Colin silently removed his second legging. He knew she was serious in wishing him away, but he also knew that this was the first real conversation they had shared since things had started going terribly wrong. A full battalion of men couldn’t drag him away now. This might be his one chance to discover exactly what had caused her to change so dramatically toward him.

Colin stripped off his leine and then dove into the dark waters. Makenna nervously searched the surface, dreading where he would appear.

Colin emerged right by where she was standing. She took two steps back. He let her.

“Please, Colin, please leave. I am so tired, and I cannot verbally banter with you tonight. I am not up to the task.”

Colin lowered himself into the water until just his shoulders were above the rippling surface. He moved in close and gently cupped her face in his hands. Her scent filled him. “Bantering is not what I had in mind,” he murmured, lowering his head to brush his mouth against hers.

Makenna was startled into temporary submission. Colin persisted in making it impossible to talk by touching her, his big hands smoothing over her shoulders, her back. So much of her yearned to let him continue, to make her feel loved and wanted. But, later, when it was over, she would only feel worse, even hollower than she already did.

Makenna pulled back. Colin released her lips but refused to let her go. “Makenna, speak to me. What’s wrong? I know that you want me as much as I want you. I can feel it. You want to respond to me, but you won’t let yourself.”

Makenna balled her hands on his chest into fists. “I cannot be her. I tried, I really wanted to, for both our sakes. But I cannot do it. I loved my sister, but I am not her. And I cannot be her for you.”

Colin did let go then. “Is that what you have been doing?” he asked, raking his hand through his wet hair. “God, Makenna, that’s the last thing I want. I thought you knew that. I need you, just the way you are!”

“You still love her.”

“She’s dead, Makenna. I have buried her and moved on. You are the only one I want, and I promise you it is not as a replacement for your sister.”

“And what if I were to die?”

The thought of Makenna dying was so repulsive Colin could only stare at her for a moment. “I won’t let you.”

“Won’t let me? Die, you mean? Women do all the time, they become ill, die in childbirth, and what will happen then? Will you mourn me as you do Deirdre? Will you speak fondly about me to your next wife along with your words of undying love for my sister?”

Colin forcefully grabbed her shoulders, splashing the water around them. “I won’t let you die. I will have no other but you, do you understand me?” His voice choked on the words.

“Say no more,” she pleaded softly, looking at his chest, unable to meet his gaze. “It hurts when you say such things. You make me think you care.”

Colin felt like he was caught in a whirlpool, losing control of everything by trying to hang on to it all. He forced Makenna’s chin up. She caught her breath when she saw the fear in his eyes.

Colin saw misery and dejection shimmering back in her green pools; he could no longer deny the truth. “Care? Makenna, I care so damn much it terrifies me.” He let go of her and moved to the large boulder nearby for support. “What I feel for you is…stronger, deeper than what I have felt for anyone. Do you understand what I am saying? For anyone. Every time I kiss you, touch you, God, even just talk with you, I betray Deirdre. Never once did I wish you were like her, but you don’t know how often I wished she had been more like you. I loved her, but you complete me in ways she never could. And every time I thank God that I have you, I feel like I am saying I am glad she is gone.”

Makenna moved then and put her fingers against his lips. Tears streaked down her face and splashed silently into the water. “Shhh, say no more. I love you, Colin. Deirdre warned me that I would. She said I could make you happier than she did, but I didn’t believe her. Not even when I lost my heart to you did I think you could feel anything for me. But she was right. She was beautiful and kind and much wiser than we thought, Colin. She would want us to protect what we share.”

“Aye, she would,” he said softly.

Makenna held his face between her hands, searching his eyes. She could see it now. He loved her and was deeply afraid of saying it aloud. He had loved and lost before.

Colin pulled her roughly into his arms. Makenna melted into him. “God, Makenna, never leave me,” he whispered into her hair. “You are my very breath. I didn’t know how much until these past few weeks.”

Makenna’s fingers maneuvered up the broad expanse of his chest, twining in his curly dark hair. “I’ve been so lonely. You are my best friend. The nights only became bearable when you started sneaking to our bed.”

She could feel his lips curve into a smile. “So you were awake. I thought you might be, especially when you all of a sudden started retiring much earlier than normal, but I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want it to end. It was the only thing holding me together.”

Gently his fingers curled into her red mane and pulled her head back. He leaned down and kissed her again. The sweet, sensual caress went on and on, suffusing her body with an aching need for more. She leaned into him moaning, stroking his tongue with her own.

Colin’s heart pounded so furiously against the walls of his chest, he felt light-headed. He kissed her again, softer this time, consuming, with so much tenderness it nearly choked her.

Makenna felt her body being raised out of the water and carried to shore. She laid her head on his shoulder, periodically kissing his neck and ear. He smelled good, like leather and male. Her breath fanned his cheek. “Everything I am is yours. I love you.”

Her words and kisses were like a healing balm to his soul. They also aroused a hunger for her that was all-consuming. He almost stepped wrong on the rocky pebbles. His concentration was strained; all he could think about was touching her.

His Makenna had returned. She was once again the spirited, spontaneous, and passionate woman that set his body ablaze. He knew he would not be able to wait until they returned to Lochlen to have her. He would barely be able to lay his plaid down.

Finally, they reached the grass. Colin put her down. “Don’t move,” he ordered. His voice was deep and affected, husky with desire.

Within seconds, he was back spreading his thick plaid on the soft clearing. Before she could take a step, he was at her side lifting her up into his arms. Makenna closed her eyes, luxuriating in Colin’s strength as he carried her to the soft awaiting blanket.

“I thought I’d lost you,” he muttered as he covered her mouth with his own. The sense of urgency that was driving his emotions tonight had created an aching hunger in him that only Makenna could assuage.

“Never,” she vowed softly as his lips took hers again in another slow, seductive, mind-numbing kiss.

Colin could barely control his need for her. He cupped her buttocks and pulled her up against his hardness, discovering she was already moist and hot with need. Makenna shivered at his touch and leaned into his smoldering heat. Her hands moved to his shoulders, stroking him. Her legs entwined with his.

Colin glided his fingers from her hip to her breast. As he took the freed soft mounds in his palms, his body began to shake. “God, you are so beautiful, so very, very beautiful. What you do to me,” he groaned with ragged need. He lowered his mouth to her breast and encompassed a pink bud.

He gently held the bloom between his lips and began to suck.

Makenna instinctively arched upward, thinking that she would die of pleasure. She twisted and moaned while her hands clung to his shoulders. Someone was shouting Colin’s name, and Makenna knew that it was her.

Overwhelming passion took over. It was like a dam had exploded, enabling an emotional connection between them that intensified every touch, every sensation, every emotion. Colin released the tasty nub and he kissed her soft, pink, bewitching lips until she clung to him again. His muscled leg was hard and hairy and enticing, sliding up along the delicate skin of her inner thigh.

Colin pulled her roughly against him, letting her feel all of him. He began to move his hips, rubbing his arousal against her. When Colin shifted to allow his hand access to her hot core, Makenna dug her nails into his backside to keep him firmly against her, refusing to let him move.

He lifted his head to look at her. Colin thought he was going to drown in the green depths of Makenna’s eyes. “Please let me touch you. I want to feel your need for me.”

Unable to form a coherent thought, Makenna released her hold. Part of her felt so excruciatingly sensitized that she didn’t think she could endure his deliciously erotic caress.

He slid one finger across the small, swelling button of desire hidden in the soft hair and heard her quick intake of breath.

Then he eased his finger into her snug passage, coaxing forth a honeyed flood that dampened his hand. She felt warm and liquid and sweet, like thick nectar. He didn’t ever want to stop touching her.

Colin eased his finger back out and explored Makenna with a deliberate possessiveness that made her tremble. He repeated the action slowly and deliberately, easing into her and then teasing the small nubbin of female flesh. He did it again. And again.

Makenna was growing wild beneath him, writhing in his powerful grasp, as he continued to touch her in ways he knew would drive her to climax. Her pleasure heightened his own.

She cried out softly as deep tremors shook her.