He took her face in his hands, and held her head close to his as he looked in her eyes. “I want you to admit that you want me as much as I want you. And no matter what happens in the days ahead, I want you to remember this night, and me.”

With ruthless determination he made sure that she did. He used his hands and mouth to bring her to delirium again. She could not move, and so her arousal just built and built. Between her cries she showered kisses on him, tasting his skin, inhaling his scent, filling her memories.

Finally the last shred of control left her, and she whispered the desperate request he sought. She did not have to plead or beg, she merely asked for what she wanted. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to do.

He lifted her hips and brought her closer. As he filled her he claimed her with a kiss that smothered their mutual groans. Wrapping her in a binding embrace, he led her toward the heaven that waited.

Day came too soon. Its bright light poked through the tiny gaps between the timbers, heralding a clear day. Marcus woke and cursed the evidence of fair weather. No excuse to stay here, then. He had hoped to hold off the reckoning, and the decisions this woman in his arms would inevitably make.

Nesta slept on. The fire was down to embers, but they were cozy beneath the fur mantle, their entwined bodies making enough heat. Saturated with a contentment he had rarely known in his life, he watched her peaceful expression, so lovely in the leaking light of dawn, and counted the dark lashes brushing her skin.

With Genith gone, she would petition to leave Anglesmore. He already knew the arguments that she would make. She would even use this night, and the danger from the King, as a reason, even though the biggest danger in what had happened here had nothing to do with Edward. It was that other risk that would really compel her to leave. She would want to flee the bond discovered in this lodge.

He could not let her go, of course. Not only because of the pleasure, and the chance to know it again. Not just because of the intimacy.

She had indeed been captured by the enemy, and there was much she could tell him that he would want to know. She was up to some mischief, he was sure of it. It involved Genith and Carwyn and those rebels hiding in the hills, and his best chance to discover her plan before she destroyed herself was to keep her nearby.

She turned in her sleep and nestled closer until her face pressed his chest. She appeared so small and feminine that it was tempting to forget the sharp mind that worked inside that pretty head.