Chemistry of Magic: Unexpected Magic Book Five (Unexpected Magic #5)(77)

He loved her? Emilia was beyond thought. Grabbing the front of his shirt, she tugged him down so she could kiss him again.

As his tongue invaded, she opened for him, and wept in joy as he pushed past her petals to fill her. She didn’t have words, but this, she could do. She rose up against him, milking him with her inner muscles as he pounded her with need—until they both shattered and cried each other’s names.



The bath water was only lukewarm by the time Dare undressed his beautiful wife and dipped her into it. Emilia leaned against his shoulder and submitted to his ablutions while her silky hair caressed his skin. He loved sliding the soap over her, exploring every inch of this magical woman who had given herself to him.

“I am not hurting you, am I? I love touching you.” Now was a fine time to think of that, he knew, but she had allowed him so much already. . . He needed to adjust to knowing that being special came with consequences.

“I’m learning the differences in healing connections and personal ones,” she murmured. “This is just blissful.”

Just because he could, Dare leaned over and kissed her plush lips again. He had missed what felt like a lifetime of soul-melting kisses, and he couldn’t have enough.

“I didn’t think it could be like this,” she continued, stroking his jaw. “No books explain how it feels to love and be loved. My heart feels as if it might explode with joy. And my head wants to know why you decided kisses are now allowed. I love you and your kisses.” She brushed her mouth against his.

It was a few minutes later and the bath was even cooler before they gasped for air.

She’d just told him she loved him, even though he had done nothing but give her grief since she’d known him. “Women are beyond contrary,” he protested, pulling her from the water so he could dry her off. “How can you love a man who marries you for your money, plans to die on you, runs off to play with trains when your life’s work is in danger, and then foolishly almost dies in a brawl?”

He was afraid if he told her how stupid he actually was, that she’d flee as fast and far as she could.

She laughed. She actually laughed at his idiocies. Then she went on to explain. “Because he is the same man who doesn’t mind if I spend my time beating up herbs, working with a school that will most likely have me vilified, and who turns around and misses an important meeting to help save my life’s work. And because you see me and care enough to give me this bliss.” She gestured at the flickering candles and bouquets. “You do not need me to simper and flatter to know I exist.”

“It may be the smashed herbs and vilifying that causes lesser men to look the other way,” Dare said in amusement. “It takes a brave man to stand up to a woman who proposes to him on sight. The world is full of cowards.”

She beamed dreamily as he carried her to the bed. “And you are no coward. You face death with such manly courage that I cannot help but love you.”

“About that. . .” He tucked her beneath the covers before padding around the room, snuffing candles. When he joined her in the bed, he took her in his arms and whispered in her ear, “It’s possible that I’m not dying.”

She shot upright, suddenly wide awake. “What?”

Dare prayed he’d done everything right, even though he’d bungled the speech making. Heart pounding a little too hard, he propped himself up on his elbows and admired her pearlescent breasts in the moonlight. “Will you kill the messenger, even if he loves you?”

She chuckled and leaned over to push him back against the pillows. Her long black hair stroked his chest. “Do you think I’ve exhausted myself keeping you alive just to kill you for any reason?”

He gathered her against him and inhaled deeply of her lavender scent. “I love you. I would never have met you had I not thought I was dying. I cannot regret what we’ve done. But I do regret worrying you and my family when it’s possible I’ve simply poisoned myself.”

She dug her sharp elbows into his chest. “Explain yourself.”

So he told her of his experiments and the possibility that he’d breathed in arsenic for years.

“So you may not have consumption, are not contagious, and you may live forever?” she asked in excitement. “I just need to keep you from breathing when you work?”

He laughed and cradled her against him, luxuriating in the press of her breasts into his chest. “I’ll create some sort of mask to filter out fumes. I need to experiment more, write a paper to warn others.”

She snuggled down at his side. “It is all too much to think of just now. I am about to explode like an over-filled balloon from all the wonder of what the future might have in store. A lifetime. . . It is so very hard to imagine. But these last days, I have discovered how much I would miss living with an impossible man.”

Satisfied just to hold her and know she wouldn’t flee at the possibility of a lifetime of explosions and brawls, Dare closed his eyes and drank in the wonder of the night.

The celestial notes of a lullaby drifted through the walls. The walls hummed with excitement, Dare thought sleepily. Were they spirits? Was the place haunted?

Beside him, Emilia uttered an excited Oh. She grew momentarily still, which jarred him from foolish dreams. Fearing he’d hurt her, he sought her hand. He found both of them covering her abdomen. “Are you all right?”