“And what sort of man is that?” He swept her hair over her left shoulder, baring her skin before nuzzling her nape. “Hmm? Tell me.”
“The best sort.” She reached behind her, sinking her fingers into his thick, wavy hair. “The sort who is honorable and handsome and thoughtful and kind and witty and wonderful.”
He kissed the side of her throat, and she felt his smile on her skin. “I like the sound of that. It is fitting, then, that all I have ever wanted is you, my love. The sort of woman who is also honorable and beautiful and compassionate and intelligent and fierce and just a little bit wicked and altogether wonderful, too. A goddess, in fact.”
“Oh.” Her gasp of pleasure turned into a moan as he sucked on her flesh. She raked his scalp with her nails. “I like the sound of that, too.”
“Good.” He nibbled on her neck some more, kneading her shoulders with his big hands as he did so, working out all the tension she had not realized she carried in her muscles. “I received word today that the Athena is finally repaired and ready to sail again. What do you think of you, myself, and Lila all taking a trip to Dover? It is not the honeymoon I wanted, but I hesitate to leave her here alone.”
He was such a good brother. Such a good husband. A good man.
Was it any wonder she loved him desperately?
“Of course Lila must come,” she said. “And I should so love to see Dover. I have heard a great deal about the white cliffs, but I have never witnessed them firsthand. Nor have I been to a regatta.”
“Truly?” He nipped her ear with his teeth, continuing to massage her. “Never?”
“I spent my formative years moldering in the country with my aunt Lydia because my brother did not have the funds or the reputation to support two younger, unattached females,” she reminded him.
“Much to my great fortune.” He kissed her cheek. “Imagine if you had not moldered. I hardly think you would have penned your list, and then how would I have known you were destined to be my wife?”
“I think the fates would have intervened in another way,” she said. “If not the list.”
But she was still heartily glad she had written it. And even more grateful he had found it.
“I think so too, my love.” He removed his magical hands from her shoulders and straightened then. “I have a gift for you, Josie. It is…I had intended to give it to you some time ago, but then so much happened. And then, I knew there was something I needed to add to it before it could truly be yours.”
“A gift?” She rose to her feet and faced him at last. “But I have none for you.”
He smiled. “You are my gift,bijou. I think it every day.”
And then, he reached into a pocket concealed in his flowing banyan and extracted a velvet box. Decker extended it toward her, his expression suddenly earnest and expectant. Young, too. Almost boyish.
With trembling hands, she accepted the box from him. She flipped it open. Nestled inside was a gold bangle accented with channels of rich, glittering diamonds. At its center was a pearl surrounded by a cluster of diamonds. Golden roses flanked either side of the centerpiece. It must have cost him a staggering sum.
“Oh, Decker.” She ran a finger over the filigree and the fine work of the roses. “It is beautiful.”
“Do you like it, my love?” He sounded hesitant.
Did the man not realize he could gift her a rock and it would still be her most prized possession?
“It is astoundingly beautiful,” she assured him, “and far too dear, I am sure. You ought not to have gone to such an expense.”
That was when she turned the sleek gold band over in her hand and discovered the inscription, written neatly on the underside of the bangle.
My heart has always known yours.
It was what she had said to him that night, when they had come together and confessed their love for each other. It was the same words she felt with every beat of her heart. And she knew without having to ask he felt them too.
“You remembered,” she whispered.
“I remember everything you say to me,” he told her, his gaze bright on hers, shimmering with—unless she was mistaken—the sheen of tears.
She blinked at the sting in her own eyes, making itself known. “I love you so much.”
“Allow me?” He took the bangle from her without waiting for her response, then settled it neatly upon her wrist.
The fit was unsurprisingly perfect.
