The horses raised their heads and pitchedtheir ears forward, and Roark turned to see Alina coming out of thecave wearing only her boots and an otter skin cloak, herwaist-length hair flying around her in the wind, her lips red andswollen from their near-constant love play since yesterdayafternoon.
“I, ah, I.”She motioned toward a briar ofbushes and disappeared behind it, smiling shyly as she came out andup to Roark.“Good morning,” she said, and glanced up at the sky.“What time is it?”
“Best I can tell, around noon.”
“Are you hungry?”she asked him.“Those beansshould be ready to cook.”
Roark reached out and hooked a finger in theneckline of her cloak and pulled it down, exposing her bareshoulder.“Famished,” he said, nipping the sensitive skin where hershoulder met her neck.
“Ravaging’s more like it,” she chided.
He nibbled his way up her throat to her lips,cupping her backside with both hands and pulling her close.“You’recold,” he said when she shivered.
“So warm me up.”She stepped back and threwhim a come-hither smile over her shoulder as she headed toward thecave.
“I’ll be in after I let the horses graze alittle longer,” he told her.“I want to take advantage of thisbreak in weather.”
“No hurry,” she said, stopping at the cave’sentrance.“It’s obvious we’re not going anywhere today.”Shegrinned and flapped her cloak open and closed, teasing Roark with aglimpse of ripe breasts, a trim waist, pale, creamy thighs, and thedark triangle of hair at their apex.“I’ll start the beans.”
Their bellies full and their lust sated, theysat together before the fire, Alina tucked into his side, her headon his shoulder, staring silently into the flames.
“Are you all right?”Roark asked.
“Mm hmm.”
“Not regretting anything?”
She shook her head.“The only thing I regretabout all of this is the pain my parents must be going throughthinking I’m dead.Not knowing.”
Roark hugged her closer.“I regret puttingyour parents through that.The only thing I regret more is puttingyou through everything.”
She leaned her head back and met his gaze.“Iknow it’s foolish of me, and we’re losing precious days of travel,but I’m glad we had to shelter in this cave.I thought the fatesagainst me this whole time, yet the more I think on it, the surer Iam the only reason I’m still alive is because of you.Roger wasgoing to try to abduct me no matter what, and Leif, he’d have rapedme that first night onThe Roverif not for you.”Shescooted around and faced him.“I think the fates brought ustogether.”
“Why?”he said, aware it was him asking herfavorite question.
“Because we were meant to be together.Nothing that feels this right can be wrong.”
Roark’s heart skipped a beat or three.“Iagree,” he said.“We were.We are.But for how long?”As happy andcontent as they were right now, the reality was that their sojournhere in the cave would only last another day or two.“Once we makeport and find you a ship, we’ll be a sea apart.”
“I know,” she said somberly.“I’ve known fromthe moment Leif announced you were betrothed to Gwyneth our timetogether was preordained by our circumstances in life.Yet here weare.And I’m glad I’m holed up with you, because no matter whathappens, I’ve loved and been loved by you.”
“Damnation.”Roark pulled her onto his lapand kissed her with everything he felt, everything he had in him.“It’s been the privilege of my life to have met you and loved you,and been loved by you, my lady owl.”
Her gaze was as deep and fathomless as thesea they’d crossed together.She straddled his hips and untied herstays then lay back and pulled off her breeches as Roark did thesame with his.When he was sitting again, she climbed onto his lap,her hot, wet flesh nuzzling his cock.
“Make love to me, sir stag,” she murmured.“Let me feel the full measure of you.”
“Ali girl…”
She rubbed herself up and down against him.“Did you know,” she said, smiling sensually, “that ever since mygreat-grandmother, Oona the Swan, proposed marriage to Asad theLion the first night they met, that one or the other of mygrandparents and parents proposed to the other the first times theymet too?”
“No,” Roark said, finding it hard toconcentrate.“I didn’t know that.”
“It’s true,” she said, rubbing any semblanceof sense out of him.“You asked me the first time we met in person,on Spring’s Eve, by the lake.”
“You started to say yes,” he rasped.
“I’m saying yes now,” she said, her voice lowand throaty.“Here, in our own little world, where only we matter,I’m saying yes.Make me your wife.Be my husband.”
