Lifting himself onto one elbow, he forced her chin up so she had to look at him.He read the saddened expression and wondered at it.“Would you care to add anything else?”
“No,” she began before meeting his gaze.Her eyes softened, and she reached up to stroke his whisker-roughened cheek before her fingers curled, and she scratched lightly against the stubble instead.“One by one, I’ve watched them marry.I hated being there, a part of it, yet still so separate.They couldn’t see it and probably wouldn’t understand it.The younger lads certainly didn’t have the same reaction to it, though James did.I think...No, I know that’s why he left.Why I wanted to wed to get away from it.”
“You were jealous,” he deduced.
“Not jealous,” she denied, then clarified at the exact moment as he.“Envious.”
“Yes.”He nodded thoughtfully, understanding what she was getting at.“There is a difference, isn’t there?You didn’t begrudge them their happiness.”
“No, I just wanted the same for myself because I’ve seen how much joy a life can have when you have someone to share it with, but when everyone has it and you don’t ...”
“You can have it, you know,” he said softly into her ear.His heartbeat leapt anxiously for what he wanted to say, knowing that his Fiona might not yet be ready to hear it despite how they had spent their evening.“I know what you want, Fiona.I, too, have seen it.Watched it from afar and determined to have no less for myself.I know what it is, and we can have it together.We can be like this”— he hugged her more tightly against him, molding her soft body against his hard length—“every night.We can have the happiness we have both been missing these past two years.We can have joy, intimacy.Love.If only you’ll admit that the feelings you confessed to me in that garden so long ago have not died.That they are still burning within you.”
Aylesbury shifted, turning Fiona onto her back so that he could look down at her and see fully in her eyes what was in her heart, even if her lips would not speak the words.“I’m done denying it.I am done embracing the misery that has dogged me since I left you.My whole life since then has been devoted to finding Piper, but I haven’t truly lived in all that time.I’ve been torn between the future and my past, but I can’t continue to wait forever for one thing and lose the other in the process.I want to live again.I want to laugh.To love.With you.I love you, Fiona Blossom MacKintosh.Tell me that you feel the same.That you love me.”
* * *
That speech was theculmination of everything she had ever dreamed of hearing from his lips.She stared up at Harry’s handsome face, his vivid eyes warm with feeling.He looked softer, more relaxed.Happier.Because of her.
Because he truly loved her?
“You love me?”
“Of course I do.What do you think this has all been about?”
Many things.Love had been the least definite of all of them.
“Have you anything to say?”he asked when she remained silent.
Though she knew what he was asking for, Fiona hesitated to make any profession in return.Recent events aside, given their awkward past, it was difficult enough for her mind to accept that all that she wished for was coming to fruition.Her heart was even more restrained in naïvely accepting his words, no matter how tempting they were.
Searching for the words, any words, to fill the sudden silence as it fell and her mind blanked, her lips parted only to be covered by Harry’s as he stole away anything that might have been said with a quick, hard kiss.
“Forget I said that,” he said, releasing her to roll out of the bed.“Listen to me.I will not ask you again to marry me, nor will I push you into saying something you are not yet ready to confess, but you, with all your experience with the male species, should know that we are not infallible.We make mistakes.Have I not been effusive enough in my regrets?Haven’t you forgiven me for being such a fool?”
Her gaze faltered ever so slightly, but it was enough.
“It’s still not enough for you, is it?Bugger it, Fiona!I’ve been trying to prove myself to you.What more do you want?What are you running from?Because I’m pretty sure it isn’t me.”He laughed humorlessly as he yanked on his clothes.“Well, while you’re pondering everything that I might have said or done while in a drunken state two years past, you might want to also consider that today I fought for you.I would do it again and again to prove myself to you.I would give my life for yours.Thatis how dearly I love you.”
“But why?”she whispered.“I’ve done nothing but browbeat you since coming to London while you’ve been nothing but patient.I’ve been entirely unreasonable.”
A more genuine chuckle escaped him then.“As long as you realize it, all hope isn’t lost.But to answer your other question, I will tell you this.I’ve always been charmed by your company.Even these past weeks, you’ve been a lively conversationalist with a quick wit.You are athletic and active.We always got on quite well there.”
Fiona frowned and parted her lips to speak, but he sat on the edge of the bed, pressing a finger to her lips before she could speak.“That is only what drew me in the beginning.You are like that tempting piece of chocolate in more ways than one.Beneath that shell of obstinacy and satire, you are caring of your family and loyal to a fault.”He teased the fine hairs at her temple before tucking the silken strands behind her ear.“You have an irresistible vivacity, a passion for life like no other.You live each day challenging convention.I find that incredibly alluring.And you’ve given that life back to me.Surely you can see that all of that is worth loving?”
Her lips parted at the softly spoken compliment, but Aylesbury wasn’t finished.The corner of his mouth kicked up.
“Unfortunately, you’re also too bloody smart for your own good, ruthlessly competitive, and infuriatingly tenacious, but even while it exasperates me to no end, I cannot help but love that about you as well.You always stick to your guns...even when it is not in my favor.”
“Harry, I...”
“No.Say nothing now, darling girl.”He brushed a soft, lingering kiss across her lips.“I’d rather give you some time to mull what I’ve said before you argue with me about it.”
“Who said I was going to argue about it?”she asked, propping herself on one elbow.
“I know you better than you might think, perhaps better than you know yourself.Consider that when you begin to doubt my words,” he teased, crossing the room—not to the door but to the open window overlooking the square.Leaning out the window, Aylesbury assessed his options.“I know you will be before my feet hit the ground.”
“Won’t you stay a while longer?”
