“Very well then, since you forbid it, I should tell you that I plan to make a full recovery. The wound is very painful and ’tis the truth I feel like retching every time I move wrong, but I plan to be up and around in a week’s time, mark my words.”

He chuckled at the arrogant words and then hushed her with a gentle kiss to her mouth.

“I love you, Keeley McCabe. You are truly a McCabe now. We are married in the eyes of God and our clansmen. All that is required now is the consummation.”

She groaned. “That part’s going to have to wait awhile.”

He hugged her to him as carefully as he was able and he just held on, absorbing the sheer joy of having her alive, belonging to him, of being able to tell the world he loved her.

“I’ll wait as long as it takes, my love. We have the rest of our lives to consummate our marriage. In fact, I think we should make it a point to consummate it on a daily basis. After you are well, of course.”

She sighed and pressed her cheek to his chest. “I love you, Alaric McCabe. And I’m willing to do a trial run of our consummation next week if you should so desire.”

He laughed and maneuvered so he could capture her lips in a long, delicious kiss. “ ‘So desire’? Lass, there isn’t anything I desire more in this world than a life with you filled with love, laughter, and children.”

She yawned and closed her eyes, and he watched her drift off to sleep against his chest. Surely there was not a more precious sight than her sprawled over his body, and no sweeter knowledge than the fact that she was truly his. For as long as they drew breath.

Dedication

For TJ

Excerpt from Never Love a Highlander

Read on for an exciting preview
of Maya Banks’s next novel

N EVER L OVE A H IGHLANDER

The weather for her first wedding had been a splendor of nature. An unseasonably warm day in January. Quite balmy with nary a breeze to ruffle her carefully arranged hair. It was as if the world stood still to witness the joining of two souls.

A snort rippled from Rionna McDonald’s throat, eliciting a raised eyebrow from her soon-to-be husband.

The weather for her second wedding? Gloomy and dank with a winter storm pushing in from the west. Already a brisk chill had set in and the wind blew in fierce, relentless sheets. As if the world knew just how uncertain she was about the man who stood beside her, ready to recite the vows that would bind him to her forever.

A shiver skirted up her spine despite the fact that they stood in front of the huge fire in the great hall.