“You told me not to sleep.”
“You can sleep now. I will stir you now and again to make certain you are all right,” he said, not wanting to discuss the matter with her now or possibly ever.
“My head hurts too much for me to sleep. If we talk, it may take my mind off the pain and allow me to sleep.”
“Then talk...of something else.”
“Have you ever truly loved anyone?” Heather listened as her question caused his heart to beat faster.
“I will not discuss love with you,” he snapped.
“Why not? Does love frighten you?”
“Very little frightens me.”
“Then what is it that does frighten you?”
“A wife who nags me with endless questions.”
Her soft laughter turned to a yawn. “See I grow tired already, and I do not nag. Are you not curious about me?”
“I know all I need to know.”
“And what do you know?”
“That you belong to me now and always,” he said, declaring it so.
“You will never let me go?”
“Never.”
“You will never leave me?”
“Never. You will remain by my side always whether you like it or not.”
“You do not have to make it sound as if you must order me. Being wed to you is not the burden I imagined it would be.”
“You say that now, but in time you may think differently,” he said. “Now no more talk. Go to sleep.”
Heather yawned again, finding their conversation had taken her mind off the pain that seemed to have faded. Her eyes grew heavy and began to drift close and just as she slipped into slumber, she heard the whispered words that often filled her dreams.
I love you, Heather.
“I love you— always—Quinn,” she whispered as sleep took hold.
CHAPTER 14
Heather woke alone in bed the next morning and was glad of it. She needed time alone to think and to make sense of last night, to make sense of what she was thinking then and now. She shook her head and winced, the pain reminding her of the bump she had suffered to the back of her head. It also reminded her of the dream and Quinn and when she had woken from it to find...
She shook her head again, though more slowly this time.
It was her imagination, it had to be, and yet somewhere deep in her heart she knew it was the truth. She had seen it in his eyes, felt it wrapped in his arms, when he touched her, and most of all when he kissed her. She shook her head again. She was not mistaken about this.
The Dark Dragon was Quinn.
Her heart swelled with thought while tears filled her eyes. What had happened to him that had him returning to her a different man and not just in name only? And why had he felt the need to keep his identity from her and force her to wed him?
A tear fell from her eye, for knowing Quinn as she did, he would be doing this to protect her, but from whom?
