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deepened into sincerity. “Alicia, trust me.”
He held her gaze with his. Doubt, fear, and something that might have been reluctant hope swirled in her eyes. He felt tension in the
hand he held. In aching suspense, he waited for her to agree. Surely she couldn’t be so merciless as to deny him now.
The silence extended. And extended.
Then finally, finally, she nodded.

“ I trust you, Sebastian.”
Relief flooded him, made him dizzy. Relief and gratitude. After the mull he’d made of everything, he didn’t deserve her consent, but he was bloody glad she’d given it all the same. Now he had it, he’d make sure she never regretted it.
“ Thank you,” he whispered, wondering if she knew how profoundly he meant those simple words.
He leaned forward to brush his lips across hers. A deliberately light kiss however much her nearness eviscerated good intentions. A glancing touch that promised more. A salute to the woman who would become his partner in rapture tonight.
Her lips were impossibly soft under his. Smooth. Satiny. He lingered a second, savoring the exquisite sensation. In nearly eleven years, he hadn’t kissed his wife. He’d kissed her before they’d married, during
the giddy days of their short engagement. He’d kissed her during
their first weeks together, but the spiraling unhappiness of their life at
Balmuir had soon made kissing seem a travesty.
Kinvarra started to withdraw, the beast inside him straining against gentleness. Then Alicia made a soft sound deep in her throat and her lips parted.
Her warm breath filled his mouth. She tasted familiar. Yet as fresh and new as a fall of snow. Hot darkness exploded inside his head and reaction ripped through him. He longed to ravish her mouth with all
the passion locked for so long inside him. He clenched his hands in the blankets, struggling to remember what was at stake.
God give him strength. His control already shredded and he’d hardly launched his seduction.
Alicia cradled his head between her hands, holding him close as though afraid he meant to pull away, even now. Foolish woman, as if he was going anywhere. He’d ventured up to the gates of paradise and to his astonishment, they’d opened to allow him inside.
Her kiss was clumsy, as if she hadn’t kissed anyone in a long time. Shock rocketed through him. On an intellectual level, he’d known that she’d never been unfaithful. But that urgent, unpracticed kiss reassured his needy soul that in all the years they’d been apart, she’d belonged only to him.

Once, when he’d been an arrogant stripling who thought the world was his for the taking, that knowledge might have provoked triumph. Now he was only humbly grateful that she’d waited for him. After
so long without her, he took nothing for granted. He was under no illusions how lucky he was that Alicia was in his arms right now. The slightest misstep could put them at odds again. This time forever.
His arms encircled her, curved her into his body. She molded to him with an eagerness that set his heart cartwheeling. His mouth shaped itself to hers as she curled her arms around his neck. Her breasts crushed into his chest until blazing heat threatened to incinerate all will
beyond his hunger to possess. Even as he kissed her deeply, ravenously, stroking her tongue with his, he struggled to remember that he couldn’t dive headlong into this fire.
Kinvarra’s resolution faltered when her tongue moved in unmistakable response and she moaned with female pleasure. Restraint became even shakier after she sighed into his mouth and rubbed her body against his.
His shaking hands clasped her head as he plundered her mouth, stoking her passion. She began to touch him, feverish brushes of her hands as if she needed to learn the shape of his body again after all this time. Her unfettered reactions intoxicated him. Who would have
guessed his wife contained such delicious wildness? She was glorious, the answer to his every dream. When he finally raised his