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Duncan turned and looked at Amber with eyes in which both shadows and memory stirred.

“It guarded me while I slept,” Duncan said slowly. “I’m as sure of it as I am that you are standing there.The rowan guarded me.”

Duncan dismounted and strode up the mound toward the rowan. Fear squeezed Amber’s heart. Not wanting to, knowing that she must, she followed him. By the time she caught up, he was already standing beneath the tree, fists on his hips, studying the rowan as though it might be either foe or friend.

“Are you remembering?” Amber asked quietly.

At first Duncan didn’t answer. Then he slowly uncurled one fist and held his hand out to her.

“Am I remembering?” Duncan asked.

The instant Amber’s hand rested in his, the complex emotions, dreams, fears, and hopes that were Duncan of Maxwell poured through the touch. Never had the contact been so vivid.

Exhilaration after the victorious battle.

Fear for Amber’s safety in the coming storm.

Determination to remember the past.

Rage at whatever had taken his memory.

And then, when the warmth of her flesh registered on his, there came a wave of desire so great that it all but brought Amber to her knees. She could feel nothing but Duncan’s passion for her, see nothing, sense nothing. He flooded her mind and body with a sensual hunger that was like nothing she had ever felt before.

Duncan.

Though Amber hadn’t said the name aloud, he opened his eyes and looked at her with eyes that blazed.

Duncan’s fingers circled Amber’s wrist like steel bands. He pulled her closer with a force that would have been impossible to resist. Nor did she want to resist. She wanted only to answer the elemental need that cried out to her from every fiber of her dark warrior’s being.

When Duncan’s arms wrapped around Amber, she made no objection, even though he held her so tightly she became light-headed from lack of breath.

Though she said nothing, Duncan knew.

“I’ll breathe for you,” he said in a low voice.

He brought his mouth to hers in a kiss that would have been harsh had she not been fighting to get even closer to him, to taste him more deeply, to get inside his very skin.

It was the same for Duncan, fighting to get closer to Amber, to feel yet more of her sweet flesh against his, to slake the savage hunger of his body for her in the only way possible.

Distantly Duncan realized that he had dragged Amber down to the ground and that her hands were struggling against him.

“Please,” he said, “I need you.”

A sound that was neither aye nor nay came from Amber’s throat. With an effort that left him shaking, Duncan managed to let go of her.

The instant Amber was free, she cried out as though at a blow. Duncan reached for her to comfort her, then realized he didn’t trust himself.

“Duncan?” Amber said.

Her voice trembled, as did the hand she held out to him.

“You’re a fire in my blood, in my flesh, in my soul,” Duncan said savagely. “If I touch you again, I’ll take you.”

“Then touch me.”

“Amber—”

“Take me.”