Chapter 69

Iwas going to have a heart attack if my heart kept skipping. It had never occurred to me that he wouldn’t want to mark me anymore. All the years I had known him, all he ever wanted was me. But had I become damaged goods to him? I didn’t want him to see me as some charity case—as someone he had to fix.

“You silly woman,” he said, and the complete tenderness in his voice dissolved all my worries. Cillian was so much stronger than I ever could be. He curled his arms around me so tightly that I thought I’d merge into him. It was as if I could shatter into a million pieces, and he’d have the patience to glue me back together, piece by piece.

“You’re all I have ever wanted, don’t you know that by now?” he asked, then brushed his lips over mine. I tasted his breath, yearning to drag him toward me, but I didn’t. With my heart soaring, I stared at him, my eyes drifting from the golden specks in his eyes to his lush lips.

He had a five o’clock shadow. The stubble tickled my fingers as I brushed