She opened to him. Her mouth. Her body.
Holding her tight, he slid inside her. Slowly. Wanting to feel every inch of her body taking him in, every inch of connection, every inch of his love for her. And when he’d reached the deepest part he stilled, holding her to him with his gaze. Then, he nudged a little deeper.
It was the sweetest gasp he’d ever heard. A gasp to hold his heart forever.
“I love you,m’aingeal,” he said softly.
The smile that lit her face was unlike any he’d ever seen. “I love you, too.”
He held her gaze and started to move his hips. Slowly at first, in small grinding circles.
Her legs tightened around his. Her breath started to quicken. Her eyes lost focus and her cheeks started to flush.
“Oh God…” She moaned.
His hips circled faster. Harder. Increasing the pressure. She started to gasp. Her naked breasts arching against his chest, her legs wrapping tighter around his buttocks, pulling him deeper.
It felt too good.
Pleasure crashed over him in a heated rush, gathering in his groin, coiling at the base of his spine. His heart hammered in his ears.
He clenched. His muscles hardened as he fought to hold on for the last few moments.
She cried out and he let go. With a groan torn from the depths of his soul, he came in hot spasming waves, giving her everything he had to give.
Even when the last wave of pleasure had ebbed, he held her to him, not wanting to let her go.
He should have been content to stay like that forever, but he feared he would crush her to death. Rolling to the side, he wrapped his arm around her and tucked her firmly against his side.
She rested her cheek against his chest, drawing tiny shapes with her fingertips on his chest.
He knew why she was so quiet. The anger had dissipated, but the far more important emotion—fear—was still there.
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
She rested her palm flat on his chest, perching her chin on the back of her hand to look up at him. “I am. I need to do this, Magnus. And you need me. Your friends need me. If there’s a chance I could save you or one of them, I have to take it. This is what I’m supposed to do, I know it. It’s where I belong. By your side in all things.” She smiled. “Besides, you need someone to protect you.”
He groaned, feeling as if he were fighting against the inevitable. “Aye, but who’s going to protect you?”
Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Remember how MacGregor told me if there was anything he could do to repay me I only had to ask? Well, he’s promised to watch out for me.”
“MacGregor?” he choked.
She wrinkled her nose. “I know how sensitive you are about him. He is rather distracting to be around—with that face and all—but perhaps there is someone not quite so attractive who could protect me? Although from what I’ve seen of the men in this army, I fear one is just as distracting as the other. I suppose there’s always my brother.”
He knew she was teasing him, but it didn’t quite stop the dark flare from sparking inside him. “I’m not sensitive about MacGregor, damn it. I’m sensitive aboutyou. And if you think I’d let that hothead of a brother watch over you—the only person who’s going to protect you is me.”
He couldn’t believe he was agreeing to this. It went against every bone in his body. But Helen’s uniqueness—that wildness of spirit—was the very thing that had drawn him to her. He knew that if he tried to quash it, tried to keep her locked up in a castle somewhere to keep her safe, it would kill the very heart of her.
The smile on her face stole his heart. “Does that mean you’ll agree?”
“With some conditions.”
She looked at him with marked—and well-founded—suspicion. “What kind of conditions?”
“A long list of them.” He tipped her chin from his chest, drawing her up closer to him. “But the first one is the most important. If I’m to have a new ‘partner,’ it’s going to be as my wife. Marry me, Helen.”
And at long last, she gave him the answer he’d been waiting for: “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
