His expression softened and relief flickered in his eyes. “And I love you, Isabella.”
She lost the battle to keep her tears at bay as they slipped down her cheeks. He thumbed one away, his fingers achingly gentle on her face.
“Why did you send me away?” he asked.
Her heart constricted. “I could not bear for you to give up everything for me.” She still couldn’t stand such a prospect.
“Don’t you realize youareeverything to me?”
His hand slipped behind her neck, and in one swift motion, he pulled her to him, crushing his lips against hers.
This was no gentle, loving kiss. It was the kiss of a man starved for a woman. The kiss of reunited souls.
She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, her lips melting against the pressure of his. She sucked his bottom lip between her teeth and nipped gently. His hands tangled in her hair, ran the length of her back and pulled her even closer to his body until they formed one seamless shape.
“I am never letting you go again,” he rasped as he pulled slightly away.
She gazed up at him, hopeful and yet fearful. Her original concerns were still there. Unresolved. How could she allow him to give up his life for her? How could his regent?
“What is this talk of marriage?” she asked as he took her hand and led her over to the settee. She forced a note of lightness to her voice, but inside, her heart was pounding thunderously against her chest.
He sat down and pulled her down to perch on his lap. “The regent suggested a political marriage. A union between our countries. An expression of goodwill.”
“Did he now?” She could no longer keep the worry from her voice. “And you just happened to be the one he chose to sacrifice?”
“Sacrifice? I would have started a bloody war if anyone else had been chosen.”
He stared at her, his gaze reaching into her innermost sanctum, delving deeply, uncovering her fears. “What is it that worries you, Isabella?”
She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and bit firmly into the flesh. “How do you feel about all this, Merrick? I cannot allow you to be used as a pawn by your regent. I could not bear for you to be unhappy. You’ve made your life protecting your country, and you do it very well.”
He smiled tenderly at her, understanding lighting his eyes. “Rest assured, my love. If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be. The regent was quite cross at the prospect of losing me. The fact is, Isabella, I cannot be happy without you, and I’d like to think I could make you happy as well.”
He cupped her chin and looked piercingly into her eyes.
“You’ve agonized over a choice you feel I would be forced to make should we want to be together, but there is no choice. There never was. From the moment I realized I loved you, there was no other choice for me but to do everything in my power to be with you.”
She swallowed against the emotion knotting her throat. Unable to call back her tears, they slipped once more down her cheeks. Never had she imagined hearing such powerful words. Words that sent a shaft of joy streaking through her heart.
It had been too long since she had felt anything beyond despair. And here, the man who meant everything to her sat telling her things she hadn’t dared hope to hear.
“Will you marry me, Isabella?” He looked intently at her, the full force of his love evident in every nuance of his demeanor.
Her heart flooded at his question. The tears ran faster down her face.
“Yes,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. She reached out with a shaking hand to cup his cheek. “Oh yes.”
She grinned broadly, her heart lighter than it had been in months.
He smiled and turned his mouth into her hand to kiss her palm. “That is the most wonderful word I have ever heard in my life.”
She closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. “I am sorry I hurt you, Merrick. I will never do so again. I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I swear it.”
He wrapped his arms solidly around her, holding her tightly as if afraid to let go. “We will make each other happy, my love. And we will tell our children our story so they may tell their children.”
She picked her head up and pressed her forehead to his so that they were eye to eye. She smiled the smile of a woman replete with the knowledge she had found happiness.
“Our future will be wondrous and our children will never tire of hearing how their mother and father fought their way over two countries in order to fulfill their destinies.”
