To Lucy’s surprise he reached out to trail a finger down her cheek. “The truth, Lucy. I told them the truth.”
Lucy’s lips ached to kiss his fingertip. “What is the truth, Ciaran? I hardly know anymore.” She knew her own truth, but she wasn’t sure she knew his. “Tell me what you told your brothers.”
The moonlight caught a glint of humor in his blue eyes. “I told them we met on a beach in Brighton, that I saved you from drowning, and the only thanks I got for it was a broken nose.”
Lucy let out an outraged squeak. “I wasn’t drowning! And I didn’t break your nose. Only bent it.”
“Then I told them about how you wandered into a bare-knuckle bout to do some sketching, and were nearly trampled in a brawl,” Ciaran went on, as if she hadn’t spoken. “I explained how I saved you from certain death a second time, and all I got for that was another kick, this time to the chest.”
Lucy’s mouth dropped open. Dear God, she’d never be able to look his brothers in the eyes again. “That’s not how it—”
“I told them despite your numerous assaults on me, we somehow became best friends. I told them we met on the beach every morning afterward, and watched the sun rise together. That we talked for hours.” He was quiet for a moment, looking down at their entwined hands, but then he looked up. His gaze caught hers, and there was something there—something she’d never seen before. “I told them you brought me back to life, Lucy.”
A sound broke from Lucy’s lips—a sigh, a gasp, a sob. Oh, how could she refuse him, when he looked at her like that? He was stealing her will, melting her heart.
“I told them if it hadn’t been for you, I’d be in Scotland right now. They didn’t care for that, especially Lachlan. So, I begged their pardons for nearly betraying their trust. Then I told them I was grateful, Lucy—so grateful I hadn’t gone. Grateful I was still here with the people I love.”
Lucy caught her breath. That look on his face, the break in his voice when he’d uttered that last word. She could almost imagine he’d meant it…
Forher.
“Ciaran—”
“No. Let me finish.” He raised her hand to his mouth and brushed his warm lips over her knuckles. “I told them you disappeared from Brighton without a trace soon afterward, and I followed you to London because I was worried for you. I must have known, even then, that if anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself for it.”
Words crowded onto Lucy’s tongue, words of love and fear and hope, but she didn’t speak them yet. Instead she lifted his hand to her mouth and returned his kiss with a press of her lips to his palm.
Ciaran’s eyes darkened to a stormy blue. “I didn’t explain much about what happened with Jarvis and Godfrey, but I did tell them I stayed in London to court you, because the idea of Vale doing it made me wild with jealousy.”
Lucy’s eyes went wide. She recalled Ciaran had been inexplicably angry when she’d told him her plans for Lord Vale, but she’d never guessed it was jealousy.
“My brothers found that part hysterically funny.” Ciaran gave her a wry smile. “It seems I may have boasted in the past about never being such a fool as to be jealous over a woman, but I never have been before, Lucy. Not even with Isobel. Only with you.”
Lucy didn’t realize she was crying until Ciaran brushed a tear from her cheek. “I told my brothers you’d refused to marry me. That you didn’t want to marry at all, and that I—I couldn’t make you change your mind. Not even for me. I told them…I told them you’d broken my heart.”
“I—I’ve broken your heart?” If she’d broken his heart, that meant…didn’t that mean…
His heart washers?
“Shattered it. I’m in love with you, Lucy.” Ciaran tried to smile. “But I’m still your friend. I’ll always be your friend, no matter what else happens.”
“But Scotland, and…and Isobel Campbell. I thought…you told me—”
“I told you I wanted to return to Scotland. I told myself that, too.” Ciaran raised her hand to his lips again. “I was wrong. I haven’t thought about Isobel in weeks. Not since I met you.”
“You don’t love her anymore? You were wrong?”
“I was wrong. Can’t a man be wrong?” Ciaran let out a shaky breath, and then he started speaking very quickly, the words pouring out of him in an incoherent stream. “Isobel is my past, Lucy, but you…you’re my future. There’s only one reason I want to marry you, and it has nothing to do with our friendship, or your uncle, or because I’ve compromised you, or because I think I have to save you. How could it be, when it’s you who’s saved me?”
Tears were flowing freely down Lucy’s face now. “W-we saved each other, I think.”
Ciaran took her face in his hands. “I want to marry you because I’m in love with you, Lucy. I’ve been in love with you for weeks, ever since you kicked me in the face.”
“If I’d known that’s all it would take to make you fall in love with me, I would have kicked you in the face a dozen more times by now.” A broken sound left her lips, and then she was in his arms. “I love you too, Ciaran. I’ve been in love withyoufor weeks, ever since that morning on the beach when I broke your nose.”
“You didn’t break it. My nose, or, thank God, my heart. Say it again.”
She twined her arms around his neck, laughing even as tears flowed down her cheeks. “I love you, Ciaran.”
