around him did he quicken his pace to give her fulfillment and claim his own. Emotions he had never even acknowledged before remained unspoken.
In the aftermath, they held each other, spent, satisfied. Silent now, they listened to their pounding heartbeats.
As was her endearing habit, she wept because of the sheer wonder of their lovemaking, and when she was finally able to control herself again, she flung her arms back on the bed and smiled up at him.
'It would seem I missed this most of all while you were away.'
He nodded with arrogant satisfaction. 'It would seem so,' he agreed. He leaned down, kissed her, and then rolled onto his side. 'You have my permission to give me this very same surprise tomorrow.'
Her laughter pleased him. 'Then it wouldn't be a surprise, would it? Besides, that wasn't it. I have something else for you.'
Several kisses later, she convinced him to let her leave the bed long enough to get her gift for him, and when she returned, she wrapped the plaid around her and sat down, facing him near the foot of the bed.
He had already decided that no matter what the gift was, he would be happy to receive it, even if he had to pretend. Her feelings were at issue now, and that was all that mattered to him. Brenna had obviously gone to a considerable amount of trouble to please him, and so he decided to give the gift the importance it deserved. He sat up, propped his shoulders against the wall behind him, and then bent one leg up so that he could rest his arm on top.
'Come closer,' he said.
She did as he asked and folded her legs under her before pulling the plaid up around her again.
'Closer,' he repeated in a gruff voice.
She denied his request by shaking her head. 'I know that look in your eyes, Connor. If I move any closer, you'll grab me.'
Admitting she was right, he nodded agreement. 'I have never been given a gift before, and two in one night is more than I deserve.'
'Two? What other gift did you receive?'
'You don't remember what you said to me when I was inside you?'
She frowned with concentration while she thought about it. 'Hurry up?' she teased.
'Besides that,' he said with a grin.
'I don't recall. Did I say something else?'
Aye, you did, he thought, you told me you loved me.
Perhaps she had just been carried away by the heat of their lovemaking, unaware of the words she uttered, just the way she had prayed aloud without realizing it on the day he met her. But she had said it, which meant she'd thought it, and that was all that mattered to him.
'Why are you smiling? I haven't given you your gift yet.'
'The way you wanted me tonight was all the gift I could ever want.'
'But there's more.'
'There will be, if you'll move closer to me.'
She shook her head again. 'You're going to have to wait. I'm going to tell you two stories.'
'Just one,' he said.
'Two,' she insisted.
His sigh was deliberately exaggerated. 'All right, lass.'
'My first story concerns something that happened to me when I was a little girl. I was too young to remember the details, but I remember being very frightened. My father sat me on his lap and told me what had happened, and don't you dare frown, Connor; you're going to hear about my family now, like it or not.'
'I'm not frowning.'
'You were thinking about it.'
He laughed. 'I wasn't. It's all right for you to talk about your relatives now. It wasn't before.'
'Why?'
Because your heart and your loyalty belong to me now, he thought. 'I'll explain later,' he said. 'Continue with your story now.'
'My father told me I was the reason for a new tradition in our family. We were on our way to an uncle's holding when we stopped for the nooning meal. Everyone wanted to stretch their legs, and when it was time to leave, my father forgot to count.'
'Count?'
'There were eight children, Connor. He always counted to make certain he had all of us.'
'But this time he didn't count.'
'No, he didn't. He thought I was with my oldest brother, Gillian, and Gillian thought I was with Arthur, another brother,' she explained. 'I wasn't though. As was my habit at the time, I wandered off, got lost, and the family didn't realize they'd left me behind until they were well on their way.'
Connor was frowning now. He pictured his wife around Grace's age and couldn't even begin to understand what terror she must have experienced.
'Gillian found me before the others, although I was told my wails were loud enough for the king of England to hear if he'd leaned out the window, and that very night, my father began his new tradition.'
'The medallion.'
She nodded. 'The older brothers and sisters embraced the idea and promised to keep their medallions close at all times. Mother worried the baby and I would choke ourselves with the leather necklaces around our necks, and so I was only allowed to wear the medallion whenever we left the holding.'
She held his gaze for a long minute and then took hold of his hand and turned it so that his palm was facing her. Her fingers lightly brushed across the scars puckering his skin, but he saw only sadness in her eyes now, not repulsion or pity.
'You must have been frightened,' he said in an attempt to get her to look up at him instead of the marks from his past. She tightened her hold on his wrist when he started to pull back. He conceded to her wishes for the moment and waited for her to continue.
'I recovered,' she whispered. 'But you haven't, have you, Connor?' The sadness had moved into her voice now.
'Because it isn't finished yet,' he explained. 'You want me to tell you how I got the scars, don't you?'
'No.'
He felt a curious mixture of relief and disappointment.
Brenna ached for the pain he had suffered and tried to think of something to say to make him realize she wasn't trying to console him now, but simply acknowledging the terrible injustices of the past so that he would know she understood.
'These scars mark your past,' she whispered as she slowly lifted his hand.
Again he tried to pull away, and she resisted him a second time. 'Yes,' he said, angry now.
Brenna leaned down and kissed each one of the marks.
He felt the caress all the way inside his heart and his soul. Stunned by what she was doing, he closed his eyes. Her touch shattered him, yet filled him with warmth at the same time. And he was renewed. He couldn't understand how it had happened, or why, but the empty gnawing ache was gone, and only her love remained.
She didn't stop until she had kissed each palm, and then she reached down beside her and put the medallion into his hand.
He opened his eyes again and stared down at the etching carved into the wood.
'A long, long time ago, there lived a boy named David,' Brenna began, quietly. 'The land he and his family and friends lived in was plagued by a terrible giant named Goliath. It came to pass that David had to fight this enemy. He was too young to use a sword. He could have carried his father's sword, the way you did, but unlike you, he didn't have to crawl across burning embers. You both had tremendous courage, though, and I think he too would have dragged others to safety the way you did, because he was just as noble as you were, Connor.'
Overwhelmed by what she was saying to him, he couldn't speak. She knew everything and still felt he was courageous and noble. She didn't understand, of course. He wasn't worthy of such praise yet, because he hadn't found justice in all the years he had searched.
