Page 91 of Mail-Order Viscountess

His older brother glanced up from his work, that grim expression twisting through her. “All seven. We made sure to get a good headcount before we started the attack.”

“Thank God.”

“Amen.” Only a God who cared could have accomplished this feat.

Enoch shifted his focus to her. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, though she didn’t lift it from Thomas’s shoulder. “No.”

Enoch nodded, then met Thomas’s gaze. “Two Stones and Heidi stopped for a visit, so he stayed behind to protect the place while we came to meet the threat before it could reach us. God prepared the way, I’d say.”

“I’d say so too.” Thomas’s head shifted against her.

As Enoch returned his focus to his work, Thomas tightened his grip around her. He brushed his thumb across her back as they watched the final remnants of the ordeal come to a close.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” His voice rumbled through her, his breath warming her ear and cheek.

“I am now.” She snuggled in closer. Her body had finally stopped trembling. Maybe it really believed itself safe. Here in the arms of her husband—the man who’d promised to love and protect her, and had kept that promise against all odds. She pulled in a long, slow breath, then released it. “You made it back to the ranch in time then?”

His body tightened. “No, actually. I met Enoch on the trail and told him about the danger. He rode back to prepare, and I turned around to find you.”

She pulled back to look at him. His copper-brown hair was disheveled, and his face streaked with dirt and sweat despite the cold. But his eyes held hers with an intensity that tightened her chest.

“Why? Your brothers needed you.” Even now, worry began to twist inside her. It had all worked out though. She didn’t have to be afraid. Yet why hadn’t he returned with Enoch to protect his family?

One of his hands rubbed up and down her back. “You needed me.” Pain flashed through his eyes. “When I couldn’t find you. Then I saw those marks where they’d dragged you…” The raw emotion on his face—fear and relief and something deeper—made her chest ache.

“You came for me.” She barely pushed the words through the knot in her throat.

“Always.” His hand cupped her face, his thumb gentle over her cheek. “Kate, I will always come for you. Do you understand that? I will give everything I have to protect you. Always.”

The certainty in his voice, the fierce protectiveness in his eyes undid the last of her defenses. All the walls she’d built, all the careful distance she’d worked her entire life to maintain, crumbled like ash.

“Thomas, I—” Her throat closed around the words she needed to say. Words she’d never said to anyone except Clara. Words that terrified her more than seven armed men ever could. “I love you.”

The pain in his gaze flickered out, smothered by a heat that flared far brighter. “Kate…” So much emotion twisted across his face, she couldn’t read it all.

Then he pulled her close, lowering his forehead to hers. “I love you too.” His voice came rough, raw. “Kate, I love you so much. I thought—when I saw those marks—I thought I’d lost you before I ever had the chance to tell you.”

A smile slipped out, and not even the pain from where the gag had rubbed the corners of her mouth raw could stop her. “You’re not going to lose me. Not ever.”

His mouth was on hers before she could draw another breath. Warming her, caressing her, pouring into her his love and relief and a thousand other emotions. So much she could barely breathe beneath the weight of it all.

His hand tangled in her hair, the other pressed against the small of her back, pulling her impossibly closer.

She kissed him back with everything she had, her arms wrapping around his neck. The cold, the danger, the terror of the last hours—all of it dissolved into the warmth of his mouth against hers, the solid strength of his body anchoring her to this moment.

At last, Thomas eased, the kiss turning into a languid lingering she never ever wanted to end.

This man. How had he come to mean so much so soon? And yet he did.

When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I love you too.”

Her smile wouldn’t leave, and she didn’t try to stop it.

“I guess we’re about ready to take this group to town.” James’s voice pressed through the moment.

She pulled back from Thomas as heat climbed up her neck. Thomas didn’t loosen his hold on her, just turned to his brother. “How many still alive?”