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“May I have a dance, Lady Bridgerton?”
Kate stares at him through the mirror at his sudden request, the wooden comb she’s using to unravel her long dark curls calmly ceasing its movements as she faces him with an upturned brow, amused.
“Whatever for?”
Anthony ruffles against the sheets behind her, putting on his trousers and loose dress shirt as he gets up to walk towards Kate, an easy smile playing on his lips. “Do I need a reason to dance with my wife?”
Returning to her ministrations, Kate tilts her head as her comb runs through a tangle in her hair. “Not exactly,” she admits, and his smile turns into a smirk. “Though I must admit you’ve caught me slightly by surprise, husband.”
Anthony reaches her then, his hands resting atop her shoulders to rub them soothingly, Kate’s brush now forgotten atop the vanity. They lock eyes through the mirror.
“Have I?”
“I’ve heard from many that you’re not one for dances,” Kate retorts, feigning ignorance when his fingers start trailing down her arms as light as a feather, awakening her soul with a simple, gentle touch to her skin. “So, who are you and what have you done to Anthony?”
She turns around in her chair, staring up at him as he stands before her, one delicate finger lifting her chin to gaze up at him.
His smile is simply breathtaking. “I’ll have you know, dear wife, that I do not particularly enjoy mindless dancing at balls with ladies my Mother used to throw at my feet,” he admits, eyelids hooded as he approaches her ever so slowly, his thumb caressing the skin on her chin reverently. “With you, however…” Leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her cheekbone, Anthony stops when his lips near her ear. “I love dancing with you.”
Another thing he absolutely adores about Kate is how she doesn’t always let him know just how much he affects her — in that sense, she’s way more reliable to behave properly in public, as a simple hooded glance his way from her often ends with them leaving whatever ball they’d been invited to earlier as Anthony can’t keep his hands to himself.
Kate looks as unimpressed as always when he trails light pecks from her ear to her cheek, finishing with one to her nose. “Do you, or is that just a way for you to sniff me yet again?”
“I do not do such a thing,” Anthony protests, a crease in his brow though the smile on his lips betrays his expression.
Kate scoffs mockingly, “I’m sure Lady Danbury would thoroughly disagree.”
Standing up, Kate is quick to walk into his arms, encircling hers around his neck, keeping him close as their noses bump. “I have no clue as to what you’re on about,” Anthony grins knowingly.
“Of course,” Her fingers trace the nape of his neck the way she knows Anthony loves, her chest pressed to him as his arms provide a sense of protection Kate has never truly felt with anyone other than Mary and Edwina. He’s her safe place and the thought has her smiling from ear to ear even as she tries not to. “Definitely not how you threw away all semblance of propriety while dancing with me at her ball last night.”
“I would never,” Anthony teases, remembering how he never left Kathani’s side the whole ball, how he danced with her way more times than appropriate, how he smirked at every gentleman who dared speak with Kate only for her to turn them down politely. He was definitely a smug little shit last night and he’s not even ashamed of it.
“So what do you say?” He asks once again, extending a hand to her as the other squeezes her hip fondly, “Care for a dance?”
She doesn’t hesitate before taking his hand in hers.
———
It is said Whistledown’s society papers remained long after Charlotte’s regency ended, and people say Anthony and Kate Bridgerton often made written appearances over the years.
It is also said that the two could never leave each other’s eyes, always looking for the other in a crowded ballroom, their faces breaking into a smile whenever they found one another. It is written in the worn-out paper that even after long years of marriage, with children of their own, Lord and Lady Bridgerton always danced once or twice more than necessary.
Theirs was a true love match indeed.