Connor shrugged. “I have had more practice hiding it.”
“God, why did I have to fall in love with ye?”
Connor paused. “What?”
Tears spilled over despite the glare she gave him. “I love ye, ye unbearable man.”
“Good.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Good?”
“Aye. Because I love ye too.” Connor stepped closer, then stopped again. “I love yer noise, yer stubbornness…” His voice roughened. “I love the way John turns toward ye, and I love how ye argue with me about everything.”
Violet wiped at her cheek, but he did not stop. Because if he did, he might never get everything out again.
“Me castle was orderly before ye came, but then it was empty. Ye are me wife, and ye are John’s mother. Ye are the only chaos I want beneath me roof.”
“Connor…”
“I want ye to come home, Violet. I want ye to come because the life waiting for ye is yers.”
Violet didn’t let him finish speaking before she closed the distance between them and cupped his face in her hands. She pulled his head down and let the kiss answer him instead.
Connor kissed her with the confession still hanging between them. His hands settled on her waist, firm and restrained, until she pulled him closer.
“Do ye ken what ye are choosing?” he asked against her mouth.
“Aye.”
She took his hand and led him out of the family room. At her chamber, she opened the door, pulled him inside, and turned the key in the lock.
Connor watched her fingers drop from the key. Shadows rimmed his eyes, and dust still marked his boots.
“Once more,” he said. “Are ye certain ye want to do this. That ye want us to…consummate the marriage?”
Violet turned to him and touched his cheek. “I am tired of living as though certainty means nothing can go wrong. What I am certain of is that I want to spend the rest of me life with ye. And I want children with ye.”
Connor waited while she loosened the first fastening of her gown. When her fingers reached the one behind her shoulder, she turned and placed his hand over it.
“And I am certain that I want ye now.”
His fingers found the last fastening, and the gown gave. Violet reached for his coat before it had finished falling and pushed it from his shoulders. He let her and watched her unfasten his shirt with a look on his face that made her fingers clumsy.
When she pressed her palms flat against his bare chest, he exhaled through his nose.
“Violet.”
“Quiet,” she said.
He almost smiled. She felt it against her temple when he bent to kiss her there, then her jaw, then her throat, one hand trailing up her spine and flattening between her shoulder blades until she arched into him.
She felt his hardness against her hip, and arousal coiled low and warm in her belly.
Then she reached between them, and Connor’s breath broke on a short, rough sound. His hand tightened at her back, but she kept her grip. He thrust into her hand before he caught himself, jaw hard, eyes closing briefly.
He lowered her onto the bed soon enough and settled over her. She pulled him closer by the back of his neck and kissed him with the full weight of the last several days behind it. He felt it as his mouth moved against hers.
The head of his length notched against her entrance, teasing her.
