It was she.
She gathered the coverlet still warm from their bodies and scrambled to her knees before sitting back onto her haunches. Tristan, on the other hand, gazed up at her from his prone position, unapologetically naked, slightly arrogant, and most definitely questioning. The urge to climb on top of him and make love to him again nearly overwhelmed her.
After.
She had to fix this—fixthem—first.
“I have something to tell you,” she said, “and I think it’s best if we’re both sitting for it.”So I don’t ravish you again, she didn’t say.
He pushed to a seat and reclined against the headboard, pillows propped behind him. “Is this better?”
He reached for her, and she shook her head. “I can’t be touching you and keep from ravishing you.”
He chuckled. She didn’t. It was only the truth.
She inhaled a deep, bracing breath. “I thought I wanted this one kind of life, and it was all I could imagine,” she began. “I thought I wanted to be theton’s darling.”
“I’m aware.”
“I cared too much what others thought. That I only had value as long as I was valued by them.”
“You hold so much more within you than that, Amelia.”
The way he spoke those words—as statement of fact—burrowed deep inside her. She would never let them go as long as breath filled her lungs.
“It was you, Tristan, who showed me,” she said. “You allowed me a glimpse of a different sort of life, one of possibility, and art, and desire, and acceptance, and…love.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “I love you, Tristan. I only want to be your darling.”
He took her hand and brushed the back of her fingers against his mouth. “You challenge me. You frustrate me. But never doubt this, Amelia. You are my love. You are my darling.”
But she had more to say. “I only care what you think, and I love that you don’t care what anyone in the world thinks.”
He shook his head. “You are wrong there.”
“I am?”
“You taught me to care what one other thinks.You.” He sat forward and caressed her cheek. “Until you, I cared for nothing of value. Until you taught me the value of loving. I only want to adore you. I only want to love you. I only wantyou, the rest of the world be damned.”
The freest laugh of her life sprang from Amelia. “The rest of the world be damned.”
He pulled her close. But Amelia drew back from his kiss.
It was time.
“Tristan,” she began.
“Yes?”
“I’ll take you any way I can have you—as your mistress…as your slave.”
His thumb brushed away the tear that broke free and rolled down her cheek. “As my wife will do.”
She wasn’t sure her heart could take much more. It was already so full. “Will you marry me, Tristan? Will you live in infamy with me for the rest of our days?”
Her heart in her throat, she waited for his answer.
“Being married will make us slightly less infamous,” he said, conversationally, “but together we’ll find a way.” A laugh rumbled deep in his chest. “I think you’ll take to infamy once you get the hang of it.”
“You’ll marry me?” He hadn’t yet said yes.
