“Thank you, Warren.” A glow spreads over her face as she looks at the dog, but then her eyes turn pensive. “I had a dog once when I was with my first…the person who beat Neil at cards. Well, she wasn’t completely mine. She was only a stray, and even though she was hungry and had fleas, she was always so happy. So loving. I’d feed her what scraps I could, and she would curl up beside me and keep me company.
“But thenhestumbled across her. He’d been drinking, and when he drank, he got mean. He…he dragged her from me and tied her to a post with only a few inches of slack in the rope so she couldn’t move far.” Her voice breaks. “Then he reached for his gun.”
Ice burns my blood, but not from the cold. What happened next, I can already guess. Tonight must have felt like a memory—no, a nightmare—for her to see it play out again. “I’m sorry,” I rasp. My apology isn’t enough, but it’s all I can offer. “I didn’t know.”
“You couldn’t have known. It was years ago,” she whispers as she slowly pets the dog’s head, but the pain that drips down in the slow streaks of her tears is still so fresh. What grudge did life have against my sweet, innocent wife that it had to strike her with such atrocities? One right after the other with no reprieve.
I pull her into my side for a hug, noting how the dog laps at Mara’s hand as if to comfort her. “Doesn’t make it hurt any less. And it’s because of how much it still hurts you that shows what an extraordinary measure of compassion you have.” I kiss the top of her head, wishing I could kiss away her pain as easily. “You’re a gem among women, Mara.”
A weighted, poignant silence falls as we stare into thesubdued fire. The dog’s amber eyes slowly wink shut, then jerk open again as if to make sure his previous owner is nowhere around. Then shut. Until he finally sleeps, knowing he’ll be safe with us.
Mara leans into me, her weight warm and welcoming as she weaves her fingers through mine. “Everything I’ve lost, everything that’s been taken from me, you’ve somehow found a way to give it all back. I never thought I would want to live past that day that you found me. Never did I think I could bring myself to overlook the mark on Emmaline’s hand given to her by such a cruel man.”
She lifts our entwined hands and kisses the back of my palm. “And I never thought a man could ever do anything for me that would make my heart threaten to burst with love for him, or that he would make my body sing with desire after so much had been stolen from it. You said I was extraordinary, but you are, too, because you did all these things, Warren. You made me fall in love with you. You took me in when I was hurting and broken and gave Emmaline and me the protection of your name even when I tried to refuse it. And even now, you’ve brought home another wounded creature because I asked you to save it. I’ve never known any other man to have a heart as kind as yours.”
“Mara.” I cup her cheek with my free hand, her lips stoking the banked heat in my own body. Heat that’s simmered ever since I had my first taste of her. I’ve not pushed her beyond pleasuring her with my mouth. Haven’t even found my own release in her presence because I wanted to make up for all the years she’d endured being used at the whims of others. “I…I love you.”
That’s all I can say. I can hardly even swallow around the knot in my throat. “All of you. You and our daughter. You were hurting, yes, but you were never broken. And you canbe damn certain that I’d have done whatever it took to be sure you became Mrs. Warren Shay before the night was through. I couldn’t imagine anyone other than you being my wife. Mine.”
“You’re ours,” she whispers. “My husband. Emmaline’s papa.” I track each emotion dancing over her face in the firelight. Indecision, love, desire, indecision…and then resolution. “I love you, too. And tonight I want to be your wife in every way.”
CHAPTER 20
WARREN
I love you.
I want to be your wife in every way tonight.
Did she actually say that or did my mind just tell me what I’ve been dying to hear from her? But with each passing second that ticks by as she waits for a response from me, I allow a bit of hopeful desire to escape the prison where I’ve kept it locked away. I help her stand, only to pull her into my arms so I can better search for any traces of doubt. “You already are my wife in every way.”
Admittedly, my chest is burning with the need to say my vow to her—the vow that all Shay men say to their wives when they join for the first time—but that can wait until she’s ready. A splash of color that can only be from the heat of a man wanting a woman and her wanting him back stains the curve of her cheeks, but she stares right back, allowing me to see the truth of her feelings for myself.
No doubt at all.
Made especially clear when she places her free hand on my chest and tortures me by dragging it down every single goddamn button until she reaches the top of my trousers.
Fuck.
My mouth dries as I fully harden, inch by inch. She truly is ready now, isn’t she?
“I want to feel you inside of me, Warren.”
Every muscle strings taut with need as my balls tighten, her words almost enough to make me spill in my pants. I know exactly the heaven that awaits me between my wife’s legs.
I’ve seen it.
Tasted it.
And now I’ll get to feel it.
Sweet mother of Christ, let me make this good for her without shaming myself in the process. I take in each and every point we’re connected, savoring the sensation. My hand on her cheek, and hers playing along my waistband. Our other hands pressed palm to palm, fingers tangled together just like our legs could be in a few minutes.
God help me, but I have to ask one last time. “Are you sure? We don’t have to do anything more than what we’ve already been doing. You don’t owe it to me.”
Mara nuzzles into my hand, her touch drifting lower to lightly graze along my length. “Maybe it’s myself I owe it to.”
I grit my teeth as my cock pulses, seeking more of that tantalizing sensation. “Then who am I to stop you from collecting?” I brush my lips against hers before leaning back. Fuck, she’s a gorgeous sight to behold. “Let’s go to bed, Mrs. Shay.”
