“Yes?” she said, holding back her own opinions, at least for now, to allow him to process his own.
“I put up walls between myself and them,” he said softly. “Built a life where I didn’t have to acknowledge their existence. But in the last few days, since Aurora dragged them back into my life to help you, I have…appreciated their assistance. That they would do so much for you.”
“Without Selina’s husband or Nicholas’s influence, I don’t think we would have been able to resolve this so quickly,” Imogen said carefully.
“No,” he said. He rested his head back on the pillows, the moments ticking away on the clock. “Walls have not served me well, I don’t think,” he said at last. “If I’ve learned anything since you careened into my life, it is that. I learned to build them to protect myself, but all I did in the end was cut myself off from possibilities. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
She smiled. This remarkable man was so capable of seeing his own flaws. Of admitting them and finding a way to change. To be better. She hadn’t known many people in her life so filled with such awareness.
No wonder she adored him.
And she wanted to help. Because they would be married and his happiness would be the joy of her life. “Then perhaps we can take some of those walls down together,” she said. “Welcome in your family.”
When he caught his breath, she grabbed for his hand. “Slowly,” she said. “Perhaps even one at a time. Start with Nicholas, as he will be with Aurora, I’m certain of it.”
“He’s a good man,” Oscar admitted. “And I would be proud to call him my—my brother.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and she saw how much that idea meant to him. He had been so alone through so much in his life, by chance and by choice. But now…now he was ready for more. For her. For them. For everything.
She touched his face and he opened his eyes and looked down at her. She traced his lips with her fingertips. “I will be at your side, your protector and your champion, every step of the way.”
He nodded. “I will count on your to help me slay my dragons then, fair lady. And I’ll slay yours.”
“Thatis a bargain.” She snuggled into his chest and he began to run a hand over her hair.
After a few moments he cleared his throat. “You know that wasn’t what I meant when I said things would change.”
She jerked her head up. “Then what did you mean if not us getting married and then living happily ever after, slaying dragons and perhaps expanding our family to include your siblings?”
He narrowed his gaze and the light there went dark. Dangerous. Her body twitched with response. There was the beast. He wasn’t gone, and she welcomed him back as he tugged her a little tighter against her.
“I meant here…in our bedroom,” he said, his voice suddenly low and rough.
She laughed despite the charged air around them. “I don’t think I want what we do in the bedroom to change.”
“Of course you do,” he said, and his smile fluttered at the edge of his lips no matter how he tried to loom and intimidate and challenge. “You’d get bored if I simply made sweet love to you. All tender and gentle like the last time.”
“I liked tender and gentle,” she whispered.
He nodded. “So did I, despite fighting you every moment that it happened. And sometimes Iwillbe very tender and gentle with you, Imogen. Sometimes I will just hold you and touch you and tell you I love you with every thrust until we wash away on it.”
“But sometimes you won’t,” she urged as she slid a hand beneath his jacket and hissed at the body heat trapped beneath. She wanted that heat. Now.
“Sometimes I’ll hold you down and force you to orgasm over and over until you’re pleading with me to make the pleasure stop.”
She wiggled against him. “That sounds fun.”
He growled in response. “And sometimes…sometimes I’ll spank that arse of yours raw for being such a very naughty girl andthenI’ll be gentle and loving.”
She smiled even as her body responded to all his wicked promises. “Good,” she whispered. “I’m here for all of it, Oscar. For all of you. For all of us. If I haven’t made it perfectly clear, I’m here forever.”
His eyes held her and she saw his faith in her, his love for her, his desire for her. Then he caught her hand and dragged her over his lap, flipping up her skirts and tugging down her drawers to reveal her bare backside. He rested a hand there, the caress before the sting.
“Good,” he said. “Then let us begin.”
Epilogue
Three weeks later
