Summer's Bride
Page 24
His breath caught, and he bent to place a soft kiss beside her lips. When he leaned back, she felt the heat of his gaze course through her, lighting that familiar fire in her belly.
He had not even touched her yet.
And still he did not as he went on, seeming to need to cleanse his soul. “You had every reason to be angry with me. You were right about everything. I did not lie to you to protect you but to protect myself from my own feelings. I was afraid my love for you would rule me if I ever gave in to it. And rule me it does, body and soul.”
Even as she heard this wild declaration of his love with exultation, she felt a twinge of anxiety. “Pray how will you bear that, being ruled by your love for me?”
He spoke without compunction. “With rapture, for I have become a willing subject. If self-governance is only to be had without you, I want it not. Do with me what you will, my love, my Eve.”
Wonder filled her as she put a hand to his well-sculpted cheek. “I want only to love you. For I feel the same. I want no peace if peace is not to be had with you.”
He leaned closer to her, his eyes becoming hot with longing. “I have found myself in your heart, my love. And you are at long last a part of the Ainsworth family.”
She rose up before him, allowing the bedclothes to fall about her knees. As his hot gaze raked her, she put her arms around his neck, her body fitting itself to his hard one. “You, my lord husband, are the only thing I truly care to be a part of.”
He kissed her then, long and hard before pulling away, his eyes taking on a roguish gleam as his husky voice whispered, “That, my lady wife, can be arranged.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5967-9
SUMMER’S BRIDE
Copyright © 2001 by Catherine J. Archibald
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