“Aye,” he said, unyielding. “Because if ye ever get into trouble like that again, I dinna know what I would do.”
“What’s going to happen now?” Charlotte said, her voice a little shaky. “Will he really call the sheriff? He said he would see me hanged.”
Niall placed his hands on her shoulders. “Look at me. Look at me! That isnae going to happen, do ye hear? Anyone tries to get near ye they will have to come through me first. I will die before I let anyone hurt ye. Understand?”
She nodded, eyes wide. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I should have listened to you.”
Niall took a slow breath, forcing himself to ease the tension in his shoulders, in his fists that still ached from striking MacAllister. His anger was a fire banked low, but it wasn’t directed at her. It had never been.
“I’m not angry with ye, Charlotte,” he said, his voice low and rough. “I’m angry athim. For putting his hands on ye. For thinking he had the right. For all the foul things he’s done.” His hand slid from her shoulder to cradle the back of her neck, his thumb tracing the soft skin there. “And I’m angry at myself—because I lost control back there. Because I’ve never been so bloody terrified in my life.”
Charlotte’s breath hitched. “Niall...”
He swallowed hard. “When I saw him holding ye like that, when I thought for even a second that I might not get to ye in time—I canna even explain what that did to me.” His grip tightened, not enough to hurt, but enough that she couldn’t look away. “I’ve been in fights. I’ve faced men twice my size with steel in their hands and murder in their eyes. And I swear to ye, nothing—nothing—has ever scared me the way that did.”
She was staring at him now, her eyes wide, her lips parted, but she didn’t speak.
So he did.
“I love ye, Charlotte.” The words came rough, raw, torn straight from his chest. “God help me, I do.”
She made a small sound—half a gasp, half a laugh—as if she hadn’t expected him to say it. As if she wasn’t sure what to do with it.
His fingers tightened in her hair. “I love ye,” he said again, fiercer this time. “And if ye tell me that I should walk away, that ye dinna feel the same, then I will.” He forced out the words, even though the very thought of leaving her made his heart clench. “But if ye feel even a fraction of what I do—”
She put a finger against his lips to stop him. “I do,” she whispered. “I do. I love you too.”
***
CHARLIE’S HEART POUNDEDso hard she swore Niall must hear it. She could still see the raw emotion in his eyes, could still hear the rough edge in his voice as he said the words that had knocked the breath right out of her.
I love ye, Charlotte.
She hadn’t expected him to say it. She hadn’t dared to hope.
But the truth of it was written in every tense line of his body, in the way his fingers trembled slightly where they held her. In the way he had stormed into MacAllister’s home, fists flying, fury burning in his gaze, becauseshehad been in danger.
She had never felt so terrified as when MacAllister had grabbed her. And she’d never felt so safe as when Niall had come for her.
“I do,” she whispered again, her breath mingling with his, her fingers curling into the fabric of his plaid as if to anchor herself to him. “I love you too.”
When had she fallen for him? She couldn’t pinpoint it. It had crept up on her, despite her best efforts to stop it.
Something changed in his expression as she said those words—something broke. The tension in him snapped like a bowstring, and then he was moving, pulling her against him, his arms wrapping tight around her as his lips crashed into hers.
Charlie gasped into the kiss, a sound that turned into a soft, desperate sigh as she melted into him. She had kissed him before, but it was nothing like this.
This was heat and hunger and aching relief all wrapped up into one. This was desperate fear followed by desperate joy, and the crazy, all-consuming emotions that brought. Her need for him consumed her. She didn’t think she’d wanted anything in her life as much as she wanted him right now.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, gripping tight, her body pressing into his as if she could mold herself to him completely. His hands roamed over her back, up her arms, down her waist, as though he needed to convince himself that she was really here, really safe.
He tore his mouth from hers, his breath ragged. He rested his forehead against hers, his chest rising and falling in time with her own unsteady breaths. His hands framed her face, his thumbs sweeping over her cheeks with a tenderness that made her heart ache.
“Say it again,” he murmured, his voice rough with emotion. “Tell me again, lass.”
Charlie swallowed hard, her throat tight. She had spent so long guarding her heart, so long keeping herself walled off from feelings that ran too deep, from emotions that could shatter her if she let them take root. But with Niall, there was no hiding. No pretending.
She reached up, her fingers brushing over his jaw, tracing the strong lines of his face as she met his gaze, stormy and full of something raw and unguarded.
