the Women’s Room?”
“Then my mother will be in there with you,” Branford said, “and I will be standing outside the door until you emerge again.”
“You cannot watch me always.” I scoffed.
“I most certainly can,” Branford said, his words insistent. “I will not leave your presence. If there is distance between us, I will always keep my eye on you to make sure you are safe.”
“You do not have to do that, Branford.”
“But I do,” he responded softly. He stood slowly with me still wrapped up in his strong arms. “Everything I have done has been inadequate. All I ever wanted was to keep you safe from harm. I told you to trust no one but did not abide by my own words. I allowed vulnerabilities and left wide-open gaps within my defenses. Part of that was allowing others to be responsible for your safety. I will not allow that again.”
He dropped me to my feet near the changing area and helped me into a nightdress.
“Nelle was right; I did think of my mother when you found Janet,” Branford admitted. “I had told Kimberly many years ago what had happened to her. It never occurred to me she would use it against me. Again, I trusted too much.”
“There are some you trust,” I said quietly. “Parnell and Ida.”
“Yes, some,” Branford said. He changed into the soft linen sleep pants he wore and then took my hand to lead me to our bed. “I trust you, my immediate family, Dunstan, and I may build some trust with Sir Rylan—it remains to be seen.”
“He seems genuine,” I said.
“Does he?” Branford looked over to me. “Did Janet?”
I looked down at my hands as I sat on the edge of the bed. I felt Branford’s lips touch the top of my head.
“I do love you,” he whispered against my hair. “I do not know if you still believe it or not, but I do love you. I’ve never been the trusting or the loving sort, but with you I can be someone else—someone worthy of you—if only I would stop making such grave mistakes.”
“You could not have known,” I told him. “None of us could have guessed at their plan. I still do not understand how they could have arranged it all—how they could have known we would bring Janet back with us.”
“They took a calculated risk,” Branford said. “If we had not brought her back with us at that time, she would have found another way, no doubt. We just made it easier for her to infiltrate our home. She was quite believable, I must say.”
He growled out the last words.
“I do not think anyone could have seen through her ruse.”
“I should have anyway,” Branford said. “I will not let such a thing happen again.”
I pushed myself up against the pillows of our bed, and Branford crawled after me. He did not lie beside me but hovered over my body, using one of his arms for support while the other traced my exposed skin with light fingertips.
He leaned down to kiss me softly, his warm mouth molding against mine as his tongue moistened my lips. I opened to him, taking in the taste of him as he wrapped his hands around my body and pulled me up against him. I felt his heart pounding in his chest as he broke away from me, his eyes wild and urgent.
“I want you now.”
“Yes,” I responded, and he pulled me tighter against his chest.
He pushed my nightdress up and slid his fingers slowly up my legs. He gripped my hips once, holding me against his hardness for a moment before he yanked at the dress and removed it from me. His sleep trousers followed my dress to the floor, and he was atop me, his hands in my hair and the heat from his excitement pushing against my stomach.
“You are beyond beautiful,” he said as his hand stroked from my hair, down my arms, and then back up to cup my breasts. He kissed the tips of each as my hands explored his back and the muscles of his arms and shoulders. I reached down to his hip, then skimmed around front until I could grip him with my fingers.
I let my fingers trail up the length of him until I reached the tip, then ran my fingers around and back down again as Branford’s breaths left wet, warm spots on my skin.
“That feels so good,” he told me as his hand covered mine. He led me