The mere thought was enough to make his mouth water.
No.He caught himself and his wayward mind, for he must not dwell on the lust for her coursing through him. He had a decision to make this morning, and last night had proven to him it would be far more difficult than he had ever supposed.
Gently disentangling himself from her, he rolled to his side, taking in the sight of her, listening to the sweet music of her gentle, deep breaths. A fierce ache tore through him as his eyes drank in her sleep-softened features, the early morning sun casting her in an ethereal glow.
This time, the ache was not just desire. It was bigger than that, stronger too, more complex. More confusing. When he looked upon her, he felt the urge to protect her, to make her happy. He felt the urge to wake every morning just as he was, with her scent in the air, her in his bed. When he looked upon Leonie, the ugliness inside him abated, drowned out by the way she made him feel.
Realization hit him with more force than one of Monty’s fists.
The sensation in his chest, the lump in his throat, the dread and the guilt seizing him when he contemplated never again waking with his glorious wife in his arms, when he imagined living without her, when he thought of the babe she may be carrying in her womb this very moment…it was…it was…
“Love.” He said the word aloud, testing the single syllable upon his tongue.
Such a simple, concise means of conveying an emotion more profound than he could even comprehend. An emotion he had, until this moment, believed a fiction. How impossible it seemed that four letters strung together could encompass the vastness of feelings inside him.
But somehow, it did. So, he said it again. “Love.”
And again, this time louder. “Love.”
Leonie stirred at his side, a sigh of contentment leaving her lips and lodging in his heart as she nestled closer to him. He gathered her to him, burying his face in the silken cloud of her hair. What a fool he had been to believe he could not forfeit his revenge, when all along the one thing he truly could not bear to lose had been right here.
Her.
He loved Leonie. His marchioness, his wife. His life.
The discovery was big, far too big to keep to himself. The need to tell her rose within him. “Leonie.”
She made a kittenish sound in her throat as she nuzzled his chest. She was so damn sweet, one-half innocent, one-half seductress. Completely his.
“Leonie,” he persisted, stroking her thick curls back from her face so he could see her. “I love you, Leonie.”
Her eyes were still closed, but she stretched like a cat, the bedclothes sliding down to reveal her lush breasts straining against the fine fabric of her nightdress. “Mmm. Morgan?” Slowly, her lashes fluttered open, and she looked adorably befuddled to find him gazing down upon her. “Is something amiss?”
“No.” He shook his head slowly, a smile he could not suppress lifting his lips. “Everything is precisely as it ought to be.”
“It is?” A frown furrowed her brow. “I do not understand.”
No, she would not. Neither did he, if he were brutally honest with himself, but perhaps they could make sense of things together. He cupped her face gently, staring into the vibrancy of her eyes. He saw all the answer he needed in the depths of her gaze. He saw there a woman who was strong and giving, who loved him enough to fight for him even when he did not deserve her perseverance.
And he was going to tell her the undeniable truth rising like a tide within him. He was going to unburden himself. To lay himself bare before her. His past still lived inside him, and nothing would erase it, or the scars he bore on his body. But maybe today could be the start of something new.
The beginning of his healing. Mayhap it was not impossible.
As he looked at her now, he had to hope, to believe.
The words left him. “I love you.”
“You…”
He swallowed as a fresh knot threatened to climb his throat, forced down the uncertainty wrought by watching his parents tear each other to pieces with their mutual hatred, by allowing the hatred he felt toward Rayne and his captors to nearly consume him. “I love you, Leonie.”
She was silent and still as his revelation hung in the air.
A wild combination of terror and elation stole through him.
Just when he thought he could not bear another moment of awaiting her response, those perfect, rosebud-pink lips of hers moved.
“You love me?”
