Sweet Savage Eden (52 page)

“I do,” she vowed. “Oh, Jamie, please don’t send me away.”

“I never wanted to send you away. I only wanted to give you the freedom you wanted. Jassy!” He held her close, and his voice was filled with passion. “I did not marry you to survive this place, or to have a woman who could be dragged to a wilderness. I married you because of the spirit and fervor and passion in your soul, in your eyes. I married you to touch those things, and when I did touch them, I was not appeased but floundering ever
further beneath your spell. Jassy, I fell in love with you so long ago—”

“I could not tell!” she interrupted in awe and reproach, and he laughed.

“Well, you were pining after Robert Maxwell. I am a proud man.”

“I had not noticed!” Jassy laughed, but then she sobered and reached out, brushing the hair from his forehead. “Oh, Jamie, I was so wrong! It was you all along, wasn’t it? You paid for my mother’s coffin, not Robert.”

He held silent, and she smiled. She would never tell him of Robert’s lack of valor on the day of the massacre. It wasn’t necessary. The truth was. “I fell out of love with Robert long, long ago, milord.”

“How so?”

“He could not fill my heart or mind once you had set your claim upon me. Never, from the very beginning, milord, have I managed to forget you, as you promised me that I would not. And when you turned from me, I did not think that I would be able to bear it.”

He groaned, burying his face against her throat. “I thought that you despised me still, and I could not love you and force you to remain any longer.”

“Oh, Jamie! Could you not tell! When you touched me and I fell so swiftly to your command …”

“We are both proud and stubborn. It almost cost us so much. Oh, Jassy, I knew that I had your passion. I wanted your love.”

“You have it all, all of me, Lord Cameron.”

The trees rustled above them, a soft breeze moving over the land. He kissed her again, slowly and deeply, and the fires of spring came alight within them both, radiant and as beautiful as the burst of the sun, for their whispers were of love.

Jamie looked up and saw where they lay, in the dirt, in the road. He rose and swept her into his arms, carrying her into the brush, into the verdant leaves. He laid her down upon a field of green earth beneath the swaying branches of an oak, and he spread her hair against the earth. Then he laid himself against her, and he made
love to her as he never had before, for her whispers of love filled his senses to bursting, and his passionate vows and promises urged her on to ever greater heights. And when it was over, they both lay in the wilderness, watching the canopy of the trees, naked and content in the green darkness of the forest.

He whispered again and again that he loved her. And she responded with awe, touching his cheek, adoring him.

At last he helped her dress, and they journeyed onward again. It was a long trip home but a good one for them both. During all of the journey they touched each other, talked of their pasts, and spoke of the future.

At last they came to the Carlyle Hundred, and when they were spotted, the people came milling out to greet them, waving excitedly. Jassy leaned back against her husband, trembling.

“Jamie, we are home.”

“Home, love, is that burned-out shell.”

She twisted to meet his cobalt stare, darkened with amusement and a curious tenderness. “The foundation is good. And upon that foundation we can build.”

“We can build, my love. In this wilderness we shall build.”

He smiled and laced his fingers with hers, and they both knew that the foundation was not within the bricks in the ground but within their own hearts.

Jamie urged Windwalker forward at a greater pace, and then the horse sped into an easy gallop. Home lay before them, and their infant son, and the sweet golden promise of tomorrow.