in.” She leaned down and kissed him.
“Perfect.”
He scooped her up in his arms, which elicited a little squeal of surprise. She liked the caveman thing, too, as it turned out.
He leaned over just enough so she could reach the worktable. “Grab that red one. The chocolate one, too,” he said, meaning her pastry bags.
“Why?” she asked, even as she leaned down and snagged them both.
“I thought we could start planning the wedding cake design a little early.” He turned and headed up the back stairs. He bumped them through the door and didn’t stop until she was in the middle of her bed.
She hadn’t had the chance to make it since they’d left it earlier that morning. The linens were in a heap, and the pillows were still arranged in the way he’d moved them under her stomach so he could—
“Oh!”
He’d slipped her surgical pants down and had started to create his own version of a rose ... on her inner thigh.
“Damn,” he said. “That didn’t come out right.” He leaned down and caught her eye as he licked it off. “Let me try again.”
“It’s dark in here, you can barely see. You don’t know how to do roses yet.”
“I know.” He grinned. “Lucky you.” He slid her panties off, and started another one. Right in the middle of—“Damn,” he said, seconds later.
Her hips rose to meet his tongue. “Lucky me, indeed,” she gasped. She reached for him, but he was intent on having his way with her ... with his usual maddening, perfectly torturous, slowly wrenching thoroughness, until she was quivering, shaking, and clutching at him. “Come here,” she managed, grasping his arms as he settled between her thighs.
“Oh, I’m coming, luv,” he said, treating her to a cheeky wink.
Then he slid inside her, but rather than slip his arm beneath her back, and move immediately into the primal rhythm they both so easily gave themselves over to, he stayed, buried deeply, and slipped her hand from his neck, turning it palm up, where he pressed a gentle, beautifully sweet kiss in the center of it, then curled it closed, so the diamonds on her ring finger twinkled in the moonlight.
“Ye have me heart, Melody mine. Ye’ve made me the happiest man on earth, agreeing to come back with me, to my home. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure ye never regret it.”
“I know I won’t,” she said, caressing the side of his face, as she lifted her hips and he slid more deeply inside her. He already knew her body so well, so instinctively, she was swiftly climbing to another peak. She moved her hips beneath him, also knowing his body so well that she knew just how to take him with her.
They kept their rhythm slow, their gazes locked, and each stroke was like a promise. As she felt him gather, he lowered his mouth to hers, to claim her in the same instant that she would claim him. She whispered against his lips, “I know I won’t, because we’re already home, Griffin. That’s always going to be wherever we are together.”
“Then welcome home, luv,” he said, grinning as he took her mouth ... and the rest of her heart. “Welcome home.”
Epilogue
It wasn’t how he’d have wanted the reunion, but Griffin had been happy that Sean and his very pregnant wife, Holly, along with Trevor and Emma and their trio of rapidly growing boys, had been able to attend Lionel’s memorial service. The tribute to Lionel and the Hamilton empire had paid due respect to all he had done during his lifetime and his tenure as reigning keeper of the Hamilton legacy.
“Who’d have ever imagined the auld codger would last another four years?” Sean said, as they settled themselves at one of the far tables in the grand resort dining hall.
The elaborate and elegantly styled room was packed with large round, white linen-draped tables, all filled with people who’d come from the world over to pay their respects. While the mood graveside had been somber, and the attendance much more intimate, the atmosphere was decidedly more social at the resort.
“The reins are finally passed,” Trevor added, lifting his glass toward Griffin. “Cheers to you, cousin.”
Everyone laughed at that. Griffin had come there feeling disconnected from most of the family roots he’d left behind, only to find brand-new connections on American soil that had opened his mind, and his heart, to reestablishing old connections when he’d returned home.
But no connection was so wonderful as the