“I want to change for you, for me, for Charlotte. You make me want that. Being a better man never occurred to me before I met you. I thought I’d be forever a hollow vessel waiting for judgement day, but there’s this voice that’s been filling up that unending emptiness, a voice of reason and passion.Yourvoice.” He placed his arms on either side of her head, trapping her with both his body and his gaze. “I thought I was being punished for my sins, but fate brought us together. I see now I was but a fool to not take you in my arms and hold you to me forever.” He leaned down and spoke low in her ear. “For all your logic, you missed something important in your righteous speech of flaws and impossibilities. Something that puts paint to all of it.”
Camille shook her head. “Affection isn’t enough.”
“Damn it, woman! I meant nothing of the sort.” He grabbed her by the shoulders, his gaze intense. “We are perfect for each other because we’re both too damnstubbornto lose.”
*
His kiss wasn’tgentle. Rough and frenzied, it was a culmination of emotion over the past months: anger, regret, anguish, and love.
Camille folded into his embrace and pushed back everything he gave, a floodgate deep inside bursting open. Teeth clashing, tongues thrusting, fingernails digging in, their clothes torn from their bodies. They wrestled in a tangle of partial clothes and limbs to the floor, neither wishing to hand over control.
But after a moment, their manic embraces turned gentler, slower. The rest of their clothing was stripped off with care, the brush of fabric against naked skin heightening their passion instead of quelling it.
Renard pulled back suddenly and stared down at her. “I won’t chase you anymore.”
Camille stilled, her heart giving a painfulthud.
“I’m going to follow you,” he said.
Camille turned to him sharply, his words eliciting another, more frequent beating in her chest.
“Wherever you go, whatever you need, however long it takes. If you wish to patrol the streets and fight villains every night, I’ll be there, offering support, flippant observations, and as many rocks as it takes for you to learn to trust me again.”
He got down on one knee, handsome and statuesque in not a stitch of clothing, and took out a velvet box from his coat on the floor. “But there’s only one rock I ask you take in the beginning, a symbol of my loyalty and faith in us.”
Camille shook her head even as her heart was flying. “Marriage won’t solve anything—”
He opened the box.
There, nestled in a silken pillow, was indeed a rock, the one she’d used to defend herself against Hawkins.
Her eyes filled with moisture as her voice filled with awe. “You kept it all this time?”
His eyes danced. “No matter the obstacle, I will overcome it for you. I will change to be a man you can rely on, show weakness to, and cherish you all the more for it. Whatever life I have left, I give to you, to do with as you wish. If I can spend the rest of my life arguing with you, I will consider myself a blessed man.”
Remembering Lord Quickner’s toast at the party, and the unfortunate near-death accident that had followed, Camille said with a tight gut, “You shouldn’t tempt fate.”
Renard’s eyes blazed. “I’d tempt the very Devil for a chance at a life with you.”
Camille’s heart sang, somehow whole and pounding, as if the past year was nothing but a nightmare. Every conceivable reason to keep apart had burned to ash in his confession. He hadn’t any involvement in the murders. Though she’d wished otherwise, there was no child between them to obligate his declaration. She’d done nothing in the past year but make the wrong decisions, brought on by wrong conclusions. But for once, the emotions in her heart felt right.
“I will not let you.” She smoothed the sudden furrow on his brow and did her best to explain. “You cannot overcome everything alone. I learned the power of family since I left. Without those around whom you can trust and rely on, we are weak, alone. If we are to do this, we will do it together or not at all.” She smiled. “I will be there. As your wife.”
Renard startled. “But you said—”
“I know what I said. I changed my mind.”
He sighed, the tension leaving his shoulders. He laid her on her back and smoothed the hair from her face. “And I’m done being an idiot and asking questions when I should be kissing your feet in gratitude.” Resting himself on his elbows on either side of her head, he kissed her forehead and promised, “Together, my Milly.”
And their fates were sealed with a kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
They’d left forGretna Green the instant they’d finished their reconciliation—two hours and several ‘arguments’ later. They’d lost so much time already, neither Camille’s head nor her heart argued the need for expedited recompense.
Less than a week since their ‘talk’ and the vows were spoken, the documents signed, and the sight of Scotland’s rolling hills were long in the carriage’s posterior window. The carriage that lurched over a rut in the blasted road, informing Camille they were back on English soil.
“You wrote to Charlotte, yes?” Renard asked.
