Hiro inhaled slowly. Held it. “And I love you, Mandy.”
Mandy. NotLady Amanda.
The way her eyes lit and her smile bloomed told him that she’d understood.
“I want?—”
“When you?—”
They both spoke at the same time, then both pressed their lips together on a smile. “You first,” she whispered.
He took another deep breath. “I don’t belong in your world. Not as your husband.”
Her response was immediate. “Then I do not want to live in my world.”
“You can’t belong in my world. Not as my wife.”
The hope hadn’t left her expression. “Then let us make ourown world, Hiro.”
That’s what she’d been trying to tell him all along. That’s whatOtuo-sansaid, it’s what Hiro wanted. But still, some part of him felt he needed to raise an objection. “Your brother?—”
“Loves you as much as I do,” she interrupted sternly. “He was very clear about that. He came with me to Hearthwell, you know?”
“Because he thought you’d get in trouble without an escort?”
Her brows lowered in irritation. “Because he wanted the chance to speak with you as much as I did. I told him all about the legend and this town, and he agreed to let me find you on my own.”
Alistair trusted her to find her own way to Hiro. The thought was humbling.
As if picking through her sentence, Amanda spoke carefully. “My brother views your salary as a gift for what you did for him—the life you gave back to him all those years ago. You taught him to be the man he is today, Hiro. He says he can never repay you.”
Hiro felt his lips twitching, remembering how his friend had only recently begun to speak again. “Hesaysthat, does he?”
“Well, he grunts it. And writes it down quite angrily.”
Yes, that sounded like Alistair. Sighing in surrender, Hiro pulled Amanda into his arms. “I love him too,” he admitted, dropping his chin on her head. “Although he used to drive me mad.”
“He can be quite stubborn.” She snaked her arms around his waist, beneath his overcoat, pressing her body against his. “But he wants what is best for us.”
Hiro’s body was responding to having her in his arms after so long. “And what is that?” he murmured, distracted by her warmth.
“Well…” Amanda nuzzled closer to him. “He knows what is best formeis to be ‘gallivanting about the world’—as he put it—having adventures with you. But what is best foryou, Hiro?”
What kind of arsehole was he that she had to ask that question? That she didn’t know?
His hands ran along her back and settled on her rear end, pulling her closer. “Youare what’s best for me, Mandy. You’ve been what’s best for me for years, even before Alistair saw what was between us and sent me gallivanting after you. I’ve loved you for so long, and I’m sorry I wasn’t as brave as you.”
She tipped her head back to stare up at him. “Brave? What do you mean?”
Christ, she smelled good, didn’t she? Hiro felt himself hardening in need. “You, Mandy, are the bravest person I know. You climb mountains, you swim depths, you?—”
“You do all those things with me.”
“Hush, I’m complimenting you.” He dropped a kiss to her nose. “And you, Amanda Kincaid, are brave enough to love me, evenwhen you didn’t know my feelings for you. I thought I was doing what was right, holding myself back…”
Her lips curled up in a wicked little grin as she rocked her hips forward, running her pelvis against his cock. “Holding yourself back, were you?”
Although she was teasing, he nodded solemnly. “I was. I’ve never allowed myself to…”To spill within you.“To claim you fully. To allow you to claimme.”
