And when he caught her, grasping at the billowing skirt of her gown, he tugged harder than he’d meant to and the thin silky fabric ripped. Clear up the back. And she had nothing on beneath it. Only those luscious shapely legs and the round curves of her beautiful behind. The fabric ripped clean to her nape and his thoughts turned instantly primitive and wild.

She glanced back at him, looking shocked, and though he suspected he should assure her he hadn’t meant to do that, he couldn’t seem to manage a word. Her declaration of love coupled with all that naked rosy skin had rendered him witless.

Growling low in his throat, he scooped her into his arms and planted his mouth firmly over hers.

She was stiff at first, but in a few moments she was kissing him back passionately.

“You didn’t have to rip my dress,” she said plaintively when he let her breathe. “I love this one. Nellie worked on it for days.”

“I’m sorry, lass,” he said somberly. “’Twas an accident, lass. Sometimes I forget my strength. I mean to be gentle but it doesn’t come out that way. Can you forgive me?”

She sighed, but nodded and kissed him again, locking her arms behind his neck as he carried her toward the door of their bedchamber.

“You have, without a doubt, Chloe, the most lovely behind I’ve ever seen,” he purred, shifting her in his arms to splay his big palm over the twin curves of it.

“Oh!” She squirmed in his arms. “I tell you I love you and that’s what you say?”

He silenced her with another kiss, and kicked open the bedchamber door.

“And I’d love you even if you didn’t,” he said softly.

She melted in his arms.

“And I think that no man has ever been told he was loved in such a memorable fashion, and I shall always treasure the memory.”

She smiled beatifically. “Really? You don’t think I’m the biggest geek in the world?”

He tossed her to the bed and slipped a dirk from his boot. “I think,” he said silkily, as he gripped the bodice of her ruined gown in his hand and slit it down the front, laying the gown neatly in two halves, “that you are perfect exactly as you are and I wouldn’t change one thing about you.”

He tossed the torn dress from the bed and tugged his shirt over his head.

She watched him with wide eyes, then laughed. “Nell is really going to wonder what happened to my dress.”

“I’m fair certain Nellie will never ask,” he said huskily, as he stretched his body atop hers. “I’ve seen a gown or two of hers in the rag heap.”