They belonged together.
Over and over he proved it to her, as his hips rocked back and forth, first slowly, and then as her cries grew more insistent, faster. Pumping harder. Circling deeper in a fierce, primitive drum of need and desire.
Yes. Oh God, yes. It felt so good.
It was building. Surrounding them. Clamoring for release.
He could feel the pressure spiking at the base of his spine. Unrelenting, all-consuming, and irrepressible.
The sound of her cries sent him over. “Oh God, Maggie... I love you so much.”
The words echoed over and over in his head as his body seized and the powerful emotions tore him apart. He filled her with the proof of that love, exploding deep inside her.
Only when the roar of the flames had dimmed did he notice the quiet.
Somethinghadbeen different.
Since that first time in the cottage, Margaret had known that there was something different in her husband’s lovemaking. She sensed he’d been holding back. But it wasn’t until now that she realized what that was.
He pushed back, his manhood coming out of her—outof her—from where he’d found his release. She felt the coldness and wondered how she could have missed something so significant. Except for that first time, every time he’d made love to her, he’d pulled out of her.
“Oh God, Maggie, I’m sorry.” He drew his hand back through his disheveled hair—hair that was much shorter than she remembered it. He looked so different. All vestiges of youth were gone. He was a man, and a dangerous-looking one at that. This man belonged to the shadows—lived in the shadows. He wasn’t the man she’d married. “I didn’t mean for that to happen like that.”
She didn’t move from her place against the tree while he re-did his clothing.
Why? Why? The question rang in her ear. She feared she didn’t want the answer, but she asked anyway. “Didn’t mean for what to happen like that? Why, did you forget to do something?” He stared at her, obviously confused. “Is there a reason you have chosen to take your pleasureoutsideof me until now?”
He didn’t flinch from the accusation in her eyes. “I thought it was best.”
Her fists squeezed at her side, her voice shrill. “What was best?”
“There is less chance of a child.”
She stared at him in the darkness, unable to breathe, feeling as if he’d just kicked her in the chest. “You don’t want a child with me,” she whispered. His wild, backward mistake of a wife.
He took her icy hand in his, but she feared she would never feel warm again. “Of course I do—just not right now. I haven’t known whether I was going to be alive from one day to the next for almost the past year, Maggie. I thought it would be easier on you.”
“How thoughtful of you.” Her voice sounded as dull and far away as she felt.
He’d been holding himself back from her in so many ways, why should she be surprised? He told her nothing about his plans to fight for Bruce, where he’d disappeared to for months, where he was going, and what he was doing. He’d refused to take her with him, and left a man who hated her—who might have hurt her—to “protect” her. And only now did he come for her?
“Why are you here, Eoin? Why have you come to fetch me now?”
The grim angle of his jaw was her answer.
She sucked in her breath, the tightening in her chest a cruel, burning pain. “I see,” she said softly. “You didn’t come to fetch me at all, did you?”
He reached for her, but she flinched away. “I hoped for a glimpse of you, but I can’t take you with me. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t give her one. “It wouldn’t be safe. I shouldn’t even be here right now. You can tell no one of my presence.”
“You are planning something, aren’t you? That’s why you are here.”
He betrayed nothing by his expression, but his voice intensified. “I mean it, Maggie,no one. Under any circumstances. I’m trusting you with this. My life and the lives of others depend on it. As soon as it is safe, I will have Fin send his men to bring you back to Gylen.”
“No.”
