“So,” she said, smiling at his startled expression as she snaked one hand around his waist and allowed the other to play over his chest. “You’re a baron with his own castle.”

“That turns you on, does it?” he murmured, running a hand up her outer leg.

Allie shook her head. “Your cleverness does. Castles are drafty old buildings. Besides, it’s probably a pile of rubble now.”

“Our castle is not a pile of rubble,” he assured her as his hand drifted up under his shirt to skim its way up her side.

Allie pulled back to peer at him with surprise. “Our castle?”

“We are life mates,” he said solemnly. “What’s mine is yours . . . Baroness,” he added with a grin.

She stared at him for a moment, enthralled at the idea of having a title, but then frowned and said, “But I have nothing to offer you in return.”

His hand had just reached the underside of her breast, but he withdrew it now to clasp her cheek and assured her, “You have everything. You are everything. You and Liam are far more valuable than the pile of rocks that make our castle. With the two of you there it will finally be a home. Anywhere we live will be a home with the two of you in it, and that is something I have yearned for, for more than a thousand years.”

“Home,” Allie whispered, surprised to find her eyes growing moist. But his words had touched her, and what he offered sounded so lovely. Home. She’d left her childhood home beaten and broken, had bought a town house, but it had never really felt like home. Although it had got close with Stella and Liam there to fill it with laughter and caring. But then Stella had died and she’d been forced to flee to save Liam.

Allie had spent the last four years dragging Liam from one temporary hidey-hole to another, always running, desperate to evade Abaddon. Now Magnus was offering her a home again. Himself. Because home wasn’t a pile of bricks or boulders, it was the people in it, and she was beginning to believe this marriage had not been a mistake. That she could make a home and a life with Magnus. One she wouldn’t have to flee.

Magnus kissed her nose, drawing her attention from her thoughts. Once she met his gaze, he smiled softly and said, “I know you do not love me. I know you agreed to be my life mate to keep Liam. But I want you to know that I love you. No,” he said firmly when she started to protest. “You no doubt think that is impossible, that it is too soon. But I know you, Allie. I know your whole life. I love you for your rebelliousness in making friends you weren’t supposed to, the strength you showed when, rather than crumble under the loss of your sister and mother, you walked away from the only home you had ever known. The determination you showed in getting through school and starting your own business. The kindness and friendship you offered to a lonely frightened woman despite the fact that she was what you thought of as a vampire. The love and courage you displayed keeping her child safe these last four years and taking him into your heart as your own son.”