He raised his eyes to meet hers. “Raven, m’annachd, my best beloved, you’re all mine.”
“And what of you, my best beloved,” she whispered.
He smiled. “I, too, am yovrs onli, yours only.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, stroking the muscles there as he slid his hand down her thigh and entered her with a finger. Arching her back and spreading her legs, she thrilled to the delicious spasms he invoked, growing hot and moist. She closed her eyes. His touch sent waves of excitement through her, and her passion piqued.
“I’m not intoxicated by the fire water this time, Raven, just by love.” And Braiton would savor every moment of her writhing body. Her pleasure heightened his, the passion melting his resolve.
She opened her eyes, wetting her full lips with a swipe of her tongue. “Wo’ina, I love you, Braiton. I always have.”
“And I you, Raven,” he whispered, moving above her. Hard and throbbing, he brushed against her thigh. She bent her knees and raised herself to receive him. His fullness penetrated her warmth, and he groaned with pleasure. Each thrust into her, not only fueled his excitement, but hers as well. The double connection, the duel passion soared his desire. He was free to love her, to take his yearning to great heights, and there would no longer be an aftermath of guilt or fear…only rapture.
Her outcry of gratification sent him wild, and he trembled within her. A quiver surged through his veins, his ecstasy mounting. He exploded, shattering within her. As an exclamation of delight escaped his throat, he filled her, his climax making them as one.
Spent and exhausted, every muscle in his body relaxed, he rolled onto his back and pulled her close.
“Will you marry me, Raven?”
“I am already married to you, my shikaa.”
“Nay, I mean in the eyes of God, saying our vows at a church with flowers and music and you dressed in a beautiful gown.”
“I always wanted to wear the gown my grandmother and mother wore. Perhaps I can have Sunny send it to me.”
“I’d be so pleased to see you in it, my love. Then after we’ll have a dinner here at Shannonbrook, invite everyone to share in our day. We can combine the whole thing with your twenty-first birthday.”
She snuggled against him. “It all sounds so grand, Braiton, but all I truly need is to know you love me.”
“And I do, lass, but my heart is so happy, I want to declare it to the world,” he said, caressing her back. Even touching her soft flesh reeled his senses.
She giggled. “Like you did this afternoon while perching upon the tree limb?”
He chuckled. “Aye, my love, just as I did then, only this time I want all of Limerick to hear.”
“Perhaps Molly’s son, Michael the priest, can leave Dublin and his congregation for a few days to perform the ceremony. I think it would be nice for him to be present, join in on the festivities. He is, after all, your cousin.”
Learning of all the family he now had was still so astounding. “Aye, he is at that. And this poses another thing to be done.”
“What would that be, my shikaa?”
“I’ll have to build a new mansion, one much bigger this time.”
“You do not think this one is big enough?”
He kissed her temple. “Nay, at best, not for very long.”
She nestled her face beneath his chin. “You plan on making our family larger?”
“Aye, lass, that I do. And with discovering Anna, Patrick and Molly are family, ’twould be only right to accommodate them as such. I thought I’d give them the whole of this mansion, let them be served and pampered for a change.”
“Well, I know you would have a hard time separating Anna from her kitchen.”
He chuckled. “Aye, ’tis true.”
“And I have learned Dooley is smitten with Sinead, so soon they will need more room as well. Did you know she refused to leave for England, too?”
He clicked his tongue. “What are Dooley and I to do with you willful women?”
She pulled back to look at him and cast a mischievous smile. “Love the bloomers off of us, I would say.”
“Aye, ’tis a wise solution you have there, my lady,” he agreed. “Tomorrow we’ll draw up the plans together, and when we return from visiting your family in England, the construction can begin.”
She kissed his throat. “Thank you, Braiton.”
****
Content to listen to his steady breathing beside her, Raven prayed nothing would ever drive them apart. Finally her marriage was like her parent’s, something she always yearned one day to have. She rose from the bed and slipped on her nightgown, stopping to smell the bouquet of fuschia before tiptoeing to the nursery.
Brawn lay beside the cradle, guarding his new little charge. She bent down and scratched him behind the ears. “You are a good dog, my friend,” she whispered, as she peered down at her son. He slept in peace, a little hand tucked beneath a chubby cheek. She walked to the window and gazed out. Faint clouds of smoke still rose from the ruins, curling in the early morning sky.
Braiton came up behind her, wrapping his robe-clad arms around her waist. “The past is gone forever, my love,” he whispered in her ear. “It floats away with the smoke.”
She turned in his embrace to face him. “And it shall never return.”
“Nay, never,” he agreed.
She glanced over at the cradle, where their son slept in the corner of the room. A warm glow flowed through her, and she glorified in the moment. Wrapped in a silken cocoon of euphoria, she returned her gaze to look deep into the shifting emerald lights of Braiton’s eyes. “It is the seed planted with love, from which one perfect flower grows.”
“Aye, my lady,” he said, pulling her close. “And love always finds a way.”
She smiled. “That it does.”
A word about the author...
A former Assistant Editor for Independence Today newspaper and an RWA member, Roberta C. M. DeCaprio's back list consists of two previous paranormal romances published by Wings Press, entitled Coma Coast and The Vanity, as well as a mainstream paranormal published by Write Words Inc., entitled Family Secrets. It also includes an historical and a fantasy published by The Wild Rose Press, entitled A RIVER OF ORANGE and THE GOLDEN LADY (the first book in the Between the Rifle and the Spear Series).
To read excerpts from these books, log on to: www.robertadecaprio.com.
Thank you for purchasing
this Wild Rose Press publication.
For other wonderful stories of romance,
please visit our on-line bookstore at
www.thewildrosepress.com
For questions or more information,
contact us at
[email protected]
The Wild Rose Press
www.TheWildRosePress.com
One Perfect Flower Page 31