“What if I had hurt someone?”

“Who?” she demanded. “Who were you going to hurt?”

He looked confused. “I don’t know. Someone.”

She smiled and leaned up to kiss his nose and each corner of his mouth. “You were on automatic pilot. You didn’t know what you were doing, only that you needed action. I’m in your mind. I see you better than you see yourself. You couldn’t handle the grief, and the warrior took over, but he wouldn’t have harmed anyone.”

“You don’t know that for certain.”

“I do, Kadan. Partnership is trust. I trust you completely. I give you everything I am. My body, my heart and soul, and my mind. I trust you to see me. What I want, what I need, who I am, deep down where no one else can see. And if I’m your partner, your true partner; you have to trust me to see the real you even when you can’t. I do the things you ask because I know I can trust you to keep me safe, to tell me the truth. You have to love me all the way, give yourself to me all the way, or let me go.”

His heart slammed hard in his chest. “You have me, Tansy.”

“Then believe in me when I tell you that cold part of you is a guardian, not a monster. Yes, you have killed, and you’re capable of killing, you do your job, but you don’t kill for fun or pleasure or because it makes you feel powerful. You are not a monster and nothing will ever turn you into one. That line is not blurred for you. You would have come to your senses and put your weapons away and crawled into your mind where no one could see and grieved for me. You were grieving; you just didn’t let yourself feel it.”

He blinked and there was love in his eyes. Tenderness. Joy. “I don’t deserve you, but I’ll be damned if I give you up.”

“I won’t let you give me up.”

Kadan kissed her hard, his mouth rough, then tender. “You’re na**d and I’ve got all my clothes on.”

“And weapons,” she pointed out.

“Sorry about that.” His h*ps began a slow seduction, moving in long, languorous strokes. “I’m not leaving your body, not even long enough to take my clothes off. We’re going to be like this all night, and then tomorrow, you’re going to come with me to Montana and we’re getting married.”

She tugged at his shirt until he levered himself up enough to let her pull it over his head and toss it aside. “I think we need a little more planning time for a wedding.”

“No, we don’t.” He licked her ear, teasing with his tongue. “I’m not waiting. And then I’m tying you up in a locked room naked, no clothes, and spending our honeymoon torturing you with pleasure until neither of us knows whose skin we’re in.”

“That’s the plan?” She shoved at his jeans and the open belt to get more room as his h*ps pushed deeper into her, filling her with heat and fire.

“That’s the plan,” he said firmly. “So don’t bother wearing panties under your wedding dress.”

Chapter 21

“You haven’t told me you love me, Kadan,” Tansy said.

Around the room people milled and talked and laughed, some swaying to the soft music and others crowding around the table of food. Kadan ignored them, centering his complete attention on Tansy. He lifted her left hand, thumb feathering a caress over her skin, and then he kissed the wedding band he’d pushed onto her finger just an hour earlier. “I showed you last night.”

“You haven’t said you loved me,” Tansy reiterated. “You know, those three little words you like to hear me say.”

“I told you the other day when that bastard wrapped his fingers around your neck and choked the life out of you.” There was an edge to his voice, his eyes going midnight dark.

Tansy scowled at him. “I was dead. I don’t think that technically counts.”

Kadan swung her into his arms because he needed to feel her close to him. He couldn’t talk about her being dead, not even joking—not yet. The music was soft and sexy, and he pulled her tight against him, one hand sliding down the curve of her spine to rest on her rounded bottom as he swept her around the room.

He pressed his lips against her ears. “I’ve asked you twice if you were wearing panties. That should tell you something.” His tongue flicked out in a lazy swirl and then his teeth bit down on her earlobe.

She laughed softly, bringing instant joy to him. “It tells me you’re thinking about sex, not our wedding reception. Stay focused here, my man.”

“I’m perfectly focused.” His hand did a small circular massage, pressing lightly so that her body fit more snugly against his.

She turned her face up and kissed his throat. “I love you very much, Kadan Montague.”

She didn’t move away from him or demand he remove his hand. She danced closer, melting into him. He slid his palms up her back and encircled her protectively. His eyes burned. His throat closed. Tansy. His wife. She was his wife. His other half. She was and always would be his home.

He turned her around on the dance floor, struggling to find some balance with the emotions pouring in. She said he felt too much and the ice protected him, shielded him. At first he hadn’t wanted to know how much he felt for her, but now that emotion, that terrible love that clogged his throat and made his heart ache, was his world.

“I want children,” he murmured in her ear. “I want to feel them growing inside you, and see them feeding at your breast.”

“Just remember it might inhibit your penchant for sex on the kitchen table,” she teased.

Kadan drifted around the dance floor with her, lost in their world, barely aware of the GhostWalkers, the general, and her parents in the room. No one mattered to him but her. “I’ll just have to be more innovative.”

She turned her face up to press kisses along his throat. “I love you so much, Kadan. And you have to tell me, say the words out loud. It’s our wedding day. And every anniversary and the day each child is born.”

Laughter rumbled in his chest. “You drive a hard bargain, lady.”

The song ended and another began. They hadn’t broken apart, neither wanting to let go of the other. Kadan felt Tansy stiffen and knew before he turned who would be standing behind him. He forced a polite smile as he looked down at Tansy’s mother, careful not to look at her father.

“Tansy?” Don Meadows stood there, his hand out, waiting for his daughter to dance with him while Sharon smiled expectantly up at Kadan.

Kadan felt Tansy’s reluctance, but she turned to her father and obediently placed her hand in his. Kadan took Sharon into his arms, but his eyes followed his wife around the floor. She smiled. She spoke to her father, but when Kadan touched her mind, she was silently weeping. No one could tell, certainly not Sharon, who chattered away about how happy she was to have him for a son-in-law. All he could think of was getting back to Tansy and holding her, comforting her. She suddenly looked over her father’s shoulder and sent him a small smile and Kadan’s heart clenched.

He had married the most courageous woman he could imagine. She would stand with him and stand for their children. It wouldn’t matter what Whitney, or Violet, or anyone else threw at them, they would be make it as long as they were together.

He guided Sharon across the room, bent to drop a brief kiss on her cheek, and then took back his wife.

Pulling her into the protection of his arms, keeping their bodies close, he leaned down, his lips against her ear. “I love you, baby, more than anything in the world. I absolutely love you.” And when she touched his mind, there was no doubt.