To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers #2)(80)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

A scratch and a whine came from her dressing room.

Melisande poked Vale in the ribs. “You need to let him out now.”

He sighed. “Must I?”

“He’ll only scratch more, and then he’ll start barking, and Sprat will come to the door and ask if he should take Mouse out.”

“Dear God, such a large ruckus for such a small dog,” Vale muttered, but he rose from their pallet and padded nude across the floor.

Melisande watched him under lowered eyelids. He really did have the most beautiful bottom. She smiled, wondering what he’d think if she said so.

Jasper opened the door to the dressing room. Mouse trotted busily out with a bone in his mouth. He jumped on the pallet and turned about three times before settling and gnawing his prize. Their pallet had expanded in the last month with the addition of a thin mattress and lots of pillows. Melisande had had the bed removed from her room altogether, and now the pallet took up pride of place against the wall between the windows. At night, with only a candle for light, she imagined that she lay in some Ottoman palace.

“That dog ought to have his own bed,” Vale muttered.

“He does have his own bed,” Melisande pointed out. “He just doesn’t sleep in it.”

Vale scowled down at the dog. Of course, he had been the one to give Mouse the bone, so no one in the room took the scowl very seriously.

“Be glad he no longer sleeps under the covers,” Melisande said.

“I am glad. I hope never to find a cold nose against my arse again.” He turned his scowl on her. “And what are you smirking about, my lady wife?”

“I beg your pardon, this is not a smirk.”

“Oh, yes?” He began to prowl toward her, all lean muscle and intent, interested male. “Then how would you characterize your expression?”

“I’m admiring the view,” she said.

“Are you?” He made a detour to where he’d carelessly flung his coat the night before. “Perhaps you’d like me to perform a gavotte?”

She tilted her head, watching as he dug in the pocket of his coat. “I might like that.”

“Would you, you insatiable baggage?”

“I would.” She stretched a bit on the pallet, letting her nipples pop from the coverlet. “But I can be satiated, you know.”

“Can you?” he muttered. His eyes were on her nipples, and he seemed a bit distracted. “I’ve tried and tried and still you’re eager. You wear a man out.”

Her lips curved at his plaintive tone, and she glanced significantly at his cock, standing proud and erect now. “You don’t look worn out.”

“It’s terrible, isn’t it,” he said conversationally. “You look at me and I become embarrassingly attentive.”

She held out her arms. “Come here, you silly man.”

He grinned and knelt by her side.

“What have you there?” she asked, because he held one hand behind his back.

His grin faded as he lay down beside her, propping himself on his elbow. “I’ve something for you.”

“Really?” Her brows knit. He hadn’t given her anything since the garnet earrings.

He took his hand out from behind his back and turned it over. In his palm lay a small tin snuffbox. It looked a little like the snuffbox she kept her treasures in, except this box was obviously new.

She raised her brows in question and looked from his palm to his face.

“Open it,” he said huskily.

She took it from his palm and was surprised at how heavy the little box was. She glanced again at his face. He was watching her with bright turquoise eyes.

She opened the box.

And gasped. The outside of the snuffbox might be plain tin, not ornamented at all, but the inside was glowing gold, set with precious gems. Pearls and rubies, diamonds and emeralds, sapphires and amethysts, jewels she didn’t even know the names of. They all sparkled from inside the box, nearly covering the yellow gold with a rainbow of color.

She looked up at Jasper, tears in her eyes. “Why? What does it mean?”

He took the hand holding the box and turned it over, brushing his lips against her knuckles. “It’s you.”

She looked down at the gorgeous, sparkling box. “«pargaiWhat?”

He cleared his throat, his head still bent. “When I first met you, I was a fool. And I was a fool for years before that. I saw only the tin you hid behind. I was too vain, too asinine, too foolish to look beyond and see your beauty, my sweet wife.”

He raised his beautiful turquoise eyes, and she saw that they were adoring. “I want you to understand that I see you now. I’ve basked in the wonder of your beauty, and I’m never letting you go. I love you with all my battered soul.”

Melisande looked one last time at the treasure box. It was exquisitely lovely. This was how Jasper saw her, and it rather awed her. She closed the lid carefully and set the box aside, knowing it was the most precious, the most perfect gift he could ever give her.

Then she pulled her husband down into her arms and said the only thing she could. “I love you.”

And she kissed him.

Epilogue

The sword pressed very tightly against Jack’s throat, but still he spoke up bravely.

“I would tell you who won the rings, my liege,” he said, “but, alas, you would not believe me in any case.”

The king bellowed, but Jack raised his voice to be heard over the royal rage. “Besides, it does not matter who won the rings. What matters is who holds them now.”

And just like that, the king was silent and every eye in the royal banquet hall turned to Princess Surcease. She seemed as surprised as any when she reached into the little jeweled bag that hung from her kirtle and drew out the bronze ring and the silver ring. She placed them with the gold ring already on her palm, and then all three lay together.

“Princess Surcease has the rings,” Jack said. “And it seems to me that gives her the right to pick her own husband.”

Well, the king hemmed and the king hawed, but in the end he had to admit that Jack did have a point.

“Who will you choose to wed, my daughter?” the king asked. “There are men here from all corners of the world. Rich men, brave men, men so handsome the ladies swoon when they ride by. Now tell me, which of them will be your husband?”

“None.” Princess Surcease smiled, helped Jack to stand on his stumpy legs, and said, “I will wed Jack the Fool and no other, for he may be a fool, but he makes me laugh and I love him.”