“Cruel?” Ronan muttered. “I could have killed him. I should have killed him. But he’s one of us now.”
“Born under a dark moon,” Shannah murmured. “Just like me. How will he get by, with no one to help him?”
“The man’s been hunting vampires for years. He, more than most mortals, should know what to do.”
“I guess so,” Shannah murmured somewhat dubiously. Then, with a sigh, she snuggled closer to his side. “I hope he’ll be as happy as I am, but I don’t know how he could be, since he doesn’t have you.”
Ronan lifted one brow, and then he laughed. “Ah, Shannah, whatever did I do without you in my life?”
“I don’t know,” she replied seriously. “But you’ll never be without me again.”
Taking her into his arms, he slid down onto the floor, his hands divesting her of her clothing while he rained kisses over each inch of exposed flesh.
He lay back, a faint smile curving his lips when she straddled his hips and began to undress him.
“All’s fair in love and war,” she said, grinning.
“And what is this?” he asked, then grunted when she punched him in the arm.
“Don’t you know?” she asked with mock ferocity.
“Love,” he said, pulling her down on top of him. “Definitely love.”
“Yes,” she murmured as he claimed her lips with his. “Oh, yes!”
It was definitely love, she thought as he lifted her into his arms. He carried her up the stairs to their bedroom where he made slow, sweet love to her until the sun came up.
Later, her head pillowed on his shoulder, she wondered why she had fought against becoming a vampire when it was really quite wonderful.
She smiled a sleepy smile when Ronan whispered that he loved her.
“I love you more,” she murmured.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes, secure in his dark embrace and in the knowledge that she would wake at his side on the morrow and for all the tomorrows of her life.