Of a sudden, she felt overwhelmed by the gesture and a little shy of this man. This painting represented everything she admired about him.
No. Nothing as cold and distant as admiration. This painting was a pure expression of love, daring and true, lacking expectation. She as good as held his heart in her hands. After having his heart crushed underfoot at the Duke’s ball, he’d taken a risk by bringing this painting to her. Now, it was her turn to take a risk.
She set the painting on the receiving table and stepped toward him, her slow and careful pace belying the urgency of her emotions. As she made her advance, he watched her from beneath a speculative brow. He thought she’d gone mad.
Perhaps she had. Mad for him.
She stopped, her body a foot removed from his, reached out, and took his gorgeous, capable hands into her cold and wet ones. His hands were warm and dry and safe. A shiver purled down her spine, one vertebra at a time. “About those stars,” she began.
“Olivia, perhaps you fell and hit your head. Oft times, one doesn’t remember such an occurrence. One of my crew once cracked his skull—”
She touched a fingertip to his lips, at once quieting him. “Shh, hear me out. You didn’t ask me to marry you because I might carry your babe. Or because you need a stepmother for Mina. You didn’t ask me to marry you because youmightlove me.” She deliberately inhaled and deliberately exhaled, once, twice. “What if the catalyst for our stars is love? It takes us out of our orderly, mundane existences and makes it possible for us to truly live.” At once shy and bold, she continued, “Without you, I am an orderly star lacking the ability to come to life. You are the flame who sets me alight.”
Oh, the way his serious eyes took her in. How could she ever have thought she couldn’t trust herself in love when a man like Jake wanted her?
She dropped to her knees before him, his hands clasped within hers. His intensity only strengthened her resolve to pursue this path. To have him as hers. “I thought love needed to be perfect to be real, but I see now that is a fragile sort of love. It can’t last.” She shifted back and settled her bum onto her feet, her knees no longer able to support her, trembling as they were. “I don’t want perfection. I want you.”
His lips quirked to the side. “Flattering.”
“True love is hardy and messy. I want to spend the rest of my life making a perfect, little mess with you. Would you consider making an exception to every rule that states what a wife should be and take me as yours?”
He sank to his knees so they faced each other on an equal plane, his serious gaze giving nothing away. A tremor of misgiving streaked through her, and a possibility stole in. What if he no longer wanted her? What if she’d read this situation wrongly?
“What of your freedom, Olivia? Your freedom to be an unwed lady of means. Your freedom to pursue the life you choose. You defied Society to achieve it.” He hesitated, weighing his next words. “I can’t have you resenting me for taking something so precious from you.”
The fear grew claws and sank into her. She could lose him. She must find the right words. “You told me that no wife of yours would ever be subject to an unequal marriage.” She took his face in her hands. “Ibelieveyou. Itrustyou. Iloveyou. Freedom doesn’t have to be a lonely endeavor. When shared with the right person, withyou, how much more liberating. Let us be free together.”
He reached up, calloused fingers gently stroked the side of her face, and the fear released from her body. Her eyes drifted shut, and she surrendered to the moment. The granular rumble of his voice sounded at her ear. “Yes, Olivia. You have undone me.” His lips touched her neck, and she thought she might melt through the floor.
When his mouth, at last, found hers, she fell headlong into his kiss, and her heart expanded until she felt it must burst with joy. Her arms wrapped about his waist, bringing his body into hers, surely soaking his clothes through to his skin. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until now, his warmth seeping into her body at the cellular level. The chemistry between them was undeniable. It always had been. The love they now openly shared heightened it.
An impatience to discover what new heights of passion they could reach seized her, and her greedy hands found the knot of his cravat and tugged. He tore his mouth from hers, a flare of desire darkening his eyes to near black. “The servants,” he intoned on a low murmur.
Reality hit her, and her fingers froze. She’d been about to make love to Jake in the foyer of her new house in the broad daylight. What new heights, indeed.
He stood, lifting her with him. “How about we make an exception to another rule?” he whispered, his words a hot, velvet temptation that snaked across her body, raising goose bumps, tightening nipples, caressing her clear through to her very center.
“And what rule would that be?” she asked, the question a breathless expulsion of words.
“I seem to remember one about not anticipating the wedding night . . .”
A sly smile curved her lips. “I cannot think of an exception I would rather make.”
Epilogue
One month later
“I certainly never didthaton one of the Montfort family trips to Skye,” Olivia exclaimed as she fell back onto lush goose down and silk. She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled a delicious breath.
“Well, you’re a Radclyffe, now,” Jake said on a dry chuckle. How she loved the sound of joy on his lips.
She rolled onto her side, fit her body into his stretched alongside her, and allowed the gentle sway of the boat to lull her.
“You know the place Mina and Lucy are exploring?” he asked, the low rumble of his voice making her want to dothatagain.
But even her virile husband needed a rest, so she answered him. “I know the Faerie Glen of Uig well. The valley was forged when a massive glacier crashed through here thousands of years ago, leaving behind an odd assortment of jagged pinnacles and miniature mountains. The locals believe faeries live there, so they stay away, but I think it’s magical.”
She snugged deeper into pillows, blankets, and Jake.
