Run Wild (Escape with a Scoundrel) - By Shelly Thacker Page 0,126

core of her body. His darkness and strength blended with her pale softness until each became lost in the other, giving and taking, surrendering and claiming, loving and loved.

Together, as one, they moved until a fullness began building inside her, a sweet pressure that sent her rushing toward a breathtaking height she had never reached before. The feelings became so intense she thought she would surely die of them, knew instead that they gave her new life.

All at once, they reached the peak and soared over the edge together. She felt the sensations shatter around and within her, her cries of pleasure a softer echo of his deep groans as waves of ecstasy swept them both. Washed by heat and light, they kissed, trembling with their mutual release, tumbling through the heavens, two made one, now and forever.

Her mind and heart repeated the words as she drifted down through a fog of bliss.

Now and forever.

~ ~ ~

The silence of night still enveloped the house some time later as she lay beside him, resting her head on his chest, tracing the muscled ridges of his ribcage lightly with her fingertips. They hadn’t moved or even bothered to straighten the rumpled sheets, too drowsy and sated to do anything but hold one another.

“I missed you, Nicholas,” she whispered. “It almost frightens me, I missed you so much. Without you, I felt so...” Words could not explain the feeling.

“Lost,” he finished for her softly. “Alone. Hollow. As if some vital part of you had been torn away.”

She lifted her head. “You felt the same way?”

A strange, pained smile tugged at his lips. “Every step I took was a reminder that you weren’t with me.” He threaded his fingers through her hair. “I couldn’t get used to the feeling of not having you beside me. I even kept that shirt you wore in Cannock Chase, because it carried a trace of your scent.”

She smiled at him, then ducked her head before he could see the tears glistening in her eyes. He cared about her. Even if he couldn’t say the words, he cared. “Nicholas, please don’t leave me again.”

“You deserve better, angel,” he said roughly. “Better than an impoverished ex-pirate and a small house on a swampy island, where it’ll be a daily damn struggle to earn some kind of living from the land. You deserve your dream. Jewels and velvets and Venice.” He stroked her cheek. “But I’ve taken that from you, too. Along with your innocence. And I can’t even bring myself to say I’m sorry. Because I’m not. Selfish bastard that I am, I want you with me.”

She closed her eyes, sliding her arm around him to hold him tight. If she had to spend the rest of her life trying, she would help him see that he was worthy of the gift of her love. She didn’t care how long it might take. “Then come with me. Don’t send me away with Masud,” she pleaded. “Nicholas, you and I have both spent too many years alone, thinking we had to live that way to survive. Trying so hard to be strong. But strong only takes you so far.” She held him fiercely. “Love has to take you the rest of the way. I can face anything as long as I’m with you.”

It was true. And she would stay with him for all the days of her life, whether or not he ever said the words she longed to hear.

“I love you, Samantha.”

She gasped, lifting her head, gazing down at him in wonder. It was as if he’d read her mind. The words flowed through her like sun and water, warm, precious, life-giving.

He raked his fingers through her hair, drew her mouth to his, kissed her long and hard.

“Then come with me,” she said when they came up for a breath. “Leave England with me—spare Foster’s life.” And save your own, she thought. “You’ve proven that you can care and give... and love. You can spare his life. Let him go.”

“But there’s no way of knowing when or where Foster might show up again,” he countered. “I want to get you out of danger, not take you into danger with me.”

“I’m not leaving without you.”

“Stubborn lady. You’d think we were shackled together or something.”

“We might as well be,” she said firmly. “Because you’re not getting rid of me. And no blacksmith in the world is going to break that vow.”

He smiled at her. But still, he hesitated. “It would mean spending