Her eyes flickered open.
“Have you ever heard the verse that starts, “’Love is patient, love is kind…’”
A smile tipped her lips. “It isn’t jealous, boastful, or proud…” she summarized.
“It doesn’t demand its own way. It isn’t selfish,” Emerson continued, twisting a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You, first.”
“It never gives up,” Jaxsen murmured against his lips. “Are you saying you love me?”
“Are you saying you don’t love me?” he asked, then nipped her lower lip before deepening the kiss. “Because that could be a problem. I might have to do some convincing.”
“I don’t mind being convinced.” She smiled; he could taste it on her lips.
“Minx.”
“Spy.”
“Menace to my sanity.” He groaned against her lips, his noble intentions to bringing her to his bed to actually sleep, slowly unwinding.
“Thief.”
Emerson chuckled. “That’s entirely too accurate. You did steal my heart quite completely.”
“Protector.” She nipped his lower lip then leaned back. “Protector of what I steal.”
“It’s not stealing if you give it,” Emerson whispered.
“I’m still keeping it.” Jaxsen reached up and smoothed her hand along his jawline.
“Did I imply I wanted it back?” he teased, tilting his chin to kiss her palm. “Shall we make it official?” He kissed her then, searchingly, needing her answer before he dared to ask the words.
He tasted surrender in the woman who never surrendered.
He tasted vulnerability in the woman who had no visible chinks in her armor.
He tasted hope in a woman jaded by the world.
“Marry me,” he murmured, the words an arrow aimed at his own heart if she ever rejected him.
“Yes.” She fairly leapt at him, and he caught her under her sweet bottom and kissed her till he could feel her heart racing as quickly as his own. He took them upstairs then placed her on what would be their bed for years and decades.
Come what may, one thing was to be certain.
She might not bear his children, but she would bear his name.
And that was more than enough.
Because love was never lacking.
Love always won.
Epilogue
Seven years later
Collette stood on the bow of the mighty steamshipBeholden. The Atlantic Ocean spread before her like a wild blue promise of something new.
A new beginning.
