Those were the last words he spoke for a long while. He took her tenderly, wildly, possessing her completely, until she wept soft, mindless cries of pleasure, of pleading and surrender … until he shook with the force of his desire and love.

It was beyond lovemaking. The melding of their bodies was like a mating of souls, fiery and desperate and joyous with need. And when her explosive release at last came, everything within him shattered. He gave her his soul, and she took it willingly.

Afterward, when their slow, shuddering gasps were spent, she lay with her cheek pressed over his heart, her hair spilling like a curtain of silver-gold silk over his skin. As their steady heart rhythms mated with their languorous breathing, Sloan marveled at the frightening, exhilarating experience he’d just endured. Making love to Heather always stunned him. Every time he felt as though he lost a part of himself, because he did.

And yet this time was different from all the others. A deep sense of peace flowed in his veins. The kind of peace he’d never expected to find again.

He’d found it in Heather’s arms. She had given him resurrection.

His frozen heart had thawed under her warmth. She’d taught him to love again, banishing the bleakness in his life. She had brought him alive again. He was alive, furiously, wildly alive….

His arms tightened around her reflexively. This was the woman he needed, the woman he loved. She had become his heartbeat.

“God, I love you,” he whispered fiercely.

Raising her head, Heather returned his gaze mistily. Her heart felt recklessly open and unbearably full. She believed Sloan completely. She could feel it, the love in his touch. Could see the desire and need rampant in his face.

“I love you, too.” He was her husband and she loved him utterly; so much she trembled with it.

“For always?” he demanded huskily.

“Yes,” she whispered. “For always.”

His chest tightened with longing, and when she raised her lips to his, need came crashing into him, more immutable than before.

His mouth closed on hers, claiming her irrevocably. His hands clenched in her hair and he kissed her hungrily, a kiss raw with desire and tenderness, fraught with promise. A promise of tomorrow. Of peace and joy. A new start to their marriage.

They would begin their life together again, in passion and love this time, as true husband and wife.

Also available from Rouge Romance:

DEVIL IN MY ARMS

By Samantha Kane

Eleanor Enderby believes she has finally found safety from the tyrant she risked her life to escape. Thought to be dead by society, Eleanor is ready to be reborn as someone new – someone whose life will never again be tied to the fate of one man.