“You didn’t trust me,” I whispered, the pain of his faithlessness still fresh.
“No … I just couldn’t get past my own damn insecurities.” He turned into me, clasping my face in his hands. “Regan, to me, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. Inside and out. Sweet and hilarious and kind and smart. Sexy and uninhibited and loving. You could have anyone, go anywhere, do anything you put your mind to. You’re extraordinary. I didn’t trust in myself. I didn’t trust that I was enough for you. That me and the children and Ardnoch are enough for you. I thought we were too ordinary.”
His confession killed me. I wrapped my hands around his wrists. “Ordinary? You couldn’t be ordinary if you tried. Don’t you know you’re everything to me? Only you can make my stomach flutter with just a smile. Only you can make my world perfect just by holding me in your arms. Only you can get me hot with just that look in your eye.”
He grinned wickedly.
“Only you make me feel good about myself, make me feel wanted and at home in my own skin. When we’re all together, you, me, and Eilidh and Lewis, it feels so right, it almost hurts with how wonderful it is.”
He nodded, brushing my tears with his thumbs.
I tightened my grip on his wrists as I licked the salty tears off my lip. “I know with a certainty I’ve never had about anything before that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t care if that scares you. I need to be honest and up-front, especially after last night, because life is too damn short, Thane. This isn’t ‘let’s see how it goes and cool if it works out or cool if it doesn’t.’ I am madly, desperately, deeply in love with you, and I never want to be without you again,” I sobbed.
He swallowed the cry with a hungry kiss that stole my breath. When he finally released me, it was to pepper kisses over my cheeks, his beard a familiar, delicious tickle across my skin. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” he repeated between kisses. My heart felt like it might explode in my chest. “You’re never leaving us again.” He scattered kisses down my throat and continued to murmur, “I want you back in the house. My bed is your bed, living together out in the open. No more sneaking around. This is us.”
He paused to look me deep in the eye. “You’re my woman and I’m your man, and fuck what anyone else has to say about it.”
I reached for him, pulling him back to my mouth, wanting to seal his promise with a kiss.
“Ahem!”
We broke apart, turning in each other’s arms to find a nurse standing in the doorway. She gave Thane an amused but irritated look. “Do you mind detaching yourself from the patient while I check her over?”
Thane grinned before turning that boyish smile on me.
My belly fluttered.
“I just promised her I’m never letting her go,” he said gruffly, “so I guess you’ll have to do your checks with me right where I am. I’m not going anywhere.”
41
Thane
The sound of Lewis’s light snoring woke him up.
Blinking his eyes open, he waited for them to adjust to the darkness so he could take in the sight before him.
A pain in his neck made itself known, but Thane didn’t dare move. He was in an awkward half-sitting, half-reclined position against his headboard. Lewis was curled into him, his small head on Thane’s chest, his little arm wrapped around Thane’s waist. Thane’s left arm rested down his son’s warm back, while his free hand clasped the book they’d been reading.
His gaze drifted past his son to his daughter, her back pressed up against her brother’s, but she snuggled into Regan, who held her close even in sleep.
A week had passed since Austin Vale’s attack on Ery and the kids and his attempted rape and murder of Regan.
Sometimes, just saying the words in his head made Thane dizzy. It was surreal. Their family had been through so much in the past year.
But they were here, with him in his bed, safe.
Regan still wasn’t a hundred percent from her concussion, and Eilidh and Lewis didn’t want to be far from her side since they’d seen her in that hospital bed. Her trauma seemed to have distracted them from their own, which told him just how much his children loved her.
Still, he’d spoken with a colleague at work whose wife was a child psychologist, and she’d suggested some family trauma counseling for them all. Their first appointment was next week.
They had to get Eils and Lew back into a routine, back into their own beds. As it was, Eilidh didn’t even want to be in her own room. Thane considered redecorating the guest room and turning that into her bedroom, but he wanted to speak with the counselor first to discuss the best plan of action.
For now, they all slept together so Thane or Regan (or both) could be right there when either of the children woke from a nightmare. Tonight was the first night neither of them had one. That was progress.
It helped for them to know the monster who’d taken and tied them up was dead. Austin’s body washed ashore a mile from Ardnoch Beach.
The danger to Thane’s family was over.
Eredine was on the mend, though Lachlan and Robyn were done giving her space, worried that this latest assault would push her further away. She was ensconced in their guest room with no intention of letting her out of their sight until they were sure she was going to be okay.
Seth and Stacey wanted to fly over, but Regan video-called to assure them she was all right and it wasn’t worth the expense. Thane gathered they were hurt by this, but he couldn’t help but be selfishly relieved they weren’t returning to Scotland. Stacey was unpredictable, and he didn’t like the way she treated Regan or twisted what was between them. They didn’t need that kind of judgment in their lives right now.
Though, at some point, for Regan and Robyn’s sake, bridges would have to be mended there.
“You’re awake,” Regan whispered, startling him.
“How did you know?”
“You sighed like the world was sitting on your shoulders.” She reached out with her free arm, her palm resting upward on the pillow beside him. Thane took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over her soft skin.
“I just want everyone to be okay,” he whispered.
“We will be,” she promised. “We’ll all get through this together. Robyn’s taking Eilidh shopping for her flower-girl dress tomorrow, so that will be a pleasant distraction.”
“She’ll love that.”
“Maybe you and Lewis could do something with Lachlan, Mac, and Brodan?”
To Thane’s shock and gratitude, Brodan had brought filming on his movie to a standstill to come home to check on them all. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay long, but they still had tomorrow with him. They’d kept the kids off school but tomorrow was Sunday, and they’d return on Monday. Back to their routine. “Maybe we should all do something together.”
“We’ll have dinner together at night,” she reassured him. “We need to start doing things separately. Show them it’s okay.”
He knew she was right. And he loved how much she loved Eilidh and Lewis. “I adore you, Regan Demelza Penhaligon.”