Falling into his arms, finally letting the tears flow, she nodded into his shoulder.
“Yes.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Inoticed yourdress,” Finn whispered, pulling her into his lap beneath the milky moonlight.
“It seems I didn’t need it after all,” Eva replied.
Following Finn’s terribly public proposal, Eva decided she could speak with Sitric and her brother on the morrow. This night, she only wanted Finn.
Beneath the shade of the forest near Caiseal, Finn and Eva found solace. They wandered hand-in-hand, winding their way through the filtered moonlight until they found an old, moss-covered oak in a clearing. The midnight skies watched over them as they laid down blankets and rested under the bower.
They had kissed many times since the trials began. Some kisses had been sweet, tender. Others had been passionate and intense. This kiss was a promise. A solemn vow, a beginning to a life shared together in love.
Finn’s fingers absently traced along the edge of her body, leaving a now-familiar trail of fiery desire. She had missed his kindness and his friendship, certainly. But she had also missed his touch, his embrace. Her hands pulled him toward her with urgency. She needed to be in his arms, to be joined with him in more than just words.
Finn eagerly complied. His hands worked their way under her gown, removing it with shocking swiftness. He fell upon her, heavy and warm and wonderful. And as they joined once more under the starry night sky, Eva knew that she could never again live her life in fear.
She would live it in love.
The next morningcame all too soon. They spent the night together in each other’s arms, planning a beautiful future. Now they sat, Eva in Finn’s lap, his arms wrapped about her middle, watching dawn break across the still waters.
“What did you speak of with Brian last night?” Eva asked, recalling that Finn had left her side for entirely too long to speak privately with the king.
“I tested my good standing yet again,” he told her with a laugh. “I asked for permission to help my sister.”
Eva turned to look up at him expectantly. “What did he say? Did he allow it?”
Finn grinned, a wide smile that went through his eyes and drew her in closer.
“He gave me all the Fianna, horses, and permission to do whatever necessary to secure my family’s safety, whether it be collecting the fine owed my family or exacting revenge as I see fit.”
Eva smiled broadly, relief washing through her. “Oh, that’s wonderful!” she cried excitedly. “When do you leave? Soon, I hope, for your sister’s sake.”
At mention of Ethlinn, Finn’s jaw tightened. “Brian suggested that we leave this morn, and he expects us back in three days’ time,” Finn replied. “Is it alright that I leave so soon after our betrothal?”
“I’ve resigned myself to the knowledge that you will be here one day and gone the next without much warning at all. It is the life you’ve chosen, and the one I’ve agreed to. I have but one rule.”
“That being?”
Eva put a gentle hand on his face, pulling him in for a soft kiss. “For every day you are gone from me, you must spend one bedding me.”
“That’s not a rule, love,” he breathed. “That’s just how it must be.”
*
“I’ll let youhave the first hit,” Diarmid told Finn as they rode out of Caiseal that morn, “but we’d better all get one.”
“A man who treats anyone that way doesn’t deserve to draw breath,” Cormac added, nodding approval to his brother.
Finn shook his head, unable to believe these men were not only willing, but excited even, to avenge his sister. Never in all his wildest dreams had he imagined a life as the one he now had. A band of the fiercest men in the kingdom willing to die for each other and their king. A friend who felt closer than kin. And a woman, a princess no less, who wanted to marry him, a peasant, in spite of everything. She truly loved him, and each time he thought of it he grew more grateful for Eva.
“I’m going to speak with my family first, to get their opinion on the matter. I’m not going to kill him unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Finn reminded them for the hundredth time that day.
“Whether we kill him or not, that man has a beating coming for him.” Dallan’s tone brooked no room for dissent. “If anyone had done that to Eva, he would’ve been dead already. And I am happy to do the same for your sister.”
They rode, passing the time threatening Ernin and jesting good-naturedly, until the sun reached its height. Finn opened his mouth to insult Diarmid, who always had one coming, honestly, when he saw horsemen approaching on the road.
