She shook her head, her eyes growing troubled. "Nay. Far from it. He feels naught but greed. He wants to possess me like athing. He has no heart, no soul. I was his rival's wife, and to make me his wife makes him feel powerful and victorious. For him to possess all that my husband had… 'tis like he is dancing upon his grave."
What a brute. He would not rest until the bastard was dead. "I'll never let him have you. I promise you that."
"I thank you, but I cannot let you put yourself in any more danger. I need to be away from here. But where shall I go?"
When he imagined her leaving, anguish reached in and seized his heart. "Nay. I'm not letting you out of my sight. He's the one who will be in danger."
"You are but one man. He has a garrison of several dozen."
"Are you thinking that matters?" Neacal would take them all down, two or three at a time, if he had to. He had not clawed his way back from death for naught. For him to have survived… that meant he had a reason to be here.
She was his reason.
"You cannot fight so many men without reinforcements." Her eyes pleaded with him. "Please be reasonable."
He couldn't fight them all at once; he knew that. He wasn't an idiot, simply determined. The important thing was that she was safe. "I'll take you back to Bearach, but in the meantime, I'll do whatever it takes to protect you from the beast."
Shaking her head, she closed her eyes. "I wish I had never left Bearach. We were both safe there. Because of Chief Hamilton, I made a grievous error and I'm sorry."
"Don't fash over it. Like you said, 'tis only by surviving the difficult things that we grow stronger."
"You're the strongest person I know," she said, rubbing her thumb against his biceps muscle. His body quickened at the light pressure and he wanted her again. Already.
He tugged her against him and kissed her forehead. "'Haps physically, but you have a strength of mind and spirit that I admire. After all the terror and grief you have suffered, you create beautiful music which is surely sent from heaven."
He didn't understand it. Her soul wasn't clouded by the gloom as his was. A brilliant healing light glowed from her. 'Twas not only something he saw with his eyes, but something he felt. This same light burst forth with the songs her voice carried to float over everyone and give them a glimpse of paradise for a few moments.
"But I was afraid," she said. "That's why I left Bearach and made things worse."
He smoothed her golden hair back from her temple, then reverently traced the arch of her brow with his thumb. "You should've come to me for help."
"I didn't know what you would do. I feared you would evict all of us, and Eli is too old to endure the elements."
He frowned. "I would never do such a thing. How can you think I would?"
"I didn't know you then like I do now. I have to keep reminding myself you're not like most men."
He shook his head. "You have the right of it."
"I'm sorry," she whispered, leaned forward and lightly kissed his lips.
Lust blazed through him and he could not stop the low, breathy moan which escaped him. Drawing her close, he continued the kiss, turning it from innocence to a flash fire of carnal yearning.
Saints! He did not see how he would ever get enough of this woman. She threw her leg over his hip, spurring his reckless urges. Lying on her back, she pulled at his shoulders. He needed no more encouragement. He was more than ready to sink down into her perfect bliss yet again. And again, if she would let him.
She turned him into someone else… someone he did not know… someone happy.
When he drove himself into her yielding wetness, the magnitude almost overwhelmed him. Holding himself still, he absorbed the moment, absorbed the heat of her. He never wanted to forget this flawless but brief instant, the most amazing of his life.
Now he knew… she was the reason he'd survived.
"Neacal?"
"Aye?"
"Are you…?"
He withdrew, turning her words into a moan. Her hand clutched at his hair.
