Niamh’s heart pounded so loudly she could hear it in her ears. Summoning all the courage she had, she looked him deadin the eyes. “My mother couldn’t have any more children. One daughter was not enough.”
He squeezed her hands, understanding flooding his handsome face. “And it is a common condition in your family?”
Niamh swallowed, lightheadedness descending. “I knew for certain I had inherited the same condition a few weeks before he left. My bleeding had stopped long before, but that wasn’t too alarming. It had come and gone for years. A small part of me had even dared to hope that I carried your child.
“But then I started having the bursts of hot and cold that my mother had. Her sister had the same symptoms when she was young, but my mother’s didn’t develop until later. I should have left with him, instead of waiting for you to propose. I shouldn’t have waited so long. It was cruel to do it when I did, and I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”
She watched his mind consider all that she’d just shared. “You accidentally became an expert in women’s care because you were searching for ways to heal yourself.”
“I found so many ways to help women conceive, and carry healthy babies, and even recover afterward.” Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “But I couldn’t find any way to heal myself.”
“Niamh,” his soft, smooth voice washed over her like cool water on a balmy day. “I loveyou. I love you whether we have children or not. As long as I have you, nothing else matters.”
The tears escaped, one by one, salty streams carving paths down her cheeks. “But you’re a prince,” she explained. “Your family will expect you to have heirs.”
“If that’s enough for my family to disapprove of you, the devil can take them for all I care.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Dallan’s firm answer finally gave her the solid ground she’d been searching for since they’d met again. “Is that why you left? Because you feared their disapproval?”
“I—” she paused, hardly able to form the words that had haunted her for so long. “I feared you might one day leave. Maybe not right away, but once you realized the truth in it. When we’d struggled for years with naught but frustration and grief.”
“You thought I would leave like your father did, abandon you when you were hurting, when you needed someone most.” He let out a shaky breath. “Niamh, look at me.”
She raised her gaze, unable to hold in the flood of tears now.
“We will not have years of struggling to have children. We will have years of love and joy in each other. We will have years of warm milk with cinnamon, laughing so hard we can’t breathe, and taking care of that damned cat. And you have my vow that should I ever be so lucky as to have you as my wife, I will never, ever leave you.”
She didn’t deserve him. He was always so kind, so sweet and thoughtful. She would spend her entire life trying to become the kind of woman who was worthy of such a man.
“I love you, Dallan,” she replied, throwing herself into his arms and holding him tight.
“I love you, too.” He smiled down at her, their noses touching as they both laughed. “So would you like to court again, or skip back to the proposal?”
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
“Only if you’ll agree this time,” he teased.
Niamh’s heart soared. She had expected him to be understanding and even accepting. She hadn’t expected him to not care at all. It felt so good to finally tell him, to no longer carry the weight of her secret.
“I’m already wearing the ring, aren’t I?”
“Fair point.” He took her hand, toying with the gold band on her middle finger. “How badly do you want this ghost flower?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s something I’d like quite a bit more.” The hungry look in his eyes brought the butterflies back to her stomach with a vengeance.
Chapter Twenty-Six
In response tohis bold suggestion, Niamh leaned toward him, her lips parted temptingly.
He didn’t think. He reacted. Pulling her into his arms, he met her with a searing kiss, the kind he had dreamed of every night since she left. Hot and hungry and filled with six years of waiting for this moment, of being tortured by memories of all the other times he’d held her like this.
Her hands wound through his hair as the wind whipped over the ancient hilltop. She matched his enthusiasm, igniting a fire deep in his belly.
Every muscle in his chest tensed—he felt invincible, like he could take on anything. Gently, he backed her against one of the tall stones. Her sharp intake of breath as he loosened her gown drove him mad with desire. He wanted to spend the night worshipping every inch of her.
