He turned and faced her. “I didn’t want to tell you because I feared the same rejection.” He took a step forward. “And rejection from you would truly end any reason for living.”
She sucked in a breath at the sincerity in his eyes. “Why?”
“Because I have come to love you. I married you for my children, but I now know you are as important to me as you are to them. Your presence in our lives has made us whole, a family.” He looked away. “I cannot be whole.” He returned his gaze to hers. “Yet with you, I wish it so with all of my being. I want to be the husband you need, the one you can depend upon, your protector and your champion. Ellie, please forgive me.”
Her throat closed with emotion at his impassioned plea. She blinked away the tears in her eyes. He wanted to be everything she’d always dreamed of but never expected.
Yet a niggling doubt remained. She swallowed hard, needing to ask. “But how could you think that I would act like Dinah?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Though I’ve constantly thought about how different you are from her, I feared having life return to how it had been with her. And after understanding how perfect you are, I became more worried, because you makeeveryone’s life better by being a part of it, and I couldn’t lose that.” He took another step closer. “I still can’t.”
Perfect? He thought herperfect? She was far from—
Maybe she was perfect forhim?
Darius took two more steps toward her before going down on one knee. “I am no more than a monster and don’t deserve your forgiveness, yet I kneel here before you, asking for it anyway, because there is nothing else I can do. Nothing I wish to do without you…my wife.”
Ellie’s chest tightened, warming as her love for her husband rushed back into her heart like the Great Comet of 1811. Tears fell down her cheeks and she knelt to join him. “Oh, my love. I do forgive you. You’ve been through so much, alone, fighting to survive. I can help. I could never let you continue alone now that I know the truth.”
“Ellie…” he whispered before pulling her to him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on to him as his sweet kiss healed her heart.
He pulled his head back and gazed at her, love clear in his eyes. “My Ellie. I love you and will until the stars fail to shine.”
She smiled. “You do realize that depends on which star.”
He chuckled. “All of them.”
She widened her eyes. “That’s forever.”
“Exactly.” He kissed her again, a sweet, gentle promise that he meant every word.
When he broke the kiss, she raised her brows. “And you promise to never lie to me again.”
“I—I do, but I reserve the right to lie about any happy surprise I may be preparing for you, such as a present.”
She pretended to ponder his caveat. “That is fair, as long as that applies to me as well.”
“I agree.”
An inkling of guilt tainted her perfect happiness. She needed to take Sophie’s advice. “I must also tell you something that, while I have not lied about it, I have not been forthcoming about either.”
“Truly? Then please, tell me.”
She blew air out from between her closed lips, her need to tell him fighting against her willingness to do so. “I tend to knock things over.” She watched his reaction, bracing for his surprise or questions, but mostly for his disappointment.
He smiled gently. “I know.”
“What? How?”
“My dear wife, we all know, except the children. Why do you think the flower vases are on the top shelf of a bookcase in my study?”
She frowned. “You said you disliked them.”
“Indeed, I do. Immensely. But I had them moved up there because I didn’t wish you to feel guilty for knocking one over, which you would have eventually, based on where they had been.”
Her surprise was complete, even if her heart melted at his thoughtfulness. Could he really still feel she was perfect for him? “You must know, I won’t ever be able to stop. I’ve tried. Mother had me take classes in walking, but I always failed. I’ll always be”—she swallowed hard at the word her mother always said—“clumsy.”
