Faith heard the long case clock in the entryway strike the hour, its dull chimes echoing through the silent house. Midnight. The second one she’d spent here. Fighting back an exhausted yawn, she rose from the chair and stretched out her cramped legs and stiff back.
She looked down at the woman in the bed. Mary was better than when they’d arrived last night, but she was still in the throes of illness. After continually covering her in wet sheets, and once going so far as to cover her in a thin layer of ice when Mama feared the worst just before dawn, her temperature had finally eased.
By sunset, her condition had improved enough that Faith insisted Mama go the manor house so that she could have a good night’s rest in comfort and send Papa a message that they were going to be away longer than expected. Even in her fatigue, though, Mama had initially refused. It was only when Faith insisted that she check on Jeremy and the others at the house that Mama finally relented, promising to return first thing in the morning. Then Faith sent Polly to bed in the room across the hall to catch her own much-needed sleep and sat down for a long night’s vigil.
Yet Mary was still insensible, never becoming completely lucid, and in her feverish confusion, she’d mumbled Stephen’s name and asked for her son. Whenever she did, Faith held her hand and spoke to her softly, reassuring her that Jeremy was safe and that Stephen was on his way.
“Daniel...” Mary murmured across parched lips. “Daniel...”
Not knowing what to say to bring her comfort, Faith silently squeezed her hand, holding it until Mary fell back to sleep.
That name, spoken with so much grief and utter desolation even in her delirium, sent an icy chill spiraling down Faith’s spine. To have so desperately loved him, yet every day seeing his son and being reminded of the love she’d lost...Faith didn’t think she could have borne it.
But wasn’t that exactly what was happening with her and Stephen, losing the love and future she could have had with him? Except that Stephen hadn’t been ripped away from her; she’d pushed him away herself. And for what—to save her heart from being broken again? Yet every hour that ticked past brought with it an ache of loss so intense that she was certain her heart had once more shattered, this time at her own cowardly hands.
Oh, she was a fool! One who was desperately trying to convince herself that she’d made the right decision in rejecting his proposal. Except that she wasn’t certain at all anymore. Being here at Elmhurst Park, seeing with her own eyes the changes he’d made in his life, and hearing from Polly story after story about the good man he’d become, it all made her doubt her conviction that he was still the same scoundrel he’d always been.
Men could change, couldn’t they? Papa said they did, and that war changed them most of all. Could Stephen have changed enough to no longer be the man who had so deeply wounded her before? No longer a heartless rake who bedded every willing woman he came across but now a man who would give his heart and body only to her?
Unable to sit still another moment, she rose to her feet and paced the room. She was exhausted— No, she was past exhaustion, unable to rest even while Mary slept. Doing her best to fight down both the physical fatigue and the emotions clawing at her insides, she decided to keep herself busy by making up another mug of red vapor, carefully measuring the ingredients as Mama had shown her—
The clamor of heavy footsteps broke the silence.
“Mary!” Stephen’s voice boomed through the house as he raced up the stairs and down the hall.
The cup fell from her hand and spilled onto the floor as Faith’s heart leapt into her throat.
He stopped in the doorway, and his eyes landed on the woman’s limp figure in the bed for only a moment before darting to Faith. Bewilderment clouded his face to find her there, then vanished beneath an expression of deep worry as he slowly entered the room. Crossing stiffly to the bed, he sat on the wooden chair and reached for Mary’s hand. With a frown, he touched her cheek, and Faith was certain he could feel the fever that still gripped her.
“Mary...Mary, it’s Stephen,” he said gently. He moved his hand to her forehead and frowned with deep concern. “I’m here. Can you hear me? I’m going to take care of you, I promise. Mary?”
There was no response from her. He blew out a deep breath and released her hand to sit back in the chair.
Then he turned in the chair, lifting his exhausted gaze to Faith. “How is she?” His eyes were grim. “The truth.”
“Better,” Faith answered, remaining on the far side of the room when what she wanted to do was rush into his arms and beg his forgiveness. “She’s resting more quietly now, but the fever hasn’t yet broken.”
He nodded with bleak understanding. “Is the physician here?”
“No.” She picked up the mug, then set it aside and nervously wiped her hands on a towel. “But Mama’s been attending her since last night.”
“Where’s Jeremy?” Dread laced his voice. “Is he ill, too?”
Her chest tightened at his concern for the boy. If he could care this much about a child who wasn’t even his...“He’s well.” She twisted her hands in the towel to keep from reaching for him. “He’s at the manor house with Mama.”
His shoulders drooped with relief, and he rubbed at his forehead. “I came straight here as soon as I received the message. I didn’t stop at the house.” Fatigue showed in every inch of him as he heaved out a tired breath. “I was afraid that I might have already been too late.”
“I know,” she said softly, hot tears blurring her eyes at his compassion. How could she have ever doubted him? “But you’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
She looked away so he couldn’t see the guilty self-recrimination playing across her face. She’d been such a goose! She knew now how much he’d changed, had seen it with her own eyes in what he’d done with the estate...in the weariness and worry she saw in him now for Mary and her son. He wasn’t that same boy who had once shattered her heart.
He was now the man she loved and always would.
And she’d ruined it all by refusing him. She wouldn’t blame him if he hated her for it.
“But that’s not all.” he said quietly. He stood and walked slowly toward her, then rested his palm against her cheek and lifted her face until she looked at him. “Why are you here?”
She swallowed hard and admitted in a whisper, “Because I know how important she is to you.”
He murmured, “So are you.”
Beneath the exhaustion of the past two days and her own foolishness of the past four years, she was unable to stop a tear from falling down her cheek.
“I care about you, Faith. I would never do anything to hurt you.” His face filled with concern for her, and he gently wiped away the tear with his thumb. “Please believe that.”
She couldn’t hold back the flood of tears at his tender words. “I’m so sorry, Stephen,” she choked out between sobs, unable to keep down the swelling emotions inside her chest a moment longer. “I’m so sorry for not believing you...for doubting you...”
He stared at her, saying nothing. The unbearable silence was broken only by the merciless pounding of her heart, each beat a pained pang of dread and loss.
“If you can find it in your heart, please forgive me.” She pressed her hand against her chest, as if she could physically tamp down the rising fear that she’d lost him before he was ever truly hers. She whispered so softly that the words were barely more than a breath, “If you care about me at all...”
“I do, more than you know.” He cupped her face in his hands and lowered his head to touch his lips tenderly to hers. “But I can’t forgive you when—”
“Miss! I heard a noise!” Polly ran into the room, and Stephen straightened immediately.
The young maid stopped short and stared at him. Her face blossomed into a bright smile of relief as she lowered into an awkward curtsy.
“Your lordship!” Then she saw Faith and frowned at her tears. “Miss?”
Faith pulled back from him. As she turned away, she swiped at her tears and saw Stephen’s concern for her darken his face. But he hadn’t forgiven her, and once more her heart was breaking.
“Polly,” Stephen acknowledged with a nod at the young maid. “Thank you for being here.”
“Good to have yer lordship returned, sir.” Polly hurried forward to the bedside to check on Mary. “We’ve been our wits’ ends. Dr. Howston tended to her yesterday morning. I was watchin’ her an’ Mrs. Bailey was keepin’ Jeremy, when Lady Faith an’ Her Grace arrived. Saved her life, they did.”
At the compliment, Faith reached within herself to somehow keep her dignity when what she wanted to do was tuck herself into a little ball until the pain faded. Until she could sort through all the emotions churning inside her and somehow salvage the pieces of her heart.
“What do we do next, miss?” Polly looked at her expectantly, as if she held all of life’s answers in the palm of her hand. Oh, the furthest thing from the truth!
She shook her head, her vision blurring with hot tears. “I can’t...I just can’t...” She swallowed hard, choking back the roiling knot of emotions rising to the surface and the sheer exhaustion sweeping over her. “Please tend to Mrs. Halstead,” she forced out the pleading order around the suffocating knot in her throat. “I need air. I need to breathe and—”
She fled from the room, plunging herself into the dark hall and hurrying through the silent shadows. Her breath came hard and fast and shallow, her heart beating frantically. She had no idea where she was going, only that she needed to flee and put as much distance between herself and Stephen as possible.
Reaching the end of the hall, she flung open the door of a guestroom and ran inside. Her hands grabbed for the back of a chair, and she clung to it, as if it were the only thing in the world keeping her from falling away. She’d been such a fool! And now everything between them was irreparably destroyed.
“Faith?” he whispered, his deep voice raspy with concern.
She tensed as Stephen stepped into the room with her, then shut the door behind him, locking them together in the shadows.
Oh, why wouldn’t he simply leave her be? Didn’t he realize how torturous it was for her to be in the same room with him, knowing that she’d ruined everything between them? She hadn’t trusted him, had been unwilling to believe that he’d changed—
Now that she knew the truth, it was too late.
“Please leave,” she whispered, unable to find her voice beneath the pain pulsing inside her and the realization of all she’d lost.
“I won’t do that,” he assured her as he forward. “You’re upset, and I care too much about you to let you cry alone.”
He stopped behind her, not touching yet close enough that she could feel the heat of his body warming hers.
“You care about me?” she whispered, the breathless words shattering the darkness. She didn’t dare hope...
“Very much.”
She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears. “But you said you can’t...can’t forgive me...”
“Because there’s nothing to forgive.”
A gasp tore from her as she turned to face him. She couldn’t believe— “You don’t...hate me? After the way I refused you, after all those horrible things I said...”
“I could never hate you, Faith.” He slipped his arms around her and pulled her against him, holding her close. “I know how hard my return has been for you.” He stroked his hands in small, reassuring circles across her back. “How much I hurt you before, how confused I’m making you now...I’m the one who needs to be forgiven.”
A soft sob fell from her lips. Her heart was too full to find any words to express how she felt, how much she loved him. All she could do was tighten her hold around his waist to keep him close. Always.
“I want a life with you, a home, and children.” He nuzzled his cheek against her hair, and the affection in that little caress made her tremble. “I promise you that I will be the husband you deserve and that I will be faithful in every way.”
Lifting her head from his chest, she rose up on her tip-toes to brush her lips against his. He closed his eyes against the tenderness of her kiss.
“Faith,” he rasped out, “my darling...I’ve made a mess of things...you, Mary, Jeremy...Daniel.”
“It isn’t your fault,” she whispered against his lips, each word a breath of absolution for both of them. “No one’s to blame, certainly not you.”
How could the past four years have been anyone’s fault? Mama was right. What power did a person truly have over his or her heart? Fools all, to think that emotions could ever be controlled. How well she knew that truth herself! Because if she could have controlled her heart, she never would have fallen in love with Stephen all those years ago, and she wouldn’t have tumbled back into love with him once he returned.
But thank God she had.
“I never meant to hurt you,” he confessed as he rained tender kisses against her cheek, her jaw, her lips—each one filled with regret, each one leaving her desperate to erase his pain. “I only wanted to make you happy.”
With a nervous stutter of her heart, yet undeniably certain of the love she felt for him, she cupped his face in her hands. “Then make me happy,” she whispered, touching her lips to his. “Make love to me.”
*****
Stephen stared down at her, his heart pounding and his stomach suddenly tying itself into knots. “I do, you know,” he murmured as he pulled the pins from her hair.
Her eyes closed as he combed his trembling fingers through her tresses, spreading the soft waves down her back in a silky curtain. “Do what?”
“Love you,” he whispered breathlessly.
Her eyes flew open. Stunned, she gazed up at him with parted lips, as if she couldn’t believe he’d said it, and that disbelief gnawed at him.
He’d given her so little reason to trust him over the years. But he resolved to prove to her exactly how much he’d changed, how much he needed her to heal his soul. And most of all, how much he loved her. Starting tonight.
“Four years ago, I took you for granted,” he continued, “and I was a damned fool not to recognize how much you meant to me or all I’d lost by leaving. Your friendship.” He placed a soft kiss against her cheek. “Your caring.” Another kiss to the tip of her nose. “Your brilliance and tenderness.” Two kisses on her eyelids, and his heart nearly shattered when he tasted the salt tears there. “Your love.”
He gently caressed his mouth back and forth across hers. She sighed beneath his kiss, and he knew then that she was finally his. His heart soared with joy.
“When Daniel died and Mary lost her chance at a future with him,” he murmured, staring down into her eyes, “I realized how precious life is. And I swore to myself that I’d make everything right. That I’d take care of Mary and protect Daniel’s son and his reputation, that I’d find a way to convince you that I’d changed. That I wasn’t the same boy I’d been before but a man worthy of you.” Nervous uncertainty flared inside him as he searched her face in the shadows. She hadn’t yet said...“Do you think you could find it in your heart to love me, Faith?”
“I do love you,” she whispered, each word a trembling admission. “I’ve always loved you.”
With a laugh of happiness, he lifted her into his arms and spun her in a circle, then captured her mouth in a kiss that left both of them gasping for breath.
Beneath her eager lips, his laughter turned into a groan of desire. Dear God, how long he’d waited for this, to hear those words fall from her lips and feel the softness of her in his arms, freely giving both the physical love of her body and the healing love of her soul. Faith clung to him, her arms wrapped so tightly around his shoulders that she seemed unwilling to ever let go. Which was perfectly fine with him.
He carried her across the room to the bed. As he laid her down gently on the mattress, he leaned over to suck at her bottom lip and drew a moaning sigh of pleasure from her that left him shaking so hard that his fingers fumbled to unfasten the row of tiny buttons on her bodice. There was no turning back now. There was only going forward into the future. Together.
He peeled the dress away, then relished in slowly removing each undergarment. As one layer after another dropped away and bared stretches of smooth flesh, he followed along in their wake with his mouth, murmuring continuously against her skin how beautiful she was, how much he loved her...
When only her chemise and stockings remained, he broke a lingering kiss to stand beside the bed and stare down at her. Sweet Lord, she was a vision in the slant of moonlight that fell from the window across the bed. So beautiful, so delicate...so much like an angel that she stole his breath away. She watched him curiously as he removed his clothes and tossed aside the dusty redingote and breeches he’d worn all the way from London, riding straight through to get here, never realizing that Faith would be waiting for him like a wish come true.
He pulled off his boots and dropped them one by one to the floor, followed by his neck cloth and waistcoat. When he pulled his shirt off over his head, baring himself from the waist up and leaving him in only his riding breeches, he heard her catch her breath, and her lips pulled into a soft O of surprise. Her gaze raked over him, and shamelessly, he let her look. She was still innocent, and the thought that she was giving that innocence to him sent his heart racing with both trembling nervousness and selfish pleasure.
Slowly, careful not to make her any more nervous than she already was, he unbuttoned the fall of his breeches and pushed them down and off until he was completely naked. How much could she see in the moonlight and shadows as her gaze traveled over him? He had no idea, but when he crawled back onto the bed with her and stretched his tall body alongside hers, her breath came in shallow pants not from fear but desire.
“You are so beautiful, Faith,” he murmured, trailing his hand over her hip and down her leg. When he hooked his fingers beneath the hem of her chemise and gently tugged it upward, she shivered.
“So are you,” she whispered breathlessly, her nervous misspeak earning her a low chuckle from him.
“I can’t tell you how many times I lay awake in bed and dreamed of being with you.” To ease her nervousness when the hem reached the apex of her thighs, he lowered his head to place a distracting kiss against her throat, rewarding him in turn by the delicious beat of her racing pulse against his lips.
“I wish you hadn’t,” she admitted, her voice a soft ache.
He lifted onto his forearm to stare down into her face, puzzled. “Why not?”
Her eyes lowered to his mouth, not so much because she wanted him to kiss her but to shyly avoid making eye contact. “I’ll never live up to your fantasy.”
“No,” he countered softly, outlining her lips with his fingertip. “You’re so much better than I ever imagined.”
Before she could argue, he kissed her, this time drinking in her sweetness and stirring up the desire already flaming inside her. When he lifted the chemise the rest of the way up her body and cast it away to the floor, leaving her naked, there was no nervousness between them, no awkwardness. She didn’t try to cover herself, not even when he gazed down at her in the moonlight.
“So beautiful,” he repeated in an incredulous murmur and drifted his hand over her body, fluttering lightly over her breasts and all the way down to the soft curls guarding her womanhood. “An angel.”
He placed a tender kiss on her nipple, then another and another, until it puckered into a hard point. Unable to resist, he closed his lips around it and took a gentle suck.
“Stephen!” she gasped, her hands going to his head.
A low chuckle rose in his throat at her reaction, and he shamelessly took another suck, this time drawing her deeper into his mouth. She moaned and arched her back beneath him, thrusting her breasts toward him.
“So sweet,” he mumbled against her breast, her fingers running through the hair at his nape in soft encouragement.
As he suckled his fill of her, his hand caressed her other breast and massaged her fullness beneath his palm. He teased her nipple into a hard point to match the first, then slid his mouth over to claim the same delicious taste of it. She was perfect, warm and soft, so incredibly sweet, and everything about her soothed his pained soul. He’d suspected that she’d be able to heal him the way nothing else could, and as he felt the happiness swell in his chest, he knew he’d been correct. Only Faith, only this sweet joining of bodies and souls with her.
Each plundering kiss against her mouth and each caress of his hands across her breasts made it impossible for her to lie still beneath him. She whimpered softly and shifted her hips against the mattress, and he nearly groaned at the arousal blossoming inside her, so unknown to her that she didn’t know how to ask for what her body wanted.
But he knew, and he would happily give her what she craved. He slipped his hand down through the triangle of curls, his fingers sliding into the damp heat of her folds beneath. He stroked against her—
“Stephen,” she moaned against his mouth, then tossed all inhibition aside by spreading her thighs and latching onto his tongue with her lips, suckling as sweetly at him as he had at her breasts. He hardened instantly, and all of him ached with a desperate longing to claim her as his.
His Faith. Now and always.
As his fingers caressed against her, arousal flamed inside him with each daring suck of her lips and with each plunge of her tongue inside his mouth to share the wonderful intimacy of their kiss. The intoxicating sounds of her soft mewings and whimpers of need swirled through him and made him long to hear her moan with pleasure and cry out with passion.
Breaking the kiss, he shifted away just far enough to gaze down at her and watch the emotions flittering across her face as he slipped two fingers inside her silky warmth.
“Oh!” She tensed for a moment, then relaxed. She let out a long sigh as he continued to caress inside her in smooth, steady strokes. “Oh my...”
He placed a kiss at her temple. “Does that feel good?”
“Oh heavens...yes...very much,” she answered between pants.
“Very much,” he repeated with a smile as he watched her close her eyes against the mounting ache growing inside her, so strongly that he could feel it pulsing against his fingers as he swirled them inside her.
His thumb delved down into her folds to find the tiny nub buried there. He rubbed it lightly, and she responded with a shiver, her sex clenching tight around his fingers and demanding to be brought to release. So tight and warm and slippery...He couldn’t believe how much she trusted him, making herself open and vulnerable to him like this. Just as he couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. Or how very much he loved her.
“Faith,” he whispered and touched her most sensitive spot again, this time pressing down hard enough that a low moan tore from her. Her arms wrapped around his neck to keep him close, and her thighs quivered. “Darling Faith.”
He rubbed her again, and a wave of pleasure swept through her in a shuddering release. Her body clenched around his, then she went limp beneath him on the mattress, her lips parting and panting to recapture the breath he’d stolen.
The expression of pure joy on her face nearly undid him. He whispered chokingly around the knot in his throat, “I love you, my darling.”
Lifting onto his forearms, he settled himself into the cradle of her spread thighs. All of him shook with emotion and need as he positioned the head of his erection against her, notching himself there as he paused to enjoy another lingering kiss at her heated lips. He would only have this moment once, this first joining with her, and he wanted to savor it, to be able to remember it always.
He whispered, “My Faith...my angel...” My life.
With a sigh of longing against her mouth, he lowered his hips and sank inside her.
Faith closed her eyes and held her breath as his warm, hard body so slowly, so lovingly filled hers. She expanded to take him in, her already sensitized womanhood tingling achingly with each patient plunge and retreat. Each caressing stroke of his body went slightly deeper than before, and with each, he placed a reassuring kiss on her lips. Tears gathered at her lashes at the unbelievable tenderness in him. She’d never imagined that being with a man could be like this—
No, it was only because of Stephen. No other man could have made her feel as beautiful and wanted as he did, so feminine and desirable...so loved.
He stilled and held himself poised over her. With his eyes squeezed closed, he whispered her name as he lowered his mouth to cover hers. Then he thrust his hips forward and plunged fully inside her.
She gasped at the sharp pinch inside her, and her body tensed around him at the fleeting pain.
But when Stephen began to move his hips against hers in slow, steady strokes, the discomfort faded, replaced by a tingling ache that grew more and more demanding. The same tingling ache which had engulfed her when he’d caressed her with his fingers, and oh how wonderful that had been! If he could do that to her with just his hand, to think what he could do to her with his body—
Heaven. She rolled back her head and arched herself beneath him.
A growling sound of pleasure tore from his throat. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and began to thrust deep and hard. The same engulfing tension as before sped through her, but this time it was so much more intense than before. It tightened every muscle in her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She rose up against him to meet every thrust, craving more, needing more. The throbbing ache inside her swelled like the tightening of a coiled spring—
She broke with a cry. Pleasure rushed through her in a wave. The world around her vanished, until all she knew was the exquisite release pulsing through her and the joy of having his body enveloping hers. When her pulse slowed and the deafening rush of blood pounding in her ears subsided, she felt his lips at her ear whispering over and over how much he loved her.
She could do nothing more than cling to him as he continued to stroke into her, her arms wrapped around his neck and her ankles locked together at the small of his back. As his tempo increased, so did the intensity of their joining, and each thrust now came as a jerky, grinding drive of his hips against hers.
With a low groan, he plunged deep inside her and held himself there for a heartbeat, then with a shudder poured himself inside her. At this new, wholly wonderful sensation of his life’s essence flowing into her, a pulse of joy swept through her, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
He rested his forehead against her bare shoulder as he struggled to regain his breath, trembling and covered with perspiration. When he recovered, he placed a tender kiss on her lips. His eyes glistened in the moonlight as they stared down into hers, their bodies still joined below, and their hearts beating fiercely into each other’s chest.
“I love you, Faith,” he whispered, his mouth so close to hers that she shivered at each warm breath that stirred across her lips. “I’m going to prove to you that I deserve your love, that I will always keep you safe.” He kissed her. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you happy.”
She blinked away tears of joy and breathed, “You already have.”
He kissed her, softly and tenderly, then shifted his weight off her to lie beside her on the bed. She snuggled into his arms, never wanting to leave their warm embrace. When he pulled the coverlet over them, to keep away the chill of the night and tuck them together, she rested her palm against his chest and reveled in the strength of his heart beating beneath her fingertips.
Fate had given them a second chance at love, and the future they would create together would be one of happiness, home, and family.
Family. Her belly tightened. She knew how children were created— “We didn’t...take precautions,” she whispered, embarrassment heating her cheeks.
He grinned at her. “We certainly did not.”
The faint warmth flared into a full-out burning blush. She rested her cheek against his chest to hide her face, afraid he might be able to see her reaction even in the moonlight and know how happy the thought made her that she might have gotten with his child.
“So I guess you’ll have to make an honest man of me and marry me, or my reputation will be ruined,” he teased with mock solemnity. “I’ll never be able to wear white gowns and be presented at court now.”
She swatted gently at his shoulder, but he caught her hand and raised it to his lips. He placed a kiss against her palm, then set about sucking on each of her fingertips until she trembled. All the teasing between them vanished.
“You will marry me, Faith,” he assured her as his lips moved from finger to finger, stirring a new ache between her legs and leaving her to wonder how long they had to wait before they could make love again. “You will be my wife, my marchioness, and the mother of my children.” He trailed his mouth down her inner wrist. “And I will always be your dutiful husband. In.” He placed a kiss on her forearm. “Every.” Another kiss in the crook of her elbow. “Way.”
With a sigh of happiness, she rested her cheek against his chest. “In every way,” she repeated. A happy smile played at her lips as she whispered, “My husband.”
Nervous butterflies danced in her belly when she thought of it. And what they’d just done. It had been absolutely wonderful! Now she knew why her older sisters gazed on their husbands in that dreamy way they did, why her parents insisted that she and her siblings find love matches. Oh, love was divine!
Her heart felt so full that she wondered how it didn’t burst. She’d never been happier in her life as she was at that moment, knowing that Stephen loved her. That they would marry and spend the rest of their lives together. Simply heaven. They would have to be careful—they weren’t married yet, and God help him if either of her parents caught them together. Again. But for this moment, he was completely hers.
Stephen Crenshaw was finally hers.
It wasn’t the way she would have ever imagined a romance between them playing out, but love had blossomed after all.
They had so much to discuss, not least of which was asking Papa’s permission to marry her. Formally this time, the way the duke expected of him. But that could all wait. Right now, she cared about nothing more than simply being with him.
She rested her cheek against his chest, closed her eyes, and drank in the delicious pleasure of being in his arms. Within his embrace, comforted by the lullaby of his heartbeat, Faith slipped into peaceful sleep.