He swallows, shifting his eyes away from my lips. ”Janie, you’re thirteen years younger than me.”
His hands release the tree bark and fall to his side.
“So?”
“You want an old codger like myself?”
His fingers twitch at his side as his head, ever so subtly, tilts toward me.
“I’m a grown woman, Knightley. I can choose who I want.”
“And you want me? You truly want me?”
“I do.”
He sighs as if every piece of his puzzle is falling into place. “How did I not see you sooner, Janie?” Knightley’s breath washes over my face, minty and uniquely him. He moves his hand to my face, his thumb swiping across my bottom lip. “Are you positive?”
“I tried to kiss you. Of course, I’m positive. I started this.”
He closes his eyes. “And you want me to finish it?”
I let out a breathy, victorious yes, my eyelids fluttering closed, the afternoon sun fading from view.
“I love you, Emma Jane Williams. What I feel, it’s more than simplylikingyou. Words can’t do my feelings justice. You are charmingly selfish, beautifully calculating, witty, intelligent, fun,and perfectly imperfect. If I kiss you, this is for forever. Got it? There’s nothing more to say, so stop me if you’re not going to marry me. Because it’s you or no one for me, Janie.”
My stomach leaps with excitement at his declaration, and I loop my arms around his neck, tugging lightly at the back of his hair as I grin. He’s it for me, too. I never had a desire to marry because of my condition. I've never been much of a romantic.
But Knightley? He makes me want it all. And because it's him, I know he will love and accept me whether I can give him a child or not. I know he will hold my hand when I'm sad about it. I know he will remind me that my worth isn't in childbearing.
For Knightley… I will take the jump. I will choose forever. “Oh, I’m going to marry the heck out of you.”
His lips press against mine, soft and cautious. He tastes of strawberry lip balm, endless possibilities, and the culmination of hope I never dared to allow myself to consider until last night when he said he’d be a fool not to marry me.
Marriage.
To Knightley Austen.
A man who’s been in my life for as long as I can comprehensively remember, and even before that.
He deepens the kiss, and whereas I started this escapade, he now fully controls it. His lips dance with mine in a perfect waltz, slow and steady and sure. When he straightens, tilting my jaw up to follow him, a low rumble sounds from his chest.
Or is it mine?
Am I capable of thatnoise?
These feelings… They are all explosive and new. Like a puzzle, I want to piece him together just to break him apart.In the most delicious of ways…
I now understand why Halle said she didn’t wait until marriage. We are going to have to be very careful.
Knightley bites my bottom lip, and I surrender to him until I can’t remember my own name.
Finally, after what could have been centuries, he steps back, breathing heavily. I feel lighter than I have in months. And I’m exceptionally glad to report I now enjoy kissing.
He meets my eyes and a huge grin breaks across his face. “This is real?”
“It’s so real.” I throw my arms around his neck and drag his lips back down to mine. He loves me for all my faults. He will stand by my side as I continue to work through them all. He will call me on my crap, and I will fight him over it. He will win, and I will love every single second of it.
But then a thought breaks through my lovestruck haze. “We have to tell Papa.”
