Angus didn’t need to be asked twice. He took her hand, tugged her quickly toward the door and she followed willingly. Together they sped toward his tiny house, keeping watch to make sure no one saw them.
Inside, he shut the door and locked it. There were windows here. Big south-facing ones to gather as much light as possible, but not in the loft. It was private there.
“Up.” He pointed to the ladder.
Win climbed up as best she could, her skirts tangling around her legs. In another month or so, when her belly got even bigger, she was going to struggle with this, he realized. Angus climbed behind her, making sure she made it safely. He’d installed a mattress last week, needing a place to get away now and then from Leslie—
He didn’t want to think about Leslie.
He didn’t want to think about the future. Or what he was doing. Or what would come afterward.
All he wanted was to be with Win right now.
Win thought she’d never make it up the ladder, but when she did, she crawled straight onto the mattress Angus had placed up there and turned around. Angus, coming after her, pushed her gently onto her back. Then he was above her, cradling her.
Kissing her.
She kissed him back, wriggling underneath him, wrapping her legs around his waist the way she’d dreamed of so long, linking them behind his back, lifting her hips to his, the bump of her belly getting in the way.
He was hard.
So hard.
Straining against his clothing in a way that turned her on all over again. She reached down and hitched up her skirts, wanting to feel him, wanting—
Angus rolled to the side, kicked off his boots so they crashed to the floor below them, shucked down his jeans and kicked them off, too.
Yes, this was what she wanted. There wasn’t time to get out of this dress. Wasn’t time for anything but clawing and kicking and wriggling as she tried to get out of her stretchy gray pregnancy-waist yoga pants she wore beneath it. All the women had taken to wearing leggings under their Regency gowns during the winter, and she’d followed suit when she returned, although they barely needed them these days.
Angus turned her over, grabbed the waistband and slid them down, taking her panties with them, exposing her bare bottom underneath. She felt rather than heard his breath hitch, and she held hers, too, as his hand caressed her skin.
He tugged them all the way down, tossed them to the floor and turned her over again.
“Is this what you want?”
“Yes.” She didn’t think twice. Maybe she was battling with her demons, wondering how the people who loved her could treat her so badly, but her body knew exactly where she stood with Angus.
She loved him. Wanted him.
Trusted him with all of her heart. Maybe it didn’t make sense.
Maybe it didn’t need to.
“Yes,” she said again. “Please, Angus.”
A second later he was in between her thighs.
He didn’t say a word. Just met her gaze.
And pushed inside.
Win gasped as he filled her, then shut her eyes, taking him in, glorying in the feel of him. She let him take her wrists in one hand above her head, let him lift her breasts free of the neckline of her dress with the other. Felt his breath hot on her skin as he bent to explore them with his mouth, bracing himself so as not to press too hard against her belly, all the while pumping into her with long, strong strokes.
She’d been dead for months, and now she was alive again. How could she ever have thought she could live without this?
Without Angus, the man who made her feel—
Everything.
Sweet tension built inside her with every stroke and touch, and Win shut her eyes, surrendering to it, wanting to remember everything. Wanting to be present for every moment.
Her whole body buzzed with awareness—with growing ecstasy. And when she finally came, her cries echoed in her ears, telling her everything she needed to know.
She’d do anything to be with Angus.
Would wait as long as it took. Trust that he’d wait, too.
There was no other choice, because only this man—this wonderful man—made her feel this way.
Angus came with a groan, and his thrusts triggered a second round for Win. When had this ever happened before? Who knew her so well he could fire her up just with a touch?
Win clung to Angus, even when they’d both collapsed against the mattress. She didn’t want to be separate again.
“Oh, lass,” Angus said. “You’ll be the undoing of me.”
She wouldn’t answer that. Instead, she took his hand and pressed it to her belly. Their baby was growing inside there. She wanted him to remember that.
His indrawn breath told her he just had. “I didn’t hurt you—or the bairn, did I?”
“Of course not,” she assured him. “You were perfect. God, I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.”
Safe in Angus’s arms, Win felt like she could breathe for the first time in months. Angus made her strong. She didn’t want there to be any secrets between them ever again.
But there were secrets. Or at least omissions.
She needed to remedy that.
“I need to explain why I really left Base Camp,” she said softly.
Angus stiffened. “Really left? I thought it was because you thought your mom was sick.”
“I did, but there’s more to it than that. A reason why the idea of her illness affected me so much.”
He pushed up on one elbow to get a better look at her face. “I think anyone would be affected if their mother was ill, lass.”
“Would you leave Base Camp if your mom was sick? Your biological mom?”
Angus tried to pull away from her, but Win followed him, turning onto her side as he settled on his back and stared at the ceiling.
“My mom left me.”
“My mom didn’t. That’s the thing; when I really, really needed her, Angus, she came for me, and she moved heaven and earth.” Win traced
