"John?" Belle interrupted softly.

"What?"

"I love you."

It felt as if his throat were about to close. "No, Belle, you don't," he gasped. "You can't. You-"

"I do."

"No, please. Just don't say it. Don't say anything. Don't…" He couldn't speak. He couldn't breathe. She was his, but he might as well have stolen her. She was more than he deserved, and if he was greedy enough to want her in his life, he wasn't enough of a bastard to ask for her heart.

Belle saw the tortured look in his eyes. She didn't understand it, but she wanted so desperately to make it go away. Words couldn't heal him so she demonstrated her devotion by pulling his head down to hers.

He was undone by her soft and gentle movements, and he plunged forward, sheathing himself completely within her. She felt so good, unlike anything he'd ever experienced, but he forced himself to lie still for a minute as he felt her passage stretching to accommodate him.

Belle smiled tremulously. "You're so big."

"Just the same as any man. Although I don't intend that you should ever have basis for comparison." He began to move within her, softly thrusting and enjoying the sweet friction between their bodies.

Belle gasped as she felt him. "Oh my."

"Oh my, indeed."

"I think I like this." Without thought, Belle began to move her hips beneath him, rising to meet him as he plunged within her. Her legs snaked around him, and her new position allowed him to come even further within her, so far that Belle was sure that he was touching her heart.

His movements grew faster and harder, and Belle was swept along with him as they traveled on that raging sea toward release. She plunged her fingers into his skin, raking him with her nails as she tried to get even closer to him. "I want it now!" she gasped, feeling her body begin to spiral out of control.

"Oh, you shall have it, I promise." His hand slipped between their bodies and touched her most sensitive nub of flesh. She exploded the moment he touched her, crying out her passion as every muscle in her body tensed and then seemed to shatter.

The feeling of her clenching around his hard shaft was more than John could bear, and he thrust into her one last time, grunting harshly as he poured himself into her. Together they collapsed into a dazed, sweaty tangle of arms and legs, heat radiating from their bodies.

After John's breathing had returned to normal, he brushed a damp tendril from her face and asked, "Well?"

Belle smiled up at him. "You have to ask?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to ask him about his refusal to accept her declaration of love. He felt his body relax and even managed a teasing smile as he said, "Indulge me."

"It was wonderful, John. Like nothing I've ever known. And I have you to thank."

He tweaked her nose. "You played a pivotal role yourself."

"Mmmm," Belle replied noncommittally. "But you were holding back for me, making sure that I was… all right," she finished, unable to think of better words. When John made a move to protest, she placed her hand over his mouth and said, "Shh. I could see it in your face. You're such a gentle, caring man, but you try so hard not to let people see that side of you. Look at everything you did to make this perfect for me. Even pleasuring me before so I wouldn't be scared by my feelings tonight."

"It's because I-because I care about you, Belle. I want everything to be perfect for you."

"Oh, it is, John," she said with a contented sigh. "It is."

"I'm going to protect you," he vowed fiercely. "I'm going to keep you safe."

Belle snuggled into the crook of his arm. "I know, darling. And I'm going to keep you safe, too."

John smiled as an image of her wielding a broadsword floated through his mind.

"I'm not helpless, you know," Belle said.

"I know," he said indulgently.

His tone annoyed her, and she twisted around to face him. "I'm not," she protested. "And you'd better get used to it, because I'm not going to let you try to deal with this monster all by yourself."

John looked down at her and raised one eyebrow. "Surely you don't think I'm going to let you put yourself in danger?"

"Don't you see, John? If you put yourself in danger, you might as well be putting me in danger? It's the same thing." John didn't see, but he didn't want to deal with it while she was lying all warm and soft in his arms. "Didn't you say that you wanted to forget about our problems for a few hours?" he reminded her softly.

"Yes, I guess I did. But it's hard, isn't it?" John's hand strayed to the abrasion on his arm where a bullet had grazed him earlier in the week.

"Yes," he said darkly. "It is."

Chapter 16

Morning came all too quickly, and Belle soon realized that she was going to have to return home. She pulled on her clothes quickly, still not quite able to believe that she had sneaked into John's room the night before. She'd certainly never thought of herself as the reckless, daring type. She sighed to herself, supposing that women did desperate things when in love.

"Is something wrong?" John immediately inquired, pulling a white shirt over his arms.

"What? Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking that I never want to climb a three-story tree again."

"Amen to that."

"Not that getting up the tree was so dreadful. But inching along the branch to your window-"

"It doesn't matter," John cut in firmly. "Since you won't be doing it again."

His concern for her was so plain that Belle forgot to be outraged over his high-handed behavior.

As they quietly made their way through Da-mien's house, Belle wondered at the wisdom of their walking back to her home by themselves while their enemy remained at large. She mentioned her worries to John when they reached the front steps.

John shook his head. "He strikes me as the cowardly type. More likely to move under the cloak of darkness."

"He attacked me during the day," Belle reminded him, stubbornly halting in her tracks.

"Yes, but he used hired thugs, and also you're a woman." John could see that Belle was about to make a protest at being dismissed so casually, so he added diplomatically, "Not that I think you're less than capable, but you must know that most men wouldn't see you as much of a threat. Besides, there is no reason he'd be up and about this early in the morning. Why should he wait out here if I'm probably going to be in bed for several more hours?"

"But he might have seen me last night. And then he'd know that you would have to take me home."

"If he had seen you last night, he would have grabbed you." The thought sent a shiver of fear through John and strengthened his resolve to put an end to this episode as soon as possible. His chin set determinedly, he took Belle's hand and led her down the steps. "Let's be on our way. I'd like to get you home before noon."

Belle took a deep breath of the crisp air. "I don't think I've ever been out this time of the morning. At least not on purpose."

John offered her a rakish grin. "And would you say it was on purpose that you're out now?"

"Well, maybe not exactly." She blushed. "But I had been hoping…"

"You're shameless."

"Perhaps, but you'll note that this story has a happy ending."

John's thoughts turned to the mystery man who had attacked them both. "Unfortunately, this particular chapter has not reached a conclusion."

Belle sobered. "Well, a happy middle, then. Or whatever it is one calls the part right before the climax."

"I rather thought we climaxed last night."

Belle's cheeks reached unparalleled heights of pinkness. "I was speaking in literary terms," she muttered unnecessarily.

John decided to stop torturing her and shut his still smiling mouth. After a suitable interlude, he asked, "Do you think Persephone will have risen yet?"

Belle frowned and looked at the sky, which was still pink and orange with the last stripes of dawn. "I'm not certain. She's a strange bird. I never know quite what to make of her. Besides, I'm rarely up at this hour, so I wouldn't know if she's an early riser."

"Well, for your sake I hope she's still abed. The only thing she could really do is insist that I marry you, which wouldn't be a problem because I plan to do exactly that and with all possible haste. All the same, I'd like to avoid screaming and swooning and all that female nonsense."

Belle gave him a sharp look at the "female nonsense" comment and muttered, "I imagine that Persephone and I will manage to comport ourselves in a manner so as not to offend your masculine sensibilities."

John's lips twitched. "See that you do."

Belle was spared from further comment by their arrival at her front steps. She had had the foresight to bring a key with her the previous night, and they slipped silently inside. John immediately made as if to leave, not wanting to create a scene.

"Please don't go yet," Belle said quickly, placing a gentle hand on his arm. Amazingly, none of the servants had witnessed their clandestine entrance. "Wait for me in the library. I'll run up and change into something more suitable."

John regarded her masculine attire with a smile and nodded as Belle scurried up the stairs. She stopped on the landing, looked back down with an impish grin, and said, "We have much to discuss."

He nodded again as he saw himself into the library. He trailed his fingers along the spines of the books until he found one with an intriguing title and plucked it off the shelf. He browsed through it lazily, not paying much attention to the words. His thoughts rested stubbornly on the fair-haired angel just upstairs from him. What on earth had possessed her to climb a tree to his third-story window? Not that he was displeased with the results, but still, he'd kill her if she tried something like that again. He sighed as his body grew warm, not with desire but with contentment.