She would never know what got through to her more at that moment. The sincerity in his voice, his eyes, soul, his very touch, but something inside her let go and trusted. When it did, feeling returned, and her heart started beating again.
More than that, she let go.
Really, truly let go.
And when she did, he wrapped his arms around her again, trembled, roared his release, and let go as well.
Chapter Sixteen
DECLÁN HAD NEVER feltsuch euphoria as he did when he released deep inside of his new wife. Such exquisite sensation. And it seemed endless. His seed ceaseless. But then, based on what happened, he had several lifetimes of need built up for her.
He wasn’t entirely surewhatit was that happened during their lovemaking other than to say it was freeing for them both. It released them from a prison they barely understood. One most certainly created in their former life.
“I’m sorry,” she eventually whispered into the crook of his neck. “I don’t know what came over me. What that was.”
“I think you do...I think we both do.” He stroked her back. Soothed her. “It was us pushing past our previous life. Finally giving into our desire.”
She pulled back and looked at him. “So you don’t think we were intimate in our last life?”
“Nay.” He traced her jawline and ran his fingers down her neck, lingering just above her beautiful breasts. “Surely you felt that? Sensed it?”
“I did.” Worry lit her gaze. “I also, as you saw, felt terrible fear.” Her eyes glazed a little as her druidess explored that. Made sense of it. “I had wanted you so much it hurt.” She shook her head. “But I was terrified my fellow Unnamed Ones would find out and kill you.” Blue flashed in her eyes as she saw deeper. “Terrifiedhewould catch us and tell them.”
He frowned. “He who?”
“You know who.” Her eyes cleared. The corners of her mouth pulled down. “Raghnall.” Confusion drew her brows together. “So I not only broke the rules and married him but was having an affair with you?” Her frown deepened. “What kind of druidess,woman, was I?”
“A beautiful, loving one,” he said without hesitation because he was right. He caressed her cheek. “I felt it, feltyouin that life, and you were....” How to describe it? “Unlike anyone I had ever met. Incredibly lovely and good. Impossible to look away from.”
He might not have seen her with his bare eyes, but his soul felt her from the inside out. She had been every bit as sweet and kind in that life as she was in this one.
“And I loved ye so deeply,” he continued. For a split second, he swore the ebony curl he fingered became a slightly lighter shade. As if he saw a glimmer of who she had once been. “So deeply that there was nothing I would not do for ye...even let ye go to protect ye.”
“Let me go?” She narrowed her eyes. “If you let me go, moreover, since we never technically did anything, to begin with, why did I die in magical fire? Why did you become an unknown king?”
“They must have discovered I could love you.” He trailed his fingers over her soft shoulders. Hell, if he wasn’t growing hard inside her again. “And Ididlove you. More than seemed imaginable. I still do.” He cupped her cheek and shook his head, never more certain. “I cannot lose you at the end of all this,mo chroí. I’ll never survive it a second time.”
