‘That I want to build a future with you. That I want a family, children who will grow up knowing a father’s care. If all I wanted was to sire heirs I’d have done it long since. The reason I haven’t is that I never met the woman I wanted to share that with. After what I had with Eloise I could never settle for anything less. I thought I could never have that again, until I met you.’
Ashlynn’s gaze searched his face, her heart thumping painfully hard. The words had sounded sincere. ‘Is that the truth?’
‘On everything I hold sacred.’
Ashlynn turned away, trying to make sense of her chaotic thoughts. They both wanted the same things—almost. He had not spoken of his desire for revenge but the word hung there between them. She knew it hadn’t gone away; that it was still an issue; that they needed to confront it. But if she spoke its name the spell would be broken, the moment lost. She had alienated him once tonight already through ill-considered words. Now he was trying to put things right. How could she destroy what had been so hard won?
Iain didn’t move, made no attempt to touch her, but his voice was calmer now, steadier. ‘I know as well as anyone can what you’ve been through, lass, and no one could have faced it with greater courage. When you took my name I swore to protect you, and if I had the ordering of the world nothing should ever harm you more.’ He paused. ‘With you I have found what I never thought to have again with any woman. I hoped that you had begun to care a little for me. Was I wrong?’
She shook her head. ‘No, you weren’t wrong. It’s just…’
‘Just…?’
‘That I was afraid.’
‘Of me?’
She turned to face him again. ‘Of being hurt.’
‘I would never deliberately do anything to hurt you.’
In spite of all attempts to blink them back the tears welled in her eyes and spilled over. Very gently he drew her against his breast and let her rest there, safe in the circle of his arms, and for the first time all the tension went out of her and she knew only the rightness of being there.
He dropped a kiss on her hair and then, as she looked up, another on her mouth. Ashlynn returned it, a slow and lingering embrace that turned his blood to fire. For a moment the dark gaze burned into hers and saw there what he had hardly dared to hope for.
‘I want to kiss you again, lass, but I’m afraid if I do it’ll not stop there.’
‘Who said I wanted it to?’
His heart performed a sudden and dangerous manoeuvre and for a moment or two he didn’t move, being entirely unsure he had just heard her aright. Then she reached up and drew his face down towards hers. This time it was she who kissed him, a passionate affirmation of the feelings she could no longer conceal.
He lifted her in his arms and carried her into his bedchamber and undressed her there, laying aside her garments before removing his own. Ashlynn caught her breath, taking in all the lithe and sculptured beauty of the hard-muscled body. Then he was beside her, drawing the furs over them, his mouth on hers, his hands exploring the curves of her flesh, subtle, arousing. And the world became a fusion of sense impressions, the coarse linen sheet and the soft wolf pelts, flickering light from the fire, the faint smell of wood smoke and the warmth of his flesh against hers, the erotic scent of musk on his skin, the taste of wine on his lips. His mouth moved lower, caressing neck and throat and breasts, sending a delicious shiver the length of her body. Ashlynn yielded herself up to it, wanting this, wanting him, no longer able to deny what she felt. Now there was no fear or doubt, only the sweetness of belonging, as though something long sought had been found.
He took his time, restraining desire, controlling passion, fighting the predatory urge that would make possession an act of violation. She would be his, finally and absolutely. He knew now he had wanted this from the first, a knowledge he had tried to deny, just as she had. And so he relearned the beauty of her body whose perfection his eyes had ascertained long before, his hands moving across waist and hip and thigh, and thence to the secret place between, gently stroking, teasing, rousing, feeling the answering rush of hot warmth, feeling the first shudder in her body’s core. A body made for this. His knee parted her thighs and he entered her, gently, encountering resistance, moving past it and then deeper into her, moving in slow rhythm, holding back, feeding the fire and bringing her with him.
Ashlynn gasped, feeling him thrust deeper into her, moving with him now, her body arching into his, each rhythmic stroke sending pleasure coursing through every fibre of her being. The cry caught in her throat. And then restraint was gone and there was a final fierce possession before release and the hot sweet rush of a mutual shuddering climax.