Read Online The Affair (Entangled Scandalous) by Lily Maxton - Free Book Online

shoved his hands into his coat pockets, a defiant gesture that made him look more vulnerable than anything else. “He doesn’t make you laugh.”
    She blinked, surprised he’d noticed. He’d only seen them together once. “No, not very often,” she agreed. “He’s rather serious.”
    “You need someone who will make you laugh.” His voice was forceful.
    “What right do you have to tell me what I need? It’s been three months, Cale.”
    His hands came out of his pockets, and he reached out, then let them drop. “I shouldn’t have let you go. I should have begged you to stay.”
    After a flash of surprise, her chin went up a fraction. “But you didn’t.”
    He surged forward with such energy that she stepped back instinctively.
    “I’m here now. I only let you go to protect myself, but staying away was far worse. These three months have been hell. I can’t,” he drew in a breath, “I can’t live without my heart.”
    When his words stunned her into silence, he stepped forward. The front of his coat brushed her gown, but still he didn’t touch her. “For God’s sake don’t punish me, Elizabeth. I’ve already punished myself enough.”
    She shook herself out of her frozen state. “What are you asking of me? Do you want me as your mistress? Or do you want me as your wife?”
    “I want you,” he said, low and vehement, “any way you’ll let me have you. I’d prefer marriage, as I’d like to bind you to me in every way known to man. But if you don’t want to marry again, I’ll gladly take you as my mistress. You should know, though, even then I’m never letting you go.”
    Joy rushed through her. Lightness and relief. Her knees felt weak in the aftermath of his declaration.
    But there was one thing marring the perfect moment. “I wouldn’t object to marriage,” she said, “but I don’t know if I can bear your children.”
    “I’ll be happy as long as I have you. But if it pleases you, I know better than anyone there are plenty of orphans who need families.”
    “But they wouldn’t legally be yours.”
    “They would be ours ,” he said softly. “In every way that mattered.”
    She’d thought she had already shed her last tears over him, but she found herself blinking as her eyes blurred, and she struggled to speak through an aching throat. When she did, her voice was small and hoarse. “Do you really mean that?”
    “Every word,” he said, finally reaching for her, finally cradling her face with warm, gentle hands. “I love you.”
    “I know,” she said, laughing through her tears and wondering how a single human heart could possibly contain so many emotions. “I know you do.”
    And she did. Nothing short of love would have made Cale Cameron, bookseller and rake, the man who plucked the highest fruit from the tree, and who, for most of his life, had lived heartbreakingly alone, propose marriage.
    He laughed. “ That’s all the response I’m to receive?”
    She grabbed his cravat and pulled him down and kissed him with three months of pent-up frustration, longing, and love. She drew back only far enough to whisper, “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Another fierce kiss. “Yes, I love you.” And then she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her body to his. “Yes, to everything.”
    His hand slid into her hair, ruining her chignon. His other arm wrapped around her waist. And he held her like that, like something infinitely precious, for a very long time.
    “Much better,” he said.

Epilogue
    Five Years Later
    Cale didn’t have many memories of his parents or his brothers and sisters. Just the flash of an image—his parents reading with him by the fireplace, the laughter of a sibling, whispers of emotion…love and safety and joy. After his world had changed irrevocably, he’d worked tirelessly for years, doing all he could to bring back the feeling of safety.
    Now, Elizabeth had reintroduced him to everything else he’d been missing in his life.
    They made new memories, and he