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Jena squealed when she walked into the kitchen and spotted Matt. She ran in her stripper shoes and threw herself into his arms.
“You didn’t get shot,” she told him. “I’m so proud.”
Matt grinned at his crazy wife, picked her up until she’d wrapped her legs around his waist and left the room with her.
Lake wandered through the house until he found Kirsty in the grand room. She was standing alone, and dejected, in the middle of what was supposed to be their wedding venue. To his shame, Lake hadn’t seen any of the plans for their ceremony. And now he was seeing it for the first time in the aftermath of a battle. Bullet holes gouged the cream and gold wallpaper. The bay windows were shattered. Tattered purple material was strewn about the floor. There was snow and mud on the cream carpet. The white material covering the chairs was torn and filthy, and some of the chairs were broken.
“This is a sign,” Kirsty said, letting him know she’d heard him come in. “The last in a long line of signs.” She turned to him. Her eyes were glassy with tears. “We shouldn’t have organised this wedding. We shouldn’t be getting married at all.”
>
To hell with that.
Lake closed the distance between them in three long strides. He wrapped his arms around his woman and his mouth covered hers. She was alive. She was fine. She was his. Lake kissed her for every minute they’d been apart these past few months. He kissed her for every second he’d feared he would never see her again. He kissed her with everything he had, body, mind and soul. Letting her know, by touch, by taste, that he was hers. Always hers.
With a low moan in the back of her throat, Kirsty wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. Their kiss was brutal. Tongues, lips, teeth clashing in a desperate tango of need. Lake swallowed each sound she made with pride.
He backed her through the debris until she was pressed against the inner wall. Snow swirled through the destroyed windows behind him. The temperature of the air plummeted with each minute the room was exposed to the elements. Lake didn’t care about any of it. He was on fire for the woman he loved.
“I need you,” he said against her lips. “Now.”
“I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
Her words were an arrow to his heart. “Daft woman. I leave you alone for five minutes and your imagination goes wild.”
“Not five minutes, three months. Three months of you absent in every way except bodily.”
The pain in her eyes said everything she didn’t put into words. He’d hurt her. Neglected her. Let something else become more important than the woman he loved. Never again. He tugged on her hair to arch her neck, nuzzling in the curve of her throat, breathing her scent and revelling in it.
“I’ve missed you,” Kirsty said on a moan.
“I’m here now.” He nipped the tight muscle at the top of her shoulder, making her weaken in his arms.
“We haven’t made love in three months,” she whispered. “I thought you didn’t want me.”
Want her? What he felt went beyond want, beyond need into the realm of desperation. He wound his fingers through the russet-coloured curls that swept over her shoulder. He’d met her when her hair had been pixie short and she had been the most beautiful woman on the planet. Now, she was devastating. All long limbs, glorious curves and flowing red locks that made him weak at the knees.
Lake stopped and leaned his head back while the rest of his body kept hers pinned to the wall. He resisted the urge to grind his hips against her just so she could feel how much he wanted her. He looked down into those wide blue eyes of hers and ached with how much he loved this woman.
“Is that what’s been bothering you?”
She nodded as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Lake groaned, swept his mouth down and took over the task of teasing the spot she’d been worrying. It took great control to stop again, and when he did his breath was uneven and shallow and his need for her was almost out of control.
“I thought you didn’t want to marry me.”
“Kirsty Campbell—soon to be Benson—you think too much. It shouldn’t be allowed. It leads to nothing good.” He waited until she looked back up into his eyes before he spoke again. He wanted her to know he meant every word. “I love you. No. It’s more than that. Without you I can’t survive. You’re essential to me. My thoughts are filled with you. Only you. Saying I want you doesn’t even come close to how I feel. I don’t just want you. I’m desperate for you. And we are definitely getting married.” He cocked an eyebrow at her as his lips twitched. “Maybe not here, but it’s happening.”
“Oh, Lake,” she said on a sigh. “Then why haven’t you made love to me?” Her words were soft, but the pain behind them was loud.
Hell, he’d made her feel rejected and unwanted. It was the last thing he’d intended to do. He let out a sigh. “Too tired. Too busy. Too stupid.” He flattened his hands against the small of her back and pressed her into him. “I’ll make up for it. Starting now.”
He kissed away any protests she may have made as he fisted his hands in the knit dress she wore and inched it up those long legs and over her hips.
“I need you now,” he said against her mouth, then kissed her again. Tasting her passion, making her moan with need and lose herself in him.
“Uh, Lake,” a voice said in his ear, making him freeze. It was Flynn. “Your mic is on.”
Lake cursed loudly. “One second,” he said to his beautiful woman. “Flynn’s in my ear.” He kept his body flush against hers and tuned out the confused look on her face, preferring to focus on the dazed glint in her eyes and the lips swollen from his kisses. “I’m switching off,” he barked at Flynn. “Guard the door.”
