‘Yes, only I didn’t let myself admit it until tonight. Until you were willing to give up everything important to you for me.’ His hands slid into her hair so he held her precious face between his palms.
‘I love you, Rurik.’ A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and he caught it with his lips. ‘I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want Glannoventa to suffer. If you want me to go—’
‘Shh...’ His heart filled up at her words. ‘Stay. In my bed. In my life. In my heart. Stay with me.’ His lips brushed kisses across the crest of her cheekbone and down to her mouth, light touches that had him craving more of her.
She let out a sob and he covered her mouth with his. She kissed him back until they were both breathless and her fingers were tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. ‘Are you certain you can forgive me?’ she whispered.
A hand ran down her back to pull her soft body close to him, needing to feel every part of her against him like a starving man. He took in her earnest gaze, golden in the soft candlelight. ‘These past weeks have been torture. I don’t want to live without you, Annis. From this day forward, nothing comes between us again. Swear it to me.’
Giving him a slow smile full of the hope she had tried to suppress until now, she rose up and kissed him again. ‘I swear it.’ Her fingers tightened in his hair almost painfully, but he wanted the pain if it meant that she was touching him again. ‘Every moment of every day you will know exactly what I feel and what I am thinking because I won’t stop talking about how much I love you.’
He laughed at that as she had meant him to and twirled around with her in his arms. They landed on the bed. She giggled in a way that he had never heard from her before as she pushed herself back so that he could crawl over her. He stared down at her in awe, wondering what else this woman he had married had in store for him. But he didn’t get to wonder for long, because she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him over her, her mouth taking his in a plundering kiss that left him breathless and craving more.
His hands went between them. First to her breasts, skating over her rigid nipples, and then down to the skirt of her gown, tugging the fabric upwards in a suddenly desperate bid to feel her bare flesh against his. Her touches became frenzied as she roughly pulled his tunic up. He was forced to let her go to tug it off over his head. By then her fingers had found the fastenings of his trousers and slipped inside to grasp him. He was already so hard with his need for her that her touch drew the breath from his lungs. Gasping for air, he tugged at her skirts, not bothering to take off the rest of his clothing. His need to make them one, to make them whole again, overrode any thoughts of prolonging their pleasure.
‘Hurry,’ she whispered as she guided his length to her.
‘Annis,’ he groaned when he felt how slippery and hot she was for him. Easing inside her bit by bit, he laughed when she arched her hips, desperate for the same thing he wanted. Taking her hands, he laced his fingers with hers and held them pressed to the bed above her head as he entered her in one long and deep stroke, until their hips were pressed together. Her ragged sigh of gratification filled his ears. He stared down into her golden eyes, slightly unfocused now with pleasure.
‘I love you, Wife,’ he whispered, knowing with certainty that she would hold his heart until the end of time.
He moved in a soft rhythm, filling her up and then drawing away, loving the way he fit inside her. Her inner muscles gripped him as if she was made for him, as if she never wanted to let him go. He loved her with his body until they both came, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces that slowly came back together, creating something that was both stronger and more resilient than either of them had ever been separately.
Epilogue
Several months later
Rurik pushed open the shutters to allow the warm morning sunlight into Wilfrid’s bedchamber. The man had been gone for months, but Annis had only recently shown an interest in going through his personal things. Rurik hadn’t pressed the issue, wanting to give her time to mourn. As a result, the chamber had been closed up ever since Rurik had ordered the various parchments and implements removed that would prove important to him in an official capacity.
She knelt on the floor beside a small chest she had just pulled out from beneath Wilfrid’s bed. Leaning against the wall, he revelled in watching her. Her auburn hair shimmered like flames in the sunlight where it cascaded down her back. He had convinced her to leave it down as they worked, loving the ability to reach over and lose his fingers in it as he wanted.
Becoming aware of him, she glanced up and blushed at the look he was giving her. ‘You don’t have to stay. I know you have things to do.’
‘Nothing more important than you.’
She gave a knowing smile and resumed riffling through the chest, metal clinking as she lifted items out and sorted them on the floor beside her. ‘I’m certain you mentioned going into the village with Danr this morning to assess the storm’s damage to the port.’
Danr had surprised them by arriving some time ago after having heard of Rurik’s marriage. Rurik had been gratified at how his twin had accepted Annis, not questioning Rurik’s desire to stay with her despite their past. The last several months had been some of the
