Free No Gentleman for Georgina by Jess Michaels

his cheek, her skin impossibly soft on his. “Never.”
    “Since my return from India I have been…cautious. Perhaps too cautious. But I tell you now, Georgina, I knew I loved you, and I think that eventually I would have tried to convince your father of my heart and my intentions. In my own time.”
    She slid her hand from his cheek and wrapped both arms around his neck. “Are you very, very angry with me for rushing your schedule? For taking this situation into my own hands?”
    He couldn’t continue to be severe with her. Not when she looked up at him with such joy and devotion. Not when she was suddenly and inexplicably his thanks to her wild scheming.
    “I am not angry,” he admitted. “Because you have given me exactly what I have wanted since the very first moment you walked into the room at Annabelle and Marcus’s party two years ago.”
    “Did you truly love me then?” she whispered.
    He nodded. “Truly. I wanted to dismiss it, but the more I got to know you, the greater friends we somehow became, the more that feeling has grown, no matter how I tried to diminish it. I love you, Georgina. And I cannot tell you how happy I am in this moment.”
    She smiled, her face lighting up as it hadn’t in the entire time he had known her. He realized that the weight of her time in Society had been lifted from her slender shoulders. And now she was left with only happiness and joy and a certainty in their future.
    “But there is one more thing I must do before we join your father and Marcus,” he said.
    She shook her head. “What is that?”
    He dropped down on one knee and stared up at her. “Georgina Hickson, will you do me the great honor and equally intense pleasure of being my wife?”
    “I have already agreed—” she began.
    He shook his head. “No, we both told your father that if we were free to marry, we would. But I did not formally ask you if you would take my hand, if you would join my life, if you would accept what little I have to offer not just today, but for all the days we have left. Georgina, will you marry me?”
    Tears had leapt into her eyes, but they were obviously tears of happiness. She smiled through them with all her love for him shining clear on her face.
    “Yes, Paul Abbot. I will marry you. And I will endeavor not to drive you utterly mad for the rest of your life.”
    He pushed back to his feet and drew her into his arms. “My love, I fully expect and look forward to being driven mad. Every day. Every blessed, perfect day.”
    Then he dropped his mouth to hers and kissed her.
     

Epilogue

     
    Two months later
     
    Georgina ran her brush through her hair as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was, finally and forever, Mrs. Paul Abbot. If she had thought herself happy on the day he had proposed to her in the club, now she was ecstatic. So much had changed since that desperate afternoon.
    The door to her new chamber opened, and in the mirror, she watched Paul step through, his gaze falling on her and his smile widening.
    “My parents have departed?” she asked as she got to her feet and turned to face him.
    She was wearing a very pretty, very sheer night shift under her robe, but she was feeling a little nervous to reveal it. After all, Paul had been nothing but gentlemanly since their engagement, so they had not touched in an intimate way, save a few stolen kisses, in two months. Though she did often catch him looking at her with a certain hungry look.
    A hunger she echoed at night in her empty bed.
    “At last, yes,” he said with a happy sigh. “With all their good wishes.”
    She smiled. “You have proven yourself to them, Paul. All your attention to their concerns, the way you have addressed them all so carefully over the weeks, it made such a difference. This morning as we were riding over to the church, both of them waxed poetic about you. If you ever worried about garnering their approval, you have done that and even more.”
    He nodded. “Yes, it seems so,