He bent to brush a soft kiss on her lips. “No. With a head as hard as mine, bullets merely bounce off.”

She let her hand linger at the side of his face. “What happened when you spoke to Colonel Fenwick? Did he try to shoot you, too?”

Christopher shook his head. “Only my friends do that.”

Beatrix smiled slightly, then sobered. “Lieutenant Bennett isn’t mad, you know. He’ll be well again, with time and rest.”

“I hope so.”

Her blue eyes searched his. “You blame yourself, don’t you?”

He nodded. “I made the best decision I could at the time. But knowing that doesn’t make the consequences any easier to bear.”

Beatrix was momentarily still, appearing to consider something. Pulling away from him, she went to the dressing table. “I have something for you.” Busily she rummaged through the small drawer in the front of the table, and extracted a folded piece of paper. “It’s a letter.”

He gave her a warm, quizzical glance. “From you?”

Beatrix shook her head. “From John.” She brought it to him. “He wrote it before he died. Audrey was reluctant to give it to you. But I think it’s time that you read it.”

Christopher made no move to take it, only reached out and pulled her close. Picking up a handful of her flowing brown hair, he rubbed it gently against his cheek. “Read it to me.”

Together they went to the bed and sat on the mattress. Christopher kept his gaze on Beatrix’s profile as she unfolded the letter and began to read.

Dear Christopher,

It seems I have less time than I had hoped for. I confess I find myself surprised by how short this life has been. As I draw back to view it, I see that I spent too much time dwelling on the wrong things, and not enough on what mattered. But I also see that I have been blessed far beyond other men. I needn’t ask you to look after Audrey and Mother. I know that you will do so to the extent that they will allow.

If you are reading this, it means you have returned from the war and are facing responsibilities that you have never been prepared for. Let me offer a few words of counsel. I have watched you for your entire life . . . your restless nature, your lack of satisfaction in anything. You put the people you love on pedestals, and are inevitably disappointed by them. And you do the same to yourself. My dear brother, you are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.

Forgive me for not being able to survive . . . and forgive yourself for surviving.

This is the life you were meant to have. Not a single day should be squandered.

John

Christopher was silent for a long time, his chest tight. It sounded like his brother . . . that loving, slightly lecturing tone. “How I miss him,” he whispered. “He knew me well.”

“He knew you as you were,” Beatrix said. “But I think you’ve changed. You don’t expect perfection now. How else could you explain your attraction to me?”

Christopher gently took her face in his hands. “You are my idea of perfection, Beatrix Heloise.”

She leaned forward until their noses touched. “Have you forgiven yourself?” she asked softly. “For surviving?”

“I’m trying to.” The proximity of her warm, scantily clad body was too much for him to resist. He slid his hand behind her neck, and kissed her throat. A little shiver chased over her skin. He undressed her carefully, fighting to contain a need that threatened to rage out of control. He kept every movement gentle, light, while his body ached with the violent desire to possess her. His hands swept over her, mapping the physical contours of what words had already expressed. Making love, creating it, letting sensation flow over both of them. Emotion became movement. Movement became pleasure.

He let his tongue explore her mouth at the same time he entered her, his hands clutched in the pouring dark silk of her hair. She tried to move, but he held her still, feeding more pleasure into her, and more, until her every breath was a moan, and she trembled without stopping.

Beatrix dug her heels into the bedclothes, her fingertips digging into his back. He relished the little crescents of pain, loving the dazed, lost look on her face. The rhythms of her body gathered in one impetus, a delicate watercolor flush spreading across her fine skin. But he didn’t want it to end yet, despite his own ravening hunger. With agonized effort, he forced himself to hold still inside her.

She cried out, her h*ps lifting against his weight. “Christopher, please—”

“Shhh . . .” He pressed her down, kissed her neck, worked slowly to her br**sts. He pulled her nipple into his mouth, caressing her with his teeth and tongue, leaving a residue of damp heat. Small hungering sounds came from her throat, and her inner muscles clasped him in a helpless rhythm. He began to follow the tender pattern, pressing forward, letting her clasp him on each withdrawal stroke. “Look at me,” he whispered, and her lashes lifted to reveal the depths of her soul.

Cupping a hand beneath her head, he fused his lips to hers, while he entered her more deeply than ever before. She took him, wrapping her arms and legs around him, holding him with her entire body. He let the rhythm roughen, quicken, his lovemaking turning wild and unrestrained as he rode the fast, relentless rhythm of her hips. Arching upward, she convulsed violently, her flesh gripping him in tight, wet ripples that drew out a wrenching release.

They were both too love dazed to move for a while. Saturated in the feeling of being open, unguarded, Christopher let his hand wander over her, not with sexual intent, but reverence. She stretched and moved to trap his legs beneath a slender thigh, her arm slung across his chest. Climbing farther atop him, she rubbed her mouth and nose lightly through the hair on his chest. He lay still beneath the warm scaffolding of her body, letting her play and explore as she would.