carefully folded his coat and placed it on the settee beside them.

He did not show such care with his cravat, nor with his waistcoat or the shirt he very nearly tore from his form. It was as if he could not peel the layers from his body fast enough.

As he bent over her again, she could not help but skim her fingers along the shallow trenches of his bare, rippled abdomen and up over the firm mounds of his chest.

Sumner closed his eyelids and sighed with pleasure as her fingers skipped lightly over his nipples, turning them to stone beneath her soft touch.

He leaned over her and brushed her mouth with his lips. Not kissing, but rather teasing her, making her chase his mouth. But he did not surrender despite her assertive advance.

Elizabeth groaned as his hardness pressed against the place she wanted to feel him most. It was maddening. She wanted nothing more than to at last feel him, not his fingers or his mouth,
him,
inside of her. Her thighs parted slightly as she raised her hips, forcing him against her.

“Sumner,” she breathed, “I need you.”

His eyes sparkled mischievously as he grasped her and, without a word, eased her summer gown and her chemise from her shoulders. Then he yanked it down to her waist, making her gasp with the sudden rush of air on her skin. His mouth settled over one breast and suckled it roughly while he lowered her gown farther, to her hips.

He broke the bond between them to slide one hand behind her, clasping one side of her bottom and lifting her, just long enough to pull the gown to her knees. A moment more and her gown puddled beneath her feet. She kicked her slippers off. Her body was lit with excitement of what would come. She was ready to feel herself joined with him. Wanting so badly for him to ease inside of her, to feel their bodies merge into one…at last.

He did not touch her for several moments more, and she lifted her eyelids to see that he was looking appreciatively at her naked body. She flushed at once, and even saw the color of her embarrassment rise in her breasts, then felt it journey upward to heat her cheeks.

She crossed her arms over her naked, pinked breasts, but Sumner would not have it. He caught her wrists and lifted her arms away, settling them on either side of her head, shaking his head slowly. He would not allow her to hide her body from him.

Sumner’s gaze fell from hers as he ran his palms down her wrists, her arms, and over her nipples, making them harden almost painfully. His fingers drifted onward, trailing down the sensitive skin at her sides, sending waves of shivers over the entirety of her body. His hands
continued their leisurely exploration of her form, slipping to her hips, then down her stocking-sheathed legs.

There was only one place he had not touched, and knowing this gave Elizabeth a throbbing twinge of excitement.

Leaning back, Sumner surveyed her hungrily. He said nothing as he traced the curve of her quivering leg up her silk stocking. Then he cupped his hand behind her knee and lifted it so he was now kneeling between her spread thighs.

His fingertips brushed the furl at the apex of her legs, making her body tremble with delicious anticipation.
Oh, please, please, let me feel you. Now.

Elizabeth leaned up just enough to catch the back of his neck with her hand and pull him hard down atop of her, feeding at his mouth as they fell back against the soft carpet together.

She clung to Sumner as he kissed her, touched her, drove her into a frenzy, made her writhe in sweet sensation. But there was something more she needed. “Sumner, please, make me yours.”

He paused for a moment, then seemed to glance at his coat folded neatly on the settee, but whatever thought had been in his mind
was fleeting, for he turned back to her and knelt lower between her spread thighs.

His body seemed golden, his abdomen, his hips, almost dark in contrast to the whiteness of her inner thighs on either side of him. Bravely, Elizabeth reached out her hand and fumbled with the buttons of his breeches until his front fall opened at last. His hard length bounced into her hand. His erection pulsed and twitched in her palm, exciting her as never before.

She did not know exactly how to touch him, how to please him, but her daring welled much like the heat within her and she stroked him with eager fingers, pausing as she neared his plum-shaped tip, exploring with the ring of her thumb and index finger the thick ridge beneath it. His penis jerked, in a way that seemed to please him. And so she let her instinct guide her further. Twisting her hand around, she all but closed her hand over him before sliding it down his length to the light nest of hair at its thick base.

Sumner shuddered and leaned over her again to kiss her deeply. “I love you,” he whispered against her lips. His erection pulsed. The urgency was his now, and he nudged her knees wider apart with his body.

He slipped his hand between her thighs and
stroked her, dipping his finger into the heat of her. She arched against him.

Elizabeth clung to his broad shoulders. His firm penis prodded gently between her legs until she thought she would go mad if she did not feel him inside of her.

Sumner closed his eyes as he moved his tip just between her engorged nether lips. He groaned as he skimmed her wetness. He pressed into her, only a small bit, and her body cinched around that part of him, wanting to draw him fully inside.

“I love you, Elizabeth,” he said again as he leaned up on his arms and positioned himself to drive into her.

His eyes were questioning, but her reply was sure. “I love you, Sumner, with all my heart. I want you and I need you.”

Elizabeth tensed as he moved into her. Still, there was no pain, as with the first time he touched her deeply, only a slight sting as her body slowly stretched to accept him fully. She slid her hands along his outer thighs to his hips, and then grasped his hips and pulled him deeper inside. She sighed as she felt him nudge against her, deep inside of her.

Sumner slowly pulled back, then moved into her again, pushing harder, deeper, with each
rocking motion. She felt her body contract around him, tingling, filling her with the undeniable urge to raise her hips to him, press down against him. To meet his every thrust with one of her own.

She felt as though she’d had too much wine, and her mind began to spin. Thought was beyond her. There was only the feeling of Sumner joined with her. She closed her eyes and let herself become lost in the wildly spinning center of molten heat growing within her where their bodies met and became one.

Sumner supported himself and rose up to watch her as he thrust into her, harder and harder each time. Beads of perspiration erupted on his forehead as his rhythm grew faster, his pumping into her making her body bump and nearly leap from the carpet with each thrust.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and bit into the flesh of her lower lip. She could no longer meet his movement. He was driving too fast, too hard for her to keep pace. Her legs were shaking, and she drew them up around his hips, pressing down against his hard buttocks with her heels, holding him inside of her, turning just a bit to control the depth of his thrusts, his pressure.

She bucked against him and cried out as something inside of her flared, sending wild
licking flames through her core and outward to every part of her body.

Sumner squeezed his eyes tightly. She felt him strain, and a whisper of damp heat spread across the plane of his back as she clung to him. He groaned once and then again before leaning down to kiss her tenderly, then rested atop of her.

They lay that way, bodies bereft of energy, resting in each other’s arms, for several languorous minutes. Sumner finally rolled onto his back and Elizabeth turned on her side and nestled against him, resting her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her body and held her there. And what she felt then…well, it was perfect. It felt like destiny.

She turned her head just enough to look up at him. Bliss filled his eyes and he was smiling down at her.

“Tell me it will always be this way,” she whispered, never wanting the moment to end.

He edged up and rested his weight on one elbow. “It can be. If you will have me.” He flung an arm behind him and reached up to the settee. He fumbled with his coat and then tossed the garment he had taken such care with earlier, allowing it to fall in a crumpled heap near the cold hearth.

She laughed, not grasping at all what he was about.

He kissed her softly, then his ardor seemed to grow and his kisses became more persistent as he claimed her mouth. “I do love you, Elizabeth, and I wish to always be with you.” He leaned back, lifted her wrist and slid onto a finger on her left hand a gold ring emblazoned with a sparkling cut emerald. “And I hope you wish the same. If you do, I desire that you wear this ring, that so matches the love I see in your eyes, as a symbol of my troth.”

Elizabeth held her hand up before her face and blinked up at it. “Are you asking me to—”

“I am asking you to marry me, Elizabeth.” The look in Sumner’s eyes, so wanting yet so unsure, moved her deep within her heart.

“I have never wanted anything more than to be your wife…to be with you forever.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and their lips met and locked.

Her dream was coming true.

Hyde Park

The sky was red with licks of brilliant gold as the sun set. The darkness of the Serpentine reflected the vibrant colors of the evening sky,
making it look like an endless swath of rippling crimson silk.

Sumner stood with his arm around Elizabeth at the rail of the bridge, gazing at the bright pink sun as it gracefully bowed closer and closer toward the horizon.

He looked down at her.

Sensing his attention, Elizabeth turned her head and looked up at him. “What is it?” she asked.

“I was a damn fool. I should have told you who I truly was long ago.” Sumner removed his arm from her shoulder and leaned forward to rest his forearms on the rail. “I put both of us through so much needless heartache.”

“Why do you dwell on that?” She wrapped her arm around his biceps and stepped closer, the side of her body pressed against him. “We are here now, and we have each other and always shall.” She cocked her head. “And besides, you would not be the man I love were duty something you could simply set aside when circumstances became too difficult. But you didn’t do that. You couldn’t. You guarded Prince Leopold and ensured his safety for Saxe-Coburg, even when it meant possibly sacrificing your own life. How could I ever fault you for your bravery and sense of responsibility?”

Sumner threw his head back, drew in a long, deep breath, then exhaled. “There is something more you should know. Something that only two other people are aware of—and Leopold is not one of them.”

Elizabeth looked up at him quizzically. “Tell me.”

He paused a moment, since he’d never once spoken these words aloud and was not quite sure how or where to begin. “I have heard of your possible relation to the Prince of Wales, Elizabeth. And I know that, as much as you tried to discount Sir Henry’s comments at the dinner party, there may be some truth to Society’s chatter. You may be Prinny’s daughter.”

He could feel Elizabeth tense.

“And, I wish for you to know that whether or not you are of royal descent matters not to me. I believe I have loved you from the moment I saw you walk into the jewelers…looking a bit drowned.”