Gareth started to shake with laughter.
“What is it?” she demanded.
He couldn’t speak. All he could do was lie there, his body shaking the entire bed.
“What’s so funny?”
He caught his breath, turned and rolled until he was back on top of her, nose to nos
e. “You,” he said.
She started to frown, but then melted into a smile.
A wicked smile.
Good Lord, but he was going to enjoy being married to this woman.
“I think we might need to move up the wedding date,” she said.
“I’m willing to drag you off to Scotland tomorrow.” And he was serious.
“I can’t,” she said, but he could tell she half wished she could.
“It would be an adventure,” he said, sliding one hand along her hip to sweeten the deal.
“I’ll talk to my mother,” she promised. “If I’m sufficiently annoying, I’m sure I can get the engagement period cut in half.”
“It makes me wonder,” he said. “As your future husband, should I be concerned by your use of the phrase if I’m sufficiently annoying?”
“Not if you accede to all of my wishes.”
“A sentence that concerns me even more,” he murmured.
She did nothing but smile.
And then, just when he was starting to feel quite comfortable in every way, she let out an, “Oh!” and wriggled out from beneath him.
“What is it?” he asked, the question muffled by his inelegant landing in the pillows.
“The jewels,” she said, clutching the sheet to her chest as she sat up. “I completely forgot about them. Good heavens, what time is it? We have to get going.”
“You can move?”
She blinked. “You can’t?”
“If I didn’t have to vacate this bed before morning, I’d be quite content to snore until noon.”
“But the jewels! Our plans!”
He closed his eyes. “We can go tomorrow.”
“No,” she said, batting him on the shoulder with the heel of her hand, “we can’t.”
“Why not?’
“Because I already have plans for tomorrow, and my mother will grow suspicious if I keep pleading headaches. And besides, we planned on this evening.”
He opened one eye. “It’s not as if anyone’s expecting us.”