CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Leoheld Beth against his chest while he attempted to rationalize what had just happened between them. The passion that had robbed his reason. The need to have this woman as his own had been a fire in his blood.
“Are you all right, Beth?”
“I am. Thank you, Leo.”
“You have no need to thank me.”
She pressed a hand to his chest and lifted up so their eyes could meet. Hers were half-closed, the embers of passion still smoldering. She looked like a thoroughly sated woman... his woman, Leo thought with satisfaction—and something else that he was still not ready to identify.
“You gave me so much then. The realization that I can be with a man and not feel fear.”
“Not a man, this man.” Leo thumped his chest, feeling a primitive need well up inside him to make her understand that she was now his. There would be no one else for either of them as long as he was breathing.
She touched his jaw, a soft brush of her fingers.
“For so long I have believed it better to keep myself away from people, especially men. Part of me knew some were good, but I had never thought... never believed I could have what we just shared.”
“We will marry now.”
“No, Leo. This does not—”
“Yes, it does, and we will.” He wanted her to understand that. That he now needed her at his side. She made him want to be a better person. He wanted to slay her dragons and make her smile. But first, he was going to kill Lloyd.
“I have no wish to marry you simply because we did that.”
He held her still as she tried to get off his thighs. “It’s called making love, and yes we are.”
She huffed out a breath. “I don’t want to marry.”
“I had no plans to either, but you’ll do,” he teased.
She slapped his chest hard. “I beg your pardon?”
He hauled her close and kissed her; she was limp seconds later. “We will be married, Beth,” he whispered into her ear. “Because we have this, and this is a great deal more than many have.”
“But he... I have been—”
He placed a hand over her lips, knowing what she was about to say. She thought because of what happened with Lloyd that she was soiled. That he would not want such a woman, when surely what they had just shared showed her he did. Obviously not in the way she thought, however.
“Let me set a few things straight for you, my sweet.” He framed her face with his hands, urging her eyes to meet his.
“What happened to you was not your fault, and I will never blame you for it, or think you anything other than the lovely, if slightly annoying, woman I have always believed you to be. I would like to find that bastard and make him pay, which I will do. But never think what happened changes how I see you, Beth. Never believe one man’s act of violence on a sweet, innocent girl can be blamed on you.”
“Oh, Leo.”
“Are you going to cry again?” He slipped a hand around her neck, stroking the soft skin.
“N-no, I do not cry.”
The words were accompanied by a loud sniff.
“I don’t mind if you do. I rather like you all weak and pathetic.” It had been just the right thing to say, as her spine straightened.
“I am not pathetic!”
“No,” he kissed her, “you are not.”
