“Would you care to eat your meal up here or downstairs with the men?” he asked.
She twisted her hands, looking at him anxiously. “Are you very angry with me?”
His head jerked back with surprise. “Angry? Why would I be angry with you?”
She gazed up at him, tears in her eyes. “You didn’t want to come, but I wouldn’t let it go. I’m sorry for dragging you all the way—”
“Stop.” He cupped her chin and tilted her face to look deep into her eyes. “You’ve nothing to apologize for. You didn’t drag me anywhere. I should have come years ago—when my father asked me to. It was I who was foolish with pride. I didn’t want her to think I needed her.”
He was only trying to make her feel better, which only succeeded in making her feel worse. “You think I’d learn my lesson by now. Whenever I feel something strongly it always seems to get me in trouble.”
“We aren’t in trouble.” She shot him a glare and he grinned. “Well, no more trouble than I was already in.” He smoothed his thumb over her cheek. “I love your passion—your joie de vivre. In truth, it was what first drew me to you.”
Passion and joie de vivre? She supposed that was one way of looking at it. “I think my father used to call it flightiness.”
Duncan’s expression hardened. “You aren’t your mother, Jeannie. You follow your heart, but not without thought. Stop punishing yourself for her mistakes.”
She nodded and pulled away. “I didn’t mean to keep you. I know there are things you need to do—”
“They can wait.” He closed the door behind her and reached for her, pulling her into his arms. His eyes bored into hers intently. “Leave with me. We can sail to France right now. Within the week we can be in Spain. You shall want for nothing and we will be safe.”
Jeannie gasped, her eyes searching his face. He seemed to be in complete earnest. “But I can’t.”
“Don’t you want to be with me?” He challenged, bringing her closer so that she nested into the hard crevices of his body. “I love you, Jeannie. I’ve never stopped loving you. I’d hoped that you loved me.”
“I do,” she said without hesitation. It took a minute to realize what he’d said—he loved her—and then what she’d said. She loved him. She couldn’t help it. She’d tried to bury it, to push it away, but it didn’t work. Her heart had belonged to him from almost the first moment she’d seen him. But her girlish love had only grown stronger as she’d come to know the man he’d become. “I love you, Duncan, but I could never leave my children—”
She stopped, realizing what she’d said.
He smiled and dropped a soft kiss on her mouth. “See? You are nothing like your mother.”
The realization took her aback. He was right. She might be impulsive, but unlike her mother it wasn’t without bounds. Her mother had run off without care to those she left behind. She’d been fun and carefree, but also, Jeannie had to admit, selfish and irresponsible. Jeannie loved Duncan with all her heart, but not even for him would she ever abandon her children.
She had another realization. Her mother had fallen in love at the drop of a pin, but Jeannie had only loved once. She might have some of the impetuousness of her mother, but she also had duty and loyalty that her mother did not.
She eyed him warily. Perhaps he’d only been trying to teach her a lesson. “Did you mean what you said?”
He gave her a jaunty grin, the dimple in his left cheek making her heart squeeze. “About leaving or about loving you?”
“Both,” she whispered, her heart pounding. He was horrible to tease her like this.
“Not about leaving, I intend to stay and fight the charges against me. But about loving you…?” He ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, his voice turning husky. “Aye, Jeannie, I love you. From the moment I first saw you, there has never been another woman for me.”
The hot wave of emotion rose up in her throat. She’d forgotten what it felt like to be truly happy. “It’s the same for me. I’ve never stopped loving you. I thought my heart had broken when you left, but my love for you never died.”
The fierce look in his eye sent shivers of anticipation shooting through her body. “You don’t need to say that. I have you now, that’s all that matters.”
He thought she’d loved Francis. She opened her mouth to correct him, but he covered it with his in a kiss that left no room for argument so thoroughly did it consume her.
His tongue wrapped around hers in an insistent dance. She knew what he needed because she needed it, too. To give proof to their words in the most basic of ways.
Within minutes he’d divested them both of their clothes and their bodies came together in seamless abandon. His hands stroked her skin, smoothing over her back and cupping her bottom to lift her against him. His erection rose hot and hard between them.
Gently he lowered her to the bed, his hard warrior’s body looming over her. She reached up to touch him, to run her hands over the thick slabs of muscle and pull him down on her. She loved his solidness, his strength.
She throbbed between her legs, growing damp with her need for him. His eyes burned into her intently, holding her gaze the entire time. Spreading her legs, he looped his hands under her knees and positioned himself at her entry, nudging forward.
Duncan had never felt like this, his heart seemed too big for his chest.I love you.Hearing those words was far more powerful the second time around, for now he knew how precious they were. He knew disappointment, heartbreak, and the emptiness of what it was like to live without.
