Leather and Spice and Everything Nice, A Kanthony Anniversary

Here’s a fic for Kate and Anthony’s third anniversary!

“Did you think to hide from me?”

The soft, rumbling voice of her husband came over Kate Bridgerton’s shoulder. She smiled, tucking the ribbon into her book and closing it before glancing back. Anthony Bridgerton was dressed in a deep purple waistcoat, with buff breeches and high, dark brown riding boots.

“I knew, after three years of marriage, that you would find me,” Kate said, setting her book aside on the bench.

The secluded grotto in their garden where the sunlight turned verdant as it filtered through the leaves, where the scent of lilac and jasmine filled the air, was perhaps her favorite place on the estate. And her husband certainly knew it.

“Three years,” he echoed, stepping forward and pacing around until he was standing in front of his wife. “It feels like it was just yesterday that we were standing together, saying our vows.”

She looked up at him, her face bathed in golden light, her eyes beautiful pools of dark, rich honey. He reached out, his bare fingers stroking her jaw. Kate closed her eyes at the softness of the touch, the feeling of his familiar caress.

“I have a gift for you,” said Anthony.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled as he slid something from his pocket. He held out a leather box, about the size of his palm, beautifully crafted and pressed with K.E.B., her initials, in the front.

“This is gorgeous,” breathed Kate.

“It is Florentine,” he explained. “A replica of the chest that traveled with Catherine de Medici when she left for France to become Queen. I thought the story might be one you had some kinship with.”

Kate’s eyes sparkled. “And it’s perfect, for a third anniversary.”

He tipped his chin. “Look inside, my love.”

Kate did as he bid, flicking open the box, a small gasp leaving her lips. “A jewelry box!”

She carefully picked up the pendant laid inside, her fingers tracing the delicate jewels set in gold. One sapphire, one amethyst, one pink tourmaline.

“Traditionally it is only our birthstones, but Edmund’s birthstone fit so perfectly that I could not help it,” said Anthony.

Kate’s eyes welled with tears, and she clutched the pendant to her chest. “Will you put it on me?”

“Of course,” said Anthony, coming around behind her and delicately sliding the hair off her neck.

Kate held the thick, black curtain of her hair away as Anthony closed the clasp. Then, as he leaned down and pressed his lips to the back of her neck, a small, sensual shiver chased down Kate’s spine.

“Kathani,” he whispered, his breath skating down her spine.

“Anthony,” she said, reaching up and sliding her hand over the faintly prickling plush of his short beard.

His hands slid around her waist, pulling her back against him so that she could feel the eager arousal against her back. He smelled delicious, like leather and spice and the delicious, heady concoction that was Anthony and Anthony alone. His lips moved, devouring her throat even as his hand lifted, closing around her breast. Kate could feel her nipple growing taut beneath the fabric. He gave a small laugh.

“No corset?” he questioned.

Kate turned in his arms, looking up at him with a sly, knowing smile. “I like to be prepared, husband.”

Anthony gave a hungry little growl even as he closed his teeth lightly at her neck. She giggle, squirming in his grasp and aggravating his aroused condition.

“Mama!” came a sweet, high-pitched cry.

Anthony let out a sharp breath. “Your son is looking for you.”

Kate laughed as she rose slowly. “Oh, he is my son now?”

“Under the circumstances,” says Anthony, giving her a wry grin. “Yes.”

“Papa!” came their son’s shout through the hedges.

Anthony groaned, scrubbing his face as Kate laughed.

“You are a cruel, cruel woman,” he declared as she fetched her book and tucked the little jewelry box into her pocket.

Kate winked at her husband. “Don’t worry — I’ll make it up to you.”

And with that thought heavy in his mind as he watched her swaying hips, Anthony dragged in a deep breath, then let it out again. A few moments later, he rounded the corner of the path, leaving the secluded little grotto behind and finding his wife once more, this time with their son in her arms. Little Edmund with his black curls and dark eyes that so beautifully matched his mother’s, was giggling uproariously as Kate tickled his belly.

“There is my boy,” said Anthony as he strode over to them.

“Papa!” cried Edmund, extending his arms to his father.

Anthony scooped up the young boy and put him on his hip. “Aaj tum kaise ho, pyaare ladake?”

“Mahaan!” Edmund replied.

“Very good, Edmund,” Kate praised, pressing her hand to the little boy’s back.

“I can take him up to the nursery for supper,” offered his nurse, who stepped forward.

“Thank you, Mrs. Hollis,” said Kate as Anthony handed off the boy to his nanny. “My husband and I will be spending the evening together, so we won’t be following the usual evening routine.”

Mrs. Hollis’s eyes sparkled. “Of course, my Lady. The young master and I will do quite well on our own for a night, don’t you think, Master Edmund?”

“Yes!” he piped up.

Anthony chuckled, reaching out to put an arm around Kate’s waist as Edmund waved to his parents. They waved back, and Anthony couldn’t help the massive smile that burst across his face. Kate looked at him, thinking of how like his father Edmund was. He had Kate’s dark hair, but it felt like Anthony’s when she carded her fingers through it. The boy’s eyes and nose were like hers, but the lips and soft, light skin was her husband’s.

“We did quite a good thing in that,” Kate said.

“You did,” agreed Anthony. “At least, you did all the hard work. My part was rather fun.”

She pinched him lightly, and he laughed warmly, grabbing her hand and twining their fingers together, the slow slide of digits sensual and intimate.

“Speaking of,” Anthony said, his voice pitched low as he leaned close. “I seem to remember a promise of something being made up to me.”

“Oh, indeed,” said Kate with a gleam in her eye. “I have a present for you. It is also leather, as is fitting for this third anniversary.”

Anthony’s eyes lit like a naughty schoolboy. “If it’s you in leather, can we go inside where I might be able to properly do something about it?”

Kate shook her head. “It is not me in leather, you perverted man.”

He wetted his lips as he eyed her. “Perhaps that ought to have been my present to you.”

“Ah, you vex me,” she threw up her hands and turned from him, stalking away down the path a few strides before Anthony caught up to her, catching her hand in his.

“Come,” he urged. “Come closer, and vex me in return.”

Anthony bent his head and met her lips with his own. Kate felt herself go pliant in his arms, craving, needing his touch, eager for more of him in every way. Her body heated, desire rising inside her as they pressed together, lips and tongues dancing.

She gave a small moan as she pulled back. “Anthony.”

“Kathani,” he answered, his eyes opening and fixed on hers, intense and ferocious in their wanting.

Kate bit her bottom lip, sliding her hand into her pocket and producing a leather-bound journal. Anthony’s eyes lit.

“It’s beautiful,” he said, holding it in his hands and sliding his thumbs over the cover.

Kate was momentarily, irrationally jealous of his hands on the inanimate object. She wanted them on her, but that would occur soon enough, she reminded herself. Before that, she needed to give him the second part of his present.

“I know Colin is your favorite brother,” said Anthony wryly. “But you do not have to be so obvious in wanting me to turn into him.”

Kate laughed. “Hardly that. It is only that Mary gave me a journal of my father’s that she recently found. Apparently, he would write down interactions and little details he wished to remember about our childhoods, his memories with us. I thought you could do the same with Edmund.”

The smile that broke across Anthony’s face warmed Kate to the very core of herself.

“Kate, this is incredible,” Anthony beamed. “I love it.”

“Turn to the first page,” she suggested.

He opened the cover and read inside, his jaw opening slowly as he read the entry.

Today, on our third anniversary, Kate told me she is expecting our second child.

His eyes flashed up to hers again. “Is it true?”

Kate reached out, taking one of his hands and laying it over her belly. “Yes.”

Anthony let out a dramatic whoop and wrapped his arms around her. Kate laughed as he pulled her off the ground and spun her around.

“Anthony!” she giggled as he at last put her down.

He kissed her soundly, holding her and their growing child between them as their lips met, their souls touching as they poured three years of their marriage into that kiss, as the future stretched out before them where three turned into thirty, and far beyond. A lifetime that had started on that day three years before, but was theirs together for the rest of time.