“It is worth that risk, isn’t it? Katherine, I love you.”
She jerked and her hand began to tremble, but she didn’t take it away. She just stared at him like he was speaking another language.
“I love you,” he repeated. “I haven’t properly shown it, I know that, because I feared it so deeply. But that didn’t mean I could run from it. I love how you challenge me and match me. I love how you open me, how I trust you to do that in return. I love when you touch me, my body, of course, but my heart. My soul. You have made me see what I’m missing in my life and all of it is you.”
Her breath came shallow now, short, and he kept going for fear she would stop him and turn away.
“I started out so badly with you. If I could go back in time and change everything I did, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would scream at my younger self to marry you. To keep you from ever enduring what you went through because of my cowardice. And I would tell that man I was just a few weeks ago that I was empty and awful when I made that stupid wager.”
“But you can’t go back,” she said at last.
He bent his head. Her voice was shaking, and he was gripped with terror and pain. What he said likely didn’t matter. If she had ever cared for him, he had destroyed those feelings.
“No,” he said. “I can’t. If you despise me, I understand. I will do as you wish, whatever that is.”
“Look at me,” she said. He looked up, meeting her eyes no matter how difficult it was. She reached out and then her fingers were touching his cheek, just as she’d done a hundred times. He leaned into her warmth, knowing it might be the last time he shared it. “It would be nice to be able to go back in time. To fix our mistakes. Only it is the mistakes, the pains, that sometimes take us to where we want to be, isn’t it?”
He blinked. This was not an outright rejection. “Yes, I suppose it is.”
“I could wish my marriage away, but perhaps I wouldn’t be the person I am today without what I went through. We could wish you would have married me that night I came to you, but who is to say you wouldn’t have hated me for trapping you? That you wouldn’t have been ready, nor would I, for what we now share.”
“What are you saying?” he asked, truly confused and yet hopeful.
She smiled. And he knew. He knew that she would forgive him even if he didn’t deserve it. He knew that she would love him. He saw it, he felt it, he flew with it, and the world faded away, leaving only her.
“I-I love you,” she whispered. “I didn’t want to. I tried not to. Only you saw me, as no one else has ever done. And I see you, beneath the layers you wear as a cloak for the world, there is Robert.MyRobert. Who I love and trust. I was so angry when I heard you talking to Berronburg. But if I walked away from you because of it, I would be tearing out my heart and throwing it away, too. I can’t. I won’t.”
“So what do we do now?” he asked.
“You apparently told the world you would marry me. Will you?”
He laughed, joyful at the unexpected turn of events. “Isn’t that what I am supposed to say?”
“Neither of us has ever stood on convention. But if you want to say it, I would love to hear it.”
He dropped to his knee before her and stared up into her beautiful face. The one that reflected his future. The one that reflected the best version of himself.
“Katherine, I am far from perfect, but I love you so deeply. And I want nothing more than to join my life with yours forever, if you will have my hand. Will you please look past all my faults and marry me? As soon as possible.”
Tears flowed down her cheeks and she reached forward to cup his cheeks. “Robert,Iam far from perfect. And we will make ridiculous mistakes, I know. But the fact is that I am truly myself when I am with you. And to walk away from that, from you, would be like cutting away a piece of myself. Iwillmarry you. Today, tomorrow, whenever you like. I love you so very much.”
He lifted up on his knees and she leaned forward. They met in the middle, lips colliding, arms crushing around each other in a kiss he had been wanting for days and needing his whole life. And as he drowned in her, he knew that there was nothing else in the world that he would ever need but the woman in his arms.
For the first time, he looked forward to the future. And he couldn’t wait to see what their lives would bring.
