The ball was long over. The guests returned to their homes, while those staying in the palace have long retired towards their chambers.
As dawn approaches, it seems everything is quiet and everyone is sleeping—well, everyone except one drunk Lord who was high in his cups while his arousal was painfully stirring as he walked towards the beautiful woman's chambers who caught his attention earlier at the ball.
He could not understand why his cousin warned him away. The woman is living proof of sirens, and a woman as beautiful as her deserves a good tupping. Maybe he will marry her if she is great at bedtime, but a woman like her, unattached and parading her beautiful younger sister around his cousin with a husband nowhere in sight, would be better off as his mistress.
Yes, he will make her a mistress and drape her in silk and jewels as he has fun with her body.
Feeling giddy about his future pleasure, Duke Orlando finally reaches the chambers and begins to knock hard on the door.
The guard sleeping nearby was startled and was about to object when he threw a pouch of coins at him and dismissed him from his sight.
Frowning, he pounded on the door again and started professing his feelings. "Please open the doors, my beautiful siren; I am here to surrender myself at your feet.
He kneels down in front of the doors and starts speaking loudly. "Open your door, my love, and let me worship you, my beauty. I promise you will be bathing in riches if you let me inside your temple."
The locked click and his arousal were now obvious in his breeches as he shamelessly showed hope to entice her.
The next second, however, his smile fell as the door opened, and instead of his goddess, an angry man stood towering over him with his pistol pointing towards his cock.
"Get up, you lecherous old bastard!"
"I! Sir!" Orlando was pulled to his feet as this man put a gun to his now-deflated arousal. "How dare you disturb our slumber with your shameless declaration for my wife? What business do you have outside my Viscountess room at this hour? Because I swear, if your attention were lustful, I would shoot you where all your lust came from.
Orlando yelps in fear, and this man pushes him away in disgust as he wets his breeches. "Get out, you lecherous bastard, or I will shoot you right now."
"Pardon me, I am so sorry; I did not know that Lady was attached! Are you really her husband or her keeper?"
"Get out! And never come near my wife again." The man roared threateningly as he raised his pistol, ready to shoot him.
Orlando, now sober up, ran away as fast as he could with his soiled breeches and his ego and members deflated forever.
Closing the door behind him, Anthony locked it again and pressed his forehead against the wood to calm himself down.
After hearing his wife's story and witnessing her truth, he wants to kill everyone who wants to take advantage of his wife.
Once his anger was in control, he turned around, hoping to slip inside the bed with his wife, but to his surprise, she was already awake, standing in front of him with a strange expression on her face.
"Kate, Kate, I." He tried to say something, but then realised he was still clutching the pistol he picked up in his anger. The very same pistol he threatened his wife with and then tried to take his own life—the same pistol that she was seeing in his hands again.
He quickly put it on the nearby table and cautiously walked towards his wife, who seemed shocked by what just happened.
"Kate I am so terribly sorry, but when I heard what that bastard was saying, it just brought back every man in my mind who tried to dishonour you, and before I knew it...'
His words were drowned out when, in a blink of an eye, his wife lunged herself into his arms and pulled his face for a passionate kiss that rendered him breathless.
It has been eight months and eighteen days since he last kissed those lips as they moved sensually against his own.
Anthony was so stunned that he could do nothing else but hold her in his arms while she devoured his lips, tasted his mouth, and kissed him as if her life depended on it.
Finally, she moves away to stare at him in his eyes, and Anthony is shocked and aroused to see the fire in those warm brown eyes.
"How could you doubt for a second that I will give myself to anyone else?!" She asked angrily while yanking his hair in a harsh tug, making him gasp at her fierceness. "How could you even think this body would ever burn for another man as it did for you?"
"Kate." He moans as her lips trail over his neck.
"So many men, so many men used to lust after my body, after this face, and all of them used to repulse me, but you saw me with reverence and respect from the very first moment. Even during those times I could feel your lustful gaze on me, I could also see true desire in your eyes, and instead of repulsing me, it made me feel warm and desired for you. Men always wanted to claim me as a price, but you were the first man who protected me as if I were something precious."
Anthony watched as she grabbed his hand and put it on her beating heart. "Feel my heart, my love; it only beats faster around you. I thought you knew that."
Anthony nods his head as their foreheads touch. "I know this now. I am so sorry for ever doubting you. Please, my love, I beg you to forgive me, and I promise I will spend the rest of my days grovelling at your feet."
"I do not need your apologies or your pity; just promise me you will love me forever." Kate cried, and Anthony kissed her tears away before sweetly kissing her. "I promise, I will love you forever, and when I die, my soul will still love you because you are my true soulmate."
Kate beamed at him, and they kissed each other again.
Anthony was gentle as he undressed his wife with tenderness, shedding layer after layer until she stood in her naked glory.
As soon as he was done, his wife turned to shed his own clothes.
She gasped when he pulled her closer and picked her up in his arms. Kate quickly wrapped her legs around him as he walked towards the bed.
The sun was on the verge of rising, and his wife looked ethereal in an early morning glow.
Before he could stop himself, he was on top of her, kissing her with as much passion and desperation as she had kissed him before.
His Kate was an enthusiastic kisser, and soon it was a game between them as they devoured each other's mouths.
Anthony sucked her tongue in the most sinful way, and Kate slurped her tongue around his while angling his head to the side for the perfect kiss.
They were both moaning while their naked bodies were burning up.
Without leaving her lips, Anthony's hand reached up to play with her nipple, making her gasp against his lips.
Smiling, his other hand reached down and found his wife completely soaked for him. "Anthony." She sighed as she moved her hips against his hand.
"Is that what you want? Or do you want my mouth?"
"No, I need all of you. Please, my love, please give me your love."
Anthony moved his fingers fast inside his wife's cunny, and her entire body shook as she reached her first release.
Anthony smirked as she caught her breath. Her eyes darkened when he brought his fingers towards his mouth and greedily sucked the essence coated around his fingers.
Once he was done, she seemed completely mesmerised as Kate grabbed his finger and sucked on them, tasting herself on his skin.
His arousal was now painfully throbbing against his wife's thigh, who smirked mischievously and stroked his hardness in her soft hand. "That man you just scared away wants to enter my temple; do you want to do the same?"
"Only if my Goddess permits her humble devout." He said it as earnestly as he could manage.
Kate smiled as she squeezed him hard before bringing his hardened member closer to her entrance. "Your goddess wishes to be worshipped now. She commands you to make her happy."
"And happy I shall make her, and all those men will know that only one man can make you happy, and that's your husband."
With that, he gently slipped inside her warmth, and both moans after reuniting for so many months.
Bracing himself on his arms, Anthony starts moving inside his wife's wet heat.
Kate was moaning and gasping beneath him as her hips moved in sync with his hips.
He leaned down to kiss her, and Kate was moaning as her hand roamed all over his back.
"Kate, my love, open your legs wider."
She quickly opened them wide, and Anthony grabbed her thighs and started moving faster and deeper inside her warmth, making them scream each other's names.
The harder he moves, the more she clutches his back. Anthony was sure she scratched his back in various places, but that pain was nothing compared to the pleasure he was driving from his wife's body, this woman who belongs to him, and him alone as he belonged to her.
Suddenly, he needs her to know that.
She gasped when he moved to a sitting position, so now his wife was perched on top of his lap as she bounced on his hardness.
"You are mine, and I am yours. Say it!"
"You are mine, and I, Oh!" She moaned as he moved deeper within. "And I am yours, only yours, my love, my husband."
"My wife! You are mine! Mine to love, mine to protect! I will not let anyone hurt you ever again! I swear, I will kill for you, and I will die for you!" He vowed as he moved even faster, as if he wanted to consume his wife.
"No, please, I cannot bear if anything happens to you; just love me, please."
"Always, Always." Anthony sighed as they madly loved each other, and a few moments later they both shattered in each other's arms.
By the time the sun was shining brightly outside as the new day began, Anthony and Kate lay side by side, holding each other. Both their hands were absently caressing each other's wedding rings.
Finally, Kate kissed his ring finger as she asked. "So now what? Are you going to accept this maid, Kathani Sharma, as your wife?"
Anthony caressed her wedding ring before kissing it, as he made one thing absolutely clear. "I do not care if you were Kathani or Katherine. Maid or lady, because for me, you are my Kate, my wife, and my Viscountess, and aside from that, nothing else matters to me as long as I have you by my side."
"Promise." Kate asks, and Anthony kisses his wife sweetly as he assures her. "I swear, from now on, your husband will always be by your side."
His wife's eyes were filled with so much happiness that she jumped into his arms, and once again they were lost in each other's love.
A few hours later, Anthony was dressed and helping his wife as he buttoned her gown when someone started pounding on her door again.
"I swear if that bastard returns to harass you." Anthony threatened angrily, but before he could even pick up his pistol or Kate could stop him, someone broke inside.
Anthony and Kate watched in shock as Prince Frederick marched inside with a worried-looking Edwina Heston.
"Kathani Didi, are you all right? Orlando just told us your husband was here with a pistol in his hand."
"Did he tell you the time?" Anthony inquired angrily, and both men glared as Kate tried to be a peacemaker. "It's alright, Freddy. Anthony just found me last night, and we talked."
But before she could finish her sentence, Edwina stepped forward and began to beg Anthony. "Please do not be angry with her; everything she did was to protect my life."
"I understand." Anthony tried to tell, but Edwina began to cry as she said. "Please try to understand; I had no choice. He found out about Freddie and me. He was trying to hurt Didi, so I had to do it."
"Edwina." Kate and Frederick both tried to stop her, but Edwina confessed her truth to Anthony to save her sister's life.
"Kate only left you to protect me because I took that monster's life; I killed him! I killed him with my own hands!" Edwina's confession echoes around the room, leaving Anthony shocked to his core.