I laugh. “You’re a dear, you know.”
His hundred-watt smile grows even brighter and I madly long to kiss him. No, I’ll never wish to be done with Ansel James Winthrop.
But I choose to be. For his sake.
“You take your memories for granted, AJ. You know who you are and where you fit into the world. All I have is…blanks. And they’re not coming back. What if the things I’ve forgotten prove…dangerous?”
He tugs me close to him until I’m embraced by his luminous energy and eternal, deep-seated delight in the world. Inme.A body canfeelwhen they’re loved by AJ.“Then let us fill those blanks with new memories.” He speaks into my hair. “Scores and scores of memories, all the firsts and the best and the worst. Anywhere you like. Egypt, India…Liverpool.”
“Liverpool?” I giggle through my tears.
He leans back and shrugs in his playful way. “I’m sure it’s exotic to someone.” He flashes a grin. “Forget the old memories. If they don’t want to stick around, fine. We’ll build you an entire catalog of new ones, from the mundane moments to the grandest, most exhilarating once-in-a-lifetime experiences a lady has ever had.”
“How many once-in-a-lifetime experiences are you suggesting?”
“Three or four at least, to start.” He runs one fingertip along my jaw. “But of course, you have to marry me first.” A wink.
Hope tries to surface.
Don’t do this to him.
“Very well then, how’s about this? An arrangement.” He drops his hand, leaving me slightly bereft. “I’ll offer you nothing more than my name and protection for the moment. Seeing as you need both rather urgently.”
Nothing could be more true.
“Then later, when you fall madly in love with me,” he says, touching one dark curl, “you can say the word and we’ll give this marriage a go. There, now. Not a bad scheme, is it?”
I imagine kissing that smiling mouth. Kissing it often and easily. Dancing through life and laughing our fool heads off, delighting in each other and our life to the end of our days.
“I’m under no delusion that you’re in love with me, Merryn. You told me as much when you proposed this…this little arrangement.”
I blink. “I—”
“But I do believe you need me. And that you’d be foolish to make a go of it on your own, with that Sabine out for your blood.” He moves closer. “Please, let me do this for you. Marry me now, and it’ll free us to go wherever we wish. Two adventurers with the right to strike out together.” He smiles invitingly, almost with a challenge, as he lobs the decision back to me.
He is nearly too good to be true. Too wonderful, too patient. Perhaps I should look deeper into his motives, and into my own past that surely exists somewhere, but so much good fortune has befallen me since the accident, as if God is making up for the gaping loss, that it seems foolish to poke at it.
No ring. No response to the advert. Nothing but vague images that might or might not be actual memories.
I smile, placing my palms flat on his suit jacket. A tickle of good humor sparkles inside, his amusement contagious. “Very well, Lord Winthrop, I believe I shall.”
His smile is wide at the use of our playful moniker. He flings his arms around me, and we fall back together as he laughs.
I scramble to regain control and push back his boyish enthusiasm. “This may come at great cost.”
A lopsided grin. “You might tire of my company.”
I press my lips together in a smile. “Suppose you burnmytoast.”
“I’m fastidious about my bread. Well then, my lady.” He rises and offers me his arm. “Shall we wed?”
I blink up at him. “What,now?It must be half an hour into the ceremony. Won’t they wonder where we’ve been?”
“Let them wonder. I love to be interesting.”
I laugh, each exhale releasing tension. This will be a sweet memory stamped upon the fresh pages of my new story. A mix of the appalling and the marvelous. Heady intensity and gloriouswonder. I don’t wish to look back upon the mess I made of this day, but I will forever remember the way Ansel James Winthrop charmed me into joy. Again.
“Come on,” he says with a conspiratorial wink. “Let’s go shock them all.”
