Sebastian’s stomach plummeted to his feet.
“I don’t simply love that about you. I loveyou.”
He reached out and took her face in his hands, her cheeks soft beneath his rough palms. “And I love you, my wildflower.”
She nuzzled into his touch, then said, “About the document you sent me.”
He’d been wondering when that subject would be broached. He’d also been wondering if he would hold to its implicit demand—that she marry him—in the face of her opposition. He suspected it wouldn’t take much for her to convince him to live in sin with her forever. Still… “Before you say no—”
“Who says my answer isno?”
“Is ityes?”
“Not yet.”
“I shall not force you.”
“You couldn’t if you tried.”
“Not even if I promised you that we could do what we just did in that bed every day for the rest of our lives?”
“Perhaps then.”
“Well, I’m not promising you that.”
“Then the answer is definitelyno.”
“Delilah…”
“We can be Sebastian and Delilah. And Seb and Lilah. And…” She slid off her perch on his legs and sank to her knees beside the chair and took his hands in hers, her head tipped back so she could hold his gaze “And we can be duke and duchess, if you’ll have me.”
It took a moment for Sebastian to grasp the meaning behind her words. “Are you proposing marriage to me, Delilah?”
Eyes suddenly bright with a sheen of unshed tears, she stared up at him, imploring, and nodded. Her passion was there for him to see. She wanted him—a life with him—with all her being—and it scared her. But she didn’t run. She’d planted her feet and remained. Her passion was a gift.
“In three days, at two o’clock in the afternoon, at St. Paul’s Cathedral,” she began, each phrase emerging staccato, “I’ll be standing at the head of the aisle with the archbishop—”
“The archbishop?”
“He’s a close friend of Amelia’s mother-in-law,” she said, impatient, as if it were beside the point. “Will you join me there? And pledge your troth to me forever?”
Sebastian joined her on the floor. She reached her arms around his neck, and he gathered her close, their mouths only inches apart. “I shall.”
The serious look in her eyes told him she had something more to say. “But be careful, Sebastian,” she muttered against his lips.
“Why is that?” he rumbled.
“Because once I make you mine, there will be no end of earth that you could run that I wouldn’t pursue you.”
And as Sebastian pulled his future duchess tight against him, in the moment just before he pressed his mouth to hers, he said, “I can’t think of a fate I would rather suffer.”
Epilogue
Wimberley Hill
Spring 1824
What a terriblewaste.
