He couldn’t possible mean what she thought, could he?
“Y-you would?” she squeaked, hardly daring to believe it.
“I would,” he confirmed with a self-deprecating smile that she found more endearing than any of the charm he’d bestowed on her previously.
“I love you, Olivia. I loved you from that first moment in your father’s garden, three years ago. Back then, I tried to convince myself you meant nothing. That I hated you as I always had. That I had too much pride to care for a woman who set fire to my curtains and threw me into rivers,” he grinned swiftly before he was all seriousness once again. “But pride is a poor substitute for the woman I love, and I won’t let it get in my way again.”
Olivia’s heart soared at his words.
Dear lord, could he really mean it? Could she really be this lucky?
“This isn’t a trick, is it?” she whispered, almost afraid to believe him.
He laughed softly.
“Of course it’s not a trick! I adore you, sweetheart. I never thought it possible to feel as much love as I do for you.”
“Alex,” she sniffled, her eyes filling with tears that she made no effort to stop. “I love you, too. So very much. I’m so glad I didn’t drown you in the river.”
His laugh was short-lived as his eyes lit in triumph before he pulled her face to his for a heart-stopping kiss.
She could have this every day, Olivia realised. Every day, forever.
“Marry me,” he finally whispered, his forehead pressed against her own. ”I know how much you like to fight me but if you will concede on this, I promise to let you win every fight from now until we die.”
Olivia laughed through her tears.
She thought her heart would burst from sheer happiness.
“Let me win, indeed,” she scoffed but couldn’t keep the smile from her face. ”I will win whether you allow it or not, Alexander Stratford.”
“Is that a yes?” he demanded, his hands moving ever so slowly to the strings of her cloak.
“That is a most definite yes,” she gasped as he removed the garment and began to nibble wickedly on her neck.
“Finally,” he growled as his mouth moved lower still. ”We agree on something.”
Epilogue
“Christmastide in London again. Your mother will be disappointed that we’re not at Fincham Hall.”
“She’ll get over it,” Alex drawled, pulling his wife onto his lap. “The children would be so very bored making the journey. Surely it’s better to stay here where they’re happy and settled?”
“That’s an excuse and you know it,” Olivia grinned.
Her heart stuttered as Alex’s lips found the pulse on her neck, and he grinned against her skin feeling for himself the effect he had. Not that it should surprise him. Five years of marriage had done nothing to dull his effect on every part of her.
“We’ll blame Jane, then,” he said, his hands moving torturously over her body. “Say that she wanted us to be in London for her first yuletide season as a mother. After all, she married my solicitor. Christmas is a busy time of year for him.”
Olivia was become very much past the point of coherent thought, and he knew it.
Suddenly he lifted her so he could reposition her, her skirts hitched up, her thighs either side of his own.
“I will never forget that night on Scandal Lane,” he whispered gruffly. “In my carriage, you sitting on me like this, looking at me with those incredible eyes. I was in agony for wanting you so much.”
Olivia smiled a wicked little smile as she lifted herself from him and moved her hands to his breeches.
“And I’ll never forget how exquisite you made me feel, though if I remember correctly, you weren’t exactly relieved from your agony.”
