Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
She looked up at him. “There is also that to worry us.”
He lifted her hand to his lips to kiss it. “Not tonight. Tonight, there is only you and me and our love.”
“I like that—just you and me.” She smiled. “Though there may be one more.”
He looked puzzled, his brow wrinkling, then it spread wide as did his smile that suddenly appeared. “The chance you may be with child.”
“Aye. I hadn’t thought of it since you last mentioned it and I completely forgot to ask Mave for something that would prevent me from getting with child. Though if I were already in that way, I would not want to take anything that might cause me to lose your bairn.”
“It struck me at that moment that I might not only be losing you and the thought ripped at my heart. I could not fathom the thought of our bairn never taking a breath. I would do anything to keep you both safe.”
“I may not be with child,” she said, feeling a twinge of disappointment. Bairns had been the furthest thing from her mind but then so had marriage and here she was now happy to be married and disappointed that she might not be with child. How life had changed since meeting Knox.
He leaned his head down to nuzzle her neck, then whisper, “We can make sure of that, if you’d like?”
She smiled eager to do so, but sound reason hit her like cold water in the face.
“Without knowing what the future holds for us, it would be selfish of us to endanger a child.”
Knox heard the disappointment in her voice, felt it himself, and agreed with her. “True enough. It would be selfish of us and yet we still couple, still take the chance of you getting with child. So then, we must somehow believe, deep inside, that we have a chance at a good life together.”
“Mave said we did.”
“I believe we are destined to,” Knox said, feeling it strongly.
She slipped her arm over his waist and hugged it tight. “I only wish we knew how to achieve that.”
“By taking it one day at a time,” Knox confirmed. “Trusting each other. Keeping our love strong and making loving every chance we get.”
She grinned at him. “Like now?”
“Aye, like now. It may not be the perfect place, but—”
She pressed her hand to his lips. “We seize the moment when we can since we never know when the next moment may come.”
Knox moved her finger off his lips and lowered his head to kiss her.
Her arms went around his neck, holding on to him, fearful of letting go, of losing this moment, of never making love with him again. She would have gasped if their lips weren’t locked in a kiss, when his arm circled her waist and swung her down on the ground to toss his cloak off her and shove her own cloak out of the way.
He tore his mouth off hers. “I don’t want to take a chance and linger, though I would prefer to do so, but that wouldn’t be wise.”
“Then hurry,” she pleaded eagerly, “for my need for you is great.”
He chuckled. “It always is and glad I am for your hunger.”
Her brow wrinkled and she tilted her head. “Do I demand too much of you?”
“Never, wife, never,” he said and with her neck so exposed, he couldn’t help but nibble along it.
Dru groaned with pleasure. “If you continue that, it will be over for me before you even slip inside me.”
He didn’t hesitate. He hurried their garments out of the way and hurried to enter her with a quick thrust.
Her groans echoed softly in the small space like a passionate melody that enticed.
It still amazed her that they fit so easily, and he felt so comfortable inside her. She didn’t want to lose that magic between them, the soar of passion, the depth of love, the intense satisfaction and the peace that followed in his arms. They belonged together forever and always.
Knox captured her scream in his mouth when she burst with pleasure, afraid it would roar out of the cave and throughout the forest. Its power intensified his own explosive pleasure, and his groans joined her dwindling roar.
Moving his mouth off hers, he whispered in her ear, “I love you, Dru.”
He was surprised when she said nothing in return, having always returned his declaration of love with one of her own. He rolled off her and took her in his arms as he did. He hugged her tight against him and waited.
She remained silent, unusual for her, especially after they made love. She always had to remark on how amazing, fantastic, magical it was as if she experienced it for the first time each time.
He finally had to ask, “What’s wrong, Dru?”
She looked up at him. “Will you love Autumn as much as you love me?”