He took both of her hands in his.
His expression when he touched her nearly did her in. The relief in it. She nearly crumbled.
His thumbs moved in a slow, wondering caress over the back of her hands. As if he cherished every damned thing about her. As if he found everything about her a soft and lovely miracle.
“Daphne...” His voice was soft. A little gruff. “You love me, aye?”
She nearly laughed. She loved that he did not present this with any doubt.
She exulted that he knew her heart, and her most precious secret.
Her eyes filled with tears. “I love you. Aye,” she said thickly.
She watched these words transform him before her eyes. He was at once radiant and peaceful and certain.
He took a slow breath, accommodating the inrush of joy.
“I love you,” he confided to her.
He said it as though these were the secret words that rolled back the stone of a tomb. Like a vow. As though they were irrevocable law.
Her heart was wild with joy. She felt at one with the sun, she was so ablaze with it. How she’d wanted to be loved this way her entire life.
He cleared his throat.
“Daphne, I am here to tell you I am not going back to sea. I have joined Bolt, Hardy, and Delacorte as a member of the Triton Group, and when our agreement is made binding, I will officially be a land-bound merchant. Here is the draft of our partnership agreement.”
Not to be outdone by an earl, he’d brought documents.
She was astounded.
He released her hands, reached into his coat, and laid the documents on the table.
“I know you like an exquisite budget, Daphne. So if you’d like to peruse it, here is our proposed budget. And here are our projected earnings. And here is my expected share of them.” He pointed them out.
With a sense of unreality, hilarity, and genuine, delicious fascination, she did indeed take a little time to look at all of them. The numbers were practical yet heady.
“If we continue on this trajectory, we anticipate having a fleet of three to five ships withinthe next five years. I will be unbearably respectable. I might even run for Parliament.”
She gave a breathless laugh.
“I have twenty thousand five hundred and fifty-two pounds and a gold and ruby earring worth seven hundred and fifty pounds to my name. I have countless friends, some with titles and orangeries, some who slink through alleys at night. I doubtless have many enemies.”
He claimed one of her hands again.
“And I love you. I love you. I will lay down my body to keep you safe. I will pay your father’s debts—but one time only. I will buy you a home in London, lavish you with oranges and stockings, and with laughter and challenge. And I will spend the whole of my days making sure you understand the beauty of your own body and heart. No children will be more loved than ours. At night I will claim you, and make you mine again and again.”
He paused. “The pleasure I have known with you, lass...”
His voice cracked.
And just like that, Daphne’s body was on fire from head to toe.
“These are the terms of my offer, Daphne, and that is the nature of your risk. My fortune. My body. My heart.” He paused, and took in a long, steadying breath. “Me. I am offering me.” He waited, and what he saw in her face apparently gave him courage to continue. “I have come to ask you to marry me, and they are yours, if youwould do me the extraordinary honor of being my wife.”
And once again, there it was. The choice to leap from a crate into the dark into his safe arms.
She was already soaring. Her eyes filled and tears fell in little rivers. Words were impossible.
