“Perhaps we’d be best not to question it and just simply enjoy the time we have together.”
His words struck at her heart. Time we have together.
Once again it disturbed her to know that they would eventually part. She wasn’t one given to tears easily, but now, feeling the swell of them building, she buried her face in his chest.
“Sara?” Cullen said, and tugged at her until she had no choice but to look at him.
Tears glistened in her eyes, intensifying their blue-green color.
Cullen stared at her, bewildered. “I’ve rarely seen a tear in your eye.”
“And you needn’t have now, if you had let me be,” she accused bluntly.
He wiped the tear stuck in the corner of her eye with his thumb. “Tell me what bothers you, Sara.”
She was quick to respond. “Nothing bothers me.”
“Nonsense, you cry,” he said, and kissed the corner of her eye. “It hurts me to see you cry.”
“Why?”
He looked at her awkwardly, as if fighting to find a reason.
Sara answered for him. “You don’t know why, do you?”
“I care for you,” he said quickly.
“Why?” she repeated, though not accusingly.
“You saved my son’s life. I owe you.”
Sara refused to let her disappointment show. She had hoped that perhaps there was more to his feelings. She had discovered that her own feelings were growing day by day, actually soaring, particularly since they had made love.
Their lovemaking had only proven to her that something special existed between them, and try as he might to deny it, she certainly couldn’t, nor did she want to.
Her feelings were a gift from the Heavens. Hadn’t she asked for a husband, and hadn’t she been immediately presented with one?
“Let’s make the most of this time, Sara,” he said, cupping her face with one hand.
It sounded as if he were pleading with her, or did he plead with himself?
She smiled to hide her ache and poked at his bare chest. “You are a great lover, Cullen Longton.”
“Glad I am to please you, Sara Longton.”
“How about pleasing me again, husband?”
“I knew you wouldn’t be a shy one,” he said with a smug grin.
“Do you want shy?” she asked with another teasing poke.
He shook his head as his mouth descended over hers. “I want you just the way you are, unafraid and eager to love.”
“That I am, Cullen, that I am,” she whispered before his mouth claimed hers.
Chapter 29
Cullen watched his wife from his perch on a log near the keep. Sara was speaking with a couple of women in the village. They all wore smiles and laughed now and again. It hadn’t taken long for him to see why she felt an outsider in her clan. It wasn’t that the villagers didn’t like her; it was because they revered her, just as they did her father.
She carried herself with distinction and confidence, and didn’t hesitate to offer a sound solution to problems. Sara was a born leader, and it was obvious to all who knew her, even her father.
While her blunt, honest comments rarely offended, they did often startle, and that left many villagers leery of approaching her. Sara might not tell them what they wanted to hear, but they would hear the truth from her, and the truth, Cullen knew, wasn’t always easy to accept.
He’d been dealing with that realization for the last couple of days, ever since he and Sara had made love.
He wiped the smile off his face, though it would reappear soon enough. It always did when he glanced at his wife. Her natural beauty was apparent, and even more so when she stood among other women. Her unique height, her blazing red hair, her confident posture, her flawless skin, her shapely body, her keen mind, her courage, her unabashed passion, all pronounced her a woman worth loving.
And damned if he didn’t think he was falling in love with her.
He kicked at a pebble in the dirt, thinking the kick would have been more appropriate to his bottom. He was torn by the unexpected feelings of love for Sara and wasn’t sure what to do with them. And what of when it was time for him and his son to take their leave? How did he walk away from her?
The thought ripped at his heart. But was this love true, or was Sara simply a convenient replacement for his Alaina?
Cullen laughed at the thought. Sara and Alaina were nothing alike, which made him wonder if what he felt for Sara could actually be real, and did he have enough time to find out or would he need to make a decision he might regret for the rest of his life?
He looked over at her again, her fiery red hair tossed back as she laughed, her cheeks flushed red from the slight chill in the air, spring having yet to fully claim each day with its gorgeous weather.