Not understanding, she shook her head. “What do you mean? Any non-mortal injury a vampire has will heal over time. And you came back. So you must remember.”

Cain sighed. “For the last year, I’ve been working as a bodyguard for Scanguards. They became my friends, the only friends and family I remember. My memory still isn’t back. I don’t know why the injury never healed.” He looked into the fireplace. “Faye, I don’t remember you. I don’t remember loving you. I remember nothing of my old life. Nothing about us. That’s why I couldn’t tell you what you needed to hear from me.”

A sob tore from her throat. He didn’t remember loving her? “Cain,” she whispered, but her voice broke with another sob. So it was true then; he didn’t love her anymore and had only been pretending. “The last few days. They were a lie,” she said, talking to herself.

Cain turned his head back to her and clasped her hands once more. “Not all of it. I may not remember our love, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel it.”

Her eyelashes rose and her eyes widened while she sucked in a breath.

His loving gaze pinned her. “I was given a second chance, Faye. A second chance to fall in love with you all over again. When you came to my room after my return, for me it was the first time I’d ever kissed you. Everything was the first time for me. To make love to you here in front of the fireplace, to feel your lips around my cock when you came to me in the shower. I got to experience your passion, your tenderness for the first time.” He shoved a hand through his short hair. “But when you pressed me to tell you that I love you, I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t lie to you and profess my love when I didn’t trust my own feelings. I can now. Because now I’ve seen what kind of woman you are. You’re good and generous. Loyal and faithful even when you thought me dead.”

Regret suddenly flashed in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Faye, but you have to know this: I slept with other women. I didn’t know you existed. Had I known, I would have never touched another woman.” Cain dropped his head. “None of them meant anything. In my dreams it was always you.”

While it pained her to hear that he’d been with other women, she couldn’t really blame him. Without any knowledge of his former life, how would he have known to be faithful to her? Faye put her hand on his forearm. “Don’t blame yourself. Tell me about your dreams.”

Cain looked up, a tentative smile on his lips. “Several months ago I started dreaming about you. About us. Making love. I saw everything so vividly, I thought it was real. That’s why I had to come back when John came to see me last week and told me about you. About the fact that Abel had proposed to you. I knew I had to fight for you.”

“And for your kingdom,” she added.

He shook his head. “I didn’t come back for the kingdom. I came back only for you. What I felt in my dreams became reality. You became reality. And the way you treated those strangers and helped them, truly revealed your heart to me. And your trust in Robert only cemented what I already knew.”

Cain lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it. “I can say it now, because I know it’s true. I love you, Faye, and no matter what happens, I’ll never again forget that I love you.”

A single tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek, leaving a hot trail in its wake. “Cain.” It was all she could say.

“Will you take me back?”

Through tears in her eyes, Faye nodded, but words failed her. Instead she reached for him and pulled him closer, leaning her forehead against his.

“Help me remember, my love, and I promise I’ll do anything in my power to become the man you once loved.”

She pulled back a fraction and took his face into her hands. “Oh Cain, but you are the man I love. That will never change.”

A moment later his lips were on hers, and her heart opened to welcome him home.

37

Faye’s lips gave Cain all the reassurance he needed to take the next step. The final step. He had no doubt that if his own life was in danger, so was Faye’s. And there was only one way to make certain that he could truly protect her.

Reluctantly, he severed the kiss before it turned too heated. Breathing heavily, he pressed his forehead against hers. “Blood-bond with me. Right now.”

Faye gasped and drew away from him, but only enough to look into his eyes. “Now?”

“This instant. So I’ll always be able to protect you.” Their bond would allow him to sense when she was in danger, just as she would sense if he found himself in a perilous situation and reached out to her. Together they would be stronger than as individuals.