“But—”
He stopped her with a finger over her mouth. “No.”
Her lips pursed. “Do you always have to be so stubborn?”
He lifted a brow. “Do you?”
Their eyes met and her frown dissolved into a wry grin. “It would be much easier between us if we weren’t.”
“Aye, but I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
The broad smile that lit her face warmed his heart. “You wouldn’t?”
He shook his head. “That stubborn pride makes you strong. It helped you survive. It brought you back to me.” He squeezed her harder against him. “I should have protected you.”
“You did as much as was humanly possible. But no man is invincible—not even you. We were betrayed; there is nothing you or anyone could have done about that.”
He started to argue, but this time it was she who put a finger to his mouth. “There are no one’s hands I would rather put my life into, Lachlan. No one. I, too, wouldn’t want you any other way.”
He cocked a brow in silent challenge.
She bit her lip, trying not to laugh. “All right, maybe without the crude language.”
He winced, recalling some of his more choice offerings. “I’m sorry about the things I said. I didn’t mean them.”
“I know.”
“But they still hurt.”
She nodded, eyes solemn. “A lot.”
He squeezed her tighter against him, pressing his mouth against the soft silk of her hair. “I’m an arse.”
Her mouth quirked; she shot him a sidelong glance. “You’re starting to repeat yourself.”
He smiled. That he had. Sobering, he took her chin once more between his thumb and finger and tilted her face to his. She was so damned beautiful. His heart seemed to have forgotten how to beat. “Have I convinced you?”
He sounded so hopeful, so eager for this to be over, that if it weren’t so serious she would have laughed.
Was it possible he loved her? She desperately wanted to believe him. Looking at him it was hard not to. He looked so vulnerable, so uncertain. Two things she’d never thought to see on his face.
But years of disappointment made it hard for her to trust—especially with something as fragile as her heart.
Could she let herself love him?
She felt her heart swell in her chest as she gazed into his eyes, and she knew the answer. What a foolish question! As if she could control her heart. Love happened whether she wanted it to or not.
Of course she loved him. This man who appeared so hard and uncaring on the outside but on the inside was filled with unexpected depths and contradictions. He was a man who’d bellow at her one minute and wrap a plaid around her the next. Who’d walked away from his clan but had done so out of a fierce sense of duty. A mercenary who’d sold his sword to the highest bidder to care for his clansmen. A man who exuded virility but had punished himself with celibacy for ten years. A man who’d claimed his friends meant nothing to him but would race into a burning building before he’d leave one of them die. A man who’d sacrifice everything he’d worked for to help her.
She’d loved him for a long time. She just thought she could protect herself by not admitting the truth.
A bubble of joy spread through her, putting a wide smile on her face. “Not quite yet, I’m afraid.”
His face fell. He looked so crestfallen, this time she did laugh.
He frowned. “I’m glad you find this so amusing.”
“Oh, I do.” She grinned.
