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“What my lady asks for, she gets.” And he stepped back, stripping off his shirt.
She resisted the urge to run her hands all over his powerful chest as she pulled him into the kitchen.
She cleaned the wound with hot water and then tightly wrapped it with fresh linens. He was right, it was only a graze, not nearly as bad as she’d feared.
“All better?” he asked, looking down at her bandage.
“It will be soon enough.” She leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his shoulder. “Now. It’s time for you to go to bed. It’s been a long day.”
One of his brows rose up. “It has, indeed.”
Grabbing his bloody, ripped shirt, he shrugged it on, and reached for her hand one more time. “Upstairs with both of us.”
Chapter Sixteen
Charlie practically floated next to him as they made their way upstairs. She knew she’d be pressed against him very soon. In his arms, next to his heart.
“There are some things I think I need to tell you,” she gushed before they made it to her room. She needed to get the words out before he started to kiss her.
“What?” he asked, reaching her hall. “Should I be concerned?”
“I…” She swallowed down her fear. “I don’t know.”
He stopped then, his hand on her doorknob. “What is it?” His face had tightened, his brows drawing together.
“Well,” she straightened her shoulders, “I have to be honest with you. I…” Her shoulders slipped a bit, nerves getting the best of her. “You see, I don’t want a marriage of arrangement or convenience. I want to be in love. That is to say…I’m in love with you, Raithe.” His fingers squeezed hers. “It’s all right if you don’t feel that way about me, but what I wish to know is if, in the future, you might possibly feel that way about me.”
“Charlie,” his voice was gentle but there was an edge to it and she shook her head.
“I don’t want to replace Jenni. She was your past and I respect that. But I need to know I might have a family filled with love like the one I lost. It’s important to me. And—"
“Charlie,” he said louder. “I can’t possibly fall in love with you in the future.”
“Oh,” she breathed, pain lancing her chest.
He pulled her closer. “Didn’t you understand me in the kitchen? Since the first moment I saw you, I haven’t been able to look at anyone else. I’ve been in love with you for a while, I think I wasn’t ready to admit it, but I’m saying it now. I love you, my sweet Charlie. I’ll love you always.”
She gasped in a breath as he wrenched open the door and pulled her inside. “You love me?”
He closed the door behind them, capturing her mouth in his as he pressed her back against it. She threaded her arms around his neck, her fingers combing up into his hair. His tongue danced with hers, their mouths devouring one another. Finally, he pulled back. “Charlie, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long. I felt guilty feeling this way about you.”
She shook her head. “I understand.”
He kissed her again, lifting her into his arms and carrying her across the room. “You scared me because our connection is so strong that I felt like it would erase my past and…”
She leaned back, looking him in the eyes. “It won’t. We’ll honor your past just as we will mine.”
His eyes drifted closed before he opened them again. “I love you, Charlie.”
“I love you too,” she said, kissing him again with all the passion she had.
He set her down next to the bed, his fingers working down the buttons at the back of her dress even as his lips trailed kisses down her neck.
Reaching the last of the buttons, Charlie began pulling the sleeves down her arms, wiggling out of the fabric until it landed in a pile on the floor.
He let out a deep sound, even as he spun her about, and tugged at the strings of her corset. “I can’t wait to take this thing off.”
She smiled as she reached for the bed post, holding on as he pulled the cords. “You’ve done this before,” she gasped as the garment loosened. It hurt the tiniest bit to know he had been such a rake.
