“You’re sure, baby?” he asked. “You’re really sure I’m what you want? I can be rough and we might be apart for long periods of time. You have to be sure, Azami. If you commit to me . . .”

“Didn’t that feel like commitment to you, Sam?” she asked, her voice and demeanor once again serene. “I want your child growing in me. I want to live here, with you. I know we’ll be apart; you’re a soldier, and I have to continue on the path set before me, but I think that path is with you.”

“Then you’ll marry me immediately?”

She sat up slowly and pushed at the silky hair tumbling around her face. “I have promised you marriage and I don’t go back on my promises.” She suddenly looked alarmed. “Oh, Sam. I was cooking dinner for you and I’ve forgotten it entirely. It’s probably ruined.”

“You know how to cook too?” he asked.

She regarded him somberly for a long moment. “Yes. When I can keep my mind on what I’m doing, which clearly, when you’re around, I can’t.”

He laughed, happiness bursting through him like a bright rocket. “Go take a shower. I’ll see if I can salvage the dinner.”

She rolled off the bed and started toward the bathroom. She half turned in the doorway, her tattoos gleaming in the candlelight. She sent him that small, mysterious smile that always set his heart racing. “I love you wild, Sam.”

He watched her go, that fluid grace, her hair snaking down her back to below her waist, and his heart ached with pure contentment. He had found home and it wasn’t the wooden structure surrounding him, it was a little slip of a woman who had forever taken his heart.