The Bachelor’s Christmas Bride (18 page)

And once he had, he pulled her to him again, kissing her a second time as if he'd been too long away from her lips.

Shannon had no resistance to him and let her hands do as they pleased, pressing to his naked chest, up and over his shoulders to his broad, hard back.

Everything else fell away then, along with Shannon's clothes and those sweatpants that Dag had on. Still kissing her, Dag picked her up and carried her to the bed where they made love with an urgency that said even mere hours of separation had been too much.

An urgency to reclaim what they'd discovered the night before, to stake a new and permanent claim now, with hands that caressed and teased and delighted, with mouths that clung together or broke apart to do amazing things elsewhere, with every inch of their bodies coming together as seamlessly as if one was split apart from the other long ago and had finally been reunited with its mate.

Together they reached an even more profound pinnacle that left Shannon drained and weak and limp in Dag's powerful arms as he rolled them both to their sides, cradling her, brushing her hair away from her face so he could look down into her eyes.

“I love you,” he said then, for the first time.

“I love you, too,” Shannon could answer without the slightest hesitancy. “With all my heart and soul.”

“I want you to know that I won't let our life be small, even if we do live it here. I'll make sure it's a full one,
and that you are always the biggest part of it for me—if that matters.”

It mattered enough to bring moisture to her eyes that she had to blink back.

“We can still go to Beverly Hills, visit your friend, see her school, you know,” he offered then, obviously again thinking of her, putting her ahead of himself.

“I'd like that. I'd like for Dani to meet you. And you to meet Dani.”

“And if you change your mind and want to stay—”

“I won't,” she said without the shadow of a doubt. “I really did fall in love with this place and the people here.”

“Are you just using me to get your house back so you can move to Northbridge?” he joked.

“Yep,” she answered glibly, tightening her muscles around him. “I'm just using you.”

He slipped out of her then and left the bed long enough to retrieve the small package he'd taken from beneath Meg and Logan's tree.

Bringing it back, he kept hold of it until he was lying with Shannon beside him, in his arms again.

Only then did he hand it to her.

“Merry Christmas.”

“You want me to open it now?”

“I do.”

It wasn't easy in that position, but Shannon managed, opening a box that contained a very delicate chain.

“It's for your grandmother's ring,” Dag explained. “You said—”

“That I would get a chain for it and wear it around my neck. And you remembered that?”

“It was part of what I went into town for yesterday.”

She really did love this man….

“Thank you,” Shannon said.

“Thank
you
.”

“For?”

“For my Christmas gift.”

“I haven't given it to you yet,” she reminded, thinking of the cashmere sweater that was still under Meg and Logan's tree since that was where gift-opening was slated to occur in the morning.

“You gave me my gift,” Dag insisted, taking the box that held the necklace and setting it on the nightstand. “I told you it was you I wanted.”

“Oh,
that
Christmas gift,” Shannon said. “I guess you're welcome, then.”

“You don't ever have to give me anything else,” he whispered in a husky voice. “Well, except maybe a couple of kids?”

“I can't promise them for Christmas, but I'll see what I can do.”

He chuckled just a little, but Shannon saw his eyes drift closed as if they were too heavy to keep open, and she could feel him relaxing, falling asleep.

“I know—you need a nap,” she said, guessing what he was about to tell her.

“Somebody kept me up almost the whole night last night.”

“And you didn't get much sleep, either…”

He laughed, but he really was fading, and Shannon opted for giving in to her own fatigue.

She settled her head on his bare chest and closed her eyes, too, snuggling into Dag, knowing from the previous night that she would only nap for an hour or so before he would wake her with feathery kisses and everything would start again.

And just the prospect of that made her smile against him and marvel at how very, very much she loved him.

So much that she knew without question that living whatever kind of life, whatever size of life they ended up living, would be perfect as long as they were together.

Because now that her feelings for him were unbound, they were boundless, and that was what really mattered—not the life she led or where she led it, but who she got to share it with.

Just the way it had been for her parents.

Just the way she'd always wanted for herself.

And just what she'd found with Dag.