Page 127 of Dark Seduction

I love you, Claire tried to gasp. She wept in pleasure and joy, instead.

SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Malcolm moved onto his back, apart from her. Claire lay beside him, completely sated, smiling at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. She was so deeply in love she was floating.

And then she felt his sorrow returning, a huge and heavy cloud.

A dozen cracks radiated through her heart. After so much love, there was so much pain.

Are ye really leavin’me?

Coherent thought returned, along with her awareness of what they had just done.

They had made love. No demonic desire had arisen, either.

Claire moved to her side and laid her cheek on his chest, her hand on his abdomen, not far from where his beautiful manhood lay resting. Malcolm had just made love to her. She did not have any doubts. His every touch, every kiss, every stroke, had been filled with feeling and emotion. But there had been even more. She had felt as if they had been joined on a plane that was not physical. She pressed her lips to his skin in a kiss, her heart finally breaking in two.

He sat up abruptly.

Claire sat up, too, her chest aching.

He glanced at her, stricken, and slid from the bed. In that moment, she felt him closing to her. Claire panicked as he walked over to the hearth. He leaned heavily on the mantel.

She listened for him and heard silence.

Claire got up. “I can stay a few days. Maybe a week!”

He didn’t look at her. “I’ll never forsake ye fer another. But yer right. A Master stands alone. ’Tis best.”

She choked on a sob. “Who will hold you in the dark of the night?”

He half turned. “I need no one.”

Claire thought, You need me.

“Nay, lass. Ye have a duty to yer kin. If ye willna protect them, provide fer them, who will?”

Claire swallowed, her ability to breathe failing. Heartbreak consumed her. “I think I fell in love with you my very first night in your time, that night at Carrick. I love you, Malcolm, and I always will. There will never be anyone else.”

He straightened and slowly turned.

Claire winced, because her words had brought tears to his eyes which he would never shed. Could she really do this? How could she leave this man?

How could she stay?

“I ken. Ye be an independent woman, an’ in yer time women fight their own battles an’ they be lairds. Ye be laird o’ yer clan, Claire.” His gaze found hers.

Claire nodded, crying. “There’s no one else.”

His nostrils flared. His nose was red. He stared, his eyes shining now. “I willna take ye back. Ironheart will do so.” He struggled to speak. “If ye need me, summon me.” He breathed hard. She had never seen him more stricken. “I’ll come.”

He released the mantel and took a brat from the pegs on the wall. He walked out, wrapping it around his waist as he did so.

Claire realized that he had just said goodbye to her. She panicked and ran after him. “Malcolm, wait!” It could not end like this. She needed to hold him one last time!

But he was striding up the stairs to the ramparts, his posture stiff and set against her.

And she knew he wasn’t going to halt or turn back. He had said his farewell.

It was over.