‘I want you to. Oh, Alex, me love, I do.’

With a sudden movement that took her by surprise, Alex sat up. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. It was the heat of the moment. Forgive me. I love you too much to—’

‘Shush.’ Sitting up, Daisy put her finger on his lips. ‘Who knaws how long we have, Alex. Make me your lass – truly yours. Let’s make a memory that will last us forever, in case the unthinkable happens to either of us.’

There were no more protests, only a deep loving – a giving and a taking – as Alex gently made Daisy his. The pain she’d expected on him first entering her didn’t happen. She didn’t understand why, and Alex didn’t question it, but only, to her intense pleasure, deepened his thrusts into her, once he knew she was ready, loving her with his hands, his mouth and his whole being until they were truly one, calling out in ecstasy their complete and utter joy.

Lying in his arms afterwards, she allowed her body to cry out its release and the pent-up anguish she was feeling about the world and her loved ones. Alex allowed her time, soothing her, telling her of his love and kissing her chestnut curls, which tumbled around her face.

Part of Daisy worried that he might be questioning whether he was the first man she’d made love to, but he showed no signs of worrying. She just wished she could get the nagging worry out of her head that he might think it at some time, for he had truly been her first. Suddenly she decided she had to broach the subject.

‘I expected it to hurt me the first time. Ta, me love, for being so gentle.’

‘Oh, darling, I thought you were worrying about something. Hasn’t your training taught you that most women don’t have an intact hymen by the time they are twenty-five? And not because they are not virgins, but because it has been broken by some activity or other – something as simple as riding a bike or a horse can do it. I never doubted you for a moment. In the short time I’ve known you, your honesty is only one of the many things I love about you. You say it as it is: take you or leave you. I know where I am with you, my darling.’

They laughed together at this. ‘Well, I’m telling you this now: you are all I ever want in a man, and you made me feel the best I’ve ever felt in me life just now.’

They held each other in silence for a moment.

When Alex turned his head and whispered, ‘We will better that, my darling, in a lifetime of making love,’ Daisy snuggled into him and wanted to remember this moment forever.