looked into her eyes with a gaze that shot clear to her heart. He had told her he loved her. The golden-amber glow in his eyes declared it once more.
“I wish we’d gotten around to this a bit sooner,” he whispered. She couldn’t find the voice to remind him that she had wanted to.
He must have seen the thought in her face. “I couldn’t have you once or twice. What we’re doing now, darlin’, this binds us.”
She touched his lips, halting his words. That sensual mouth that laughed more than it grimaced came down full on her nipple and he spoke his feelings again with the language of tongue and mouth.
If it had been possible for a woman’s soul to flow out of her body and into a man, that’s the way it would happen. If not for the constraints of the flesh, she would be right there, inside Matt’s heart.
Truly, though, she didn’t want to flee the confines of her flesh. She had never been touched like this, inside or out. Every kiss, every scrape and curl of his long, bold fingers made her want to open to him.
When his hand crept low on her belly, seeking her most intimate spot, she did. Cool air licked her private spot an instant before Matt’s finger stroked it.
When she felt she might come apart with the pleasure, her man, her true husband, eased himself up on his elbow. He crawled over her and knelt between her thighs. He spread them wider. He glanced down, looking at her there, then into her eyes.
“You are my heart, Emma. Every blessed beat of it.”
Had she ever seen a sight like her husband? It was a wonder that her heart didn’t fly right out of her bosom.
What a vision he was, naked muscle gleaming in the golden glow of the lamp. From his lean hard thighs, spread slightly, to the flat plane of his belly, glistening in a fine sheen of sweat, he made her want to reach for him.
She lifted her arms. His hair sifted across his shoulders when he leaned toward her. He braced his arms, rippling with tension, one on either side of her. Lamplight turned the coarse hair on his forearms to russet flames.
He slipped inside her as though that’s where he should have been all along. There was a pinch, not even worthy of being called pain, and then an overwhelming need to draw him farther inside herself.
He thrust deep, she arched her hips. Breathless, she gasped his name, smelled his flesh. She lifted her head to nip his shoulder, tasted salt on his skin. Hard and slick, he rocked against her womb. A wave crashed inside her. It washed pleasure from the point of their joining to her clenching fingers, then tumbled to the tips of her toes.
Maybe flesh was no barrier to souls after all.
Hadn’t her wedding vows declared that the two shall become one flesh?
She had been a fool to believe that she and Matt could share the pleasure of their bodies for a short time and then skip through life as though not a blessed thing had changed.
What a relief to know that the vow “Until death do us part,” would not happen by Hawker’s hand.
Praise be that she had found the courage to leave everything behind and begin new with her husband.
Chapter Fifteen
A slow, naked stretch between the sheets made Emma feel purely decadent. Sunlight streamed through the window.
It was well past time to get up. Hours ago, the rooster had given the wake-up call, and for the first time ever she had ignored it. She had snuggled deeper into Matt’s embrace and listened to the even draw of his breathing.
Morning chores could wait for today. If the men had late coffee and breakfast this one time, they wouldn’t die of it.
Now, under a tangled pile of bedclothes, she stretched her arms wide and splayed her fingers over the sheets. Even though Matt was no longer in the bed, the scent of him lingered. Every inch of her flesh blushed with the scrape and caress of his touch.
Tomorrow or the next day she would pack up what she could, but this sun-drenched, filled-with-birdsong morning she was a bride. Life was sweet, with the scent of coffee that she had not brewed drifting across the hall and into the bedroom.
Along with the aroma of coffee came Matt’s voice singing a low happy tune.
She flipped back the covers and padded naked to the wardrobe. She put on