“But you’re scared again,” she said, then placed a kiss right on the tip of his manhood. He convulsed with need.
“Yes.” How had she gotten him to admit that? He never shared feelings like that with anyone. “How did you know?”
“I’m scared too,” she answered. Then she took him into her mouth. So soft, so warm, he shuddered, threading his hands into his hair. “But you. You’re more important than the fear. That’s what I’ve decided.”
Those words sunk in as she took him back into her mouth. He’d needed to hear that. Needed to know that she wanted him more than her own fears, her own issues.
“You’re important to me too,” he groaned out as she slid him deeper into her mouth. “That’s why I married you despite all my worry. I couldn’t leave you to fend for yourself.”
She lifted up. “Thank you, my love.”
My love? His chest swelled even as his body responded to her touch. He loved her too. It was why he’d been so afraid of her hurting him. He was in love with her. If he were honest, he’d felt that way from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her.
He’d called it passion but there had been jealousy. A need to protect her that had risen from the beginning.
Perhaps from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. “You love me?”
“Yes,” she answered even as her lips took him back in.
“I love you too,” he said even as he pulled her up his body.
Their lips met and he claimed her with a deep kiss that left them both breathless.
When he finally tore his mouth away, he skimmed his hands down her body, grabbing the hem of her night rail and pulling it up her thighs, around her waist and then over her head.
He sent it sailing through the air, the white of the garment catching the tiny bit of light the stars cast into the room. Her skin pressed down against his and he growled out his satisfaction as her body fit against his.
Her legs naturally came around to either side of him, his cock nestling into the soft folds of her womanhood.
“Cassandra,” he said as he kissed her again. “I’m sorry that I was so cold today. I knew the moment I touched you—”
She pushed back, taking him inside her. “Shh,” she murmured, rocking against him. “Now is the time for us to focus on our future. Together.”
“Our future,” he repeated, holding her backside as they began to move together. Somehow, inside her as he was, everything was clear.
Cassandra had always been the right woman for him. His instincts had been spot-on after all.
She was kind, loving, soft in all the ways he was hard. She fit him in body and mind perfectly. “I love you,” he repeated, kissing her again.
“I love you, too.”
They said no more as they came together over and over, driving each other higher until he could sense that Cassandra was close.
She tightened against him, her arms clutching at his neck. “Damian,” she cried and he felt her break apart.
He couldn’t hold his own finish back and he roared with satisfaction as he came undone.
They lay in the circle of each other’s arms as he stroked his hand up and down her back. He was home. It didn’t matter where that was, provided she was with him.
Epilogue
One year later…
Cassandra stood next to him, stringing ribbon with one hand over the bows of holly she’d collected.
In the other, nestled a babe.
His babe. A boy who had been healthy and strong and would squall uncontrollably if his mama set him down.