He pulled his clothes off with marginally less impatience than he’d given hers and lowered himself down on top of her. The next instant her legs were wrapped around his waist and he was thrust up deep inside her. It was as if their bodies had come together on their own. Instinct, memory, he didn’t know. All he did know was that it felt perfect and natural, as if six years hadn’t come between them.
He looked into her eyes and felt an overwhelming sense of quiet. Of peace and fate.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. His emotions were raw and there on the surface for her to see. He loved her. He’d always loved her and always would.
The flurry of emotions that had sent him into a frenzy the past few days began to unfurl as he thrust. Slow at first and then faster as her moans urged him on.
Pressure pounded at the base of his spine like a sledgehammer. Insistent. Demanding. Hard.
Sixty seconds might have been ambitious—for both of them. The only salve to his pride was that she cried out first.
When Eoin rolled off her, he took her with him, tucking her into his side. It took a few minutes for the breath to find Margaret’s lungs again before she could speak. Propping her chin on his chest, she stared up at him. “Better now?”
He lifted a brow. “Sweetheart, if you think that came anywhere near to making me feel better, you’re in for a rude awakening. That barely took the edge off.” His hand skimmed down over her naked bottom, pressing her closer to his leg.
His leg! She jumped up. “Your knee! I forgot about your knee. Oh God, did that hurt?”
His mouth quirked. “I can assure you the last thing I was thinking about was my knee. But it’s fine.” He paused, leveling his gaze on hers. “Helen’s potion worked its magic.”
She blushed, realizing what he was getting at. “I’m sorry, but it was the only way I could think of to prevent you from stopping me.”
“By drugging me?”
She shrugged. “I knew you weren’t telling me everything—which you weren’t—and I knew I didn’t have much time. It was only a little more than you were supposed to take.” When it looked as if his temper might flare again, she added, “Besides, it’s not as if you were being rational about the matter.”
“With good reason, damn it.” He took her chin, tilting her face to the light from one of the oil lamps. “I’ll kill him.”
“You’ll do no such thing. He’s my father, Eoin. I’m not making excuses for him. Well, maybe I am, but he isn’t exactly in the best frame of mind. He hasn’t eaten in days, giving all his food to his men and Eachann. I came on too strongly, telling him what he didn’t want to hear, and he reacted without thought. I was more in the way than anything else.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“No, it’s not,” she admitted. “But he felt so guilty about it that it helped me convince him there was only one course. Eachann helped, too. He truly loves the boy, Eoin. He couldn’t bear to think of him suffering.”
“What will he do?”
“Go to Ireland or the Isle of Man, I suspect. England is out of the question for a while. Edward won’t be happy that he surrendered one of his most important castles.” She paused, hesitant to broach the subject but knowing she must. “He wants to take Eachann with him.”
His entire body went stiff. “Over my dead body.”
She didn’t think it wise to say that is exactly what her father had proposed.
But then a bolt of panic leapt in her chest at what he meant. “And it will be over mine before I let you take him from me.”
He lifted a brow, but she wasn’t being dramatic, she meant it.
Still, issuing threats wasn’t going to help anything. She needed to reason with him. “You can’t just take him away; he doesn’t even know you, Eoin.”
“I know, and I intend to change that. But I have no intention of taking him from you.”
Her breath held. “What about our separate ways?”
His gaze swept over her naked body and the sheets twisted at the bottom of the bed. “That didn’t exactly work out very well, did it?”
She could barely breathe. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’d like you to return to Kerrera with me and our son.”
Kerrera. She stiffened at the mention of the place where she’d experienced so much unhappiness.
