“The lords want you to get married. Is this all about magic in case we go to war?”
Leo frowned. “Yes and no.”
“I’m going to need more than that.”
“I’m under pressure to get married quickly, but I’m not going to marry just for magic. I want to marryyou. There won’t be a wedding if you say no. I won’t go to Hannah or find someone else. If you are not my bride, then I won’t have one and that’s the end of it. I will ban the lords from this palace if they have a problem with that.”
“Even Lord Robert? You would give up the best wine on the continent?”
“It’s also the worst wine on the continent, but yes. No one except you and me gets to decide what happens next.”
“That’s how it always should have been.”
“You’re right. I know you hate me, Evelyn. But I know you love me, too.”
Leo presented a ring with a large, round sapphire surrounded by a halo of smaller diamonds on a silver band. He slipped it onto her finger. Evelyn’s eyes went wide, both at the beauty of it and the fact this wasn’t the first engagement ring she had worn that morning.
“Marry me, Evelyn.”
This is actually happening. He’s proposing. Leo wants to marry me.
“Kiss me.”
I need Leo to be my most recent kiss. I can’t consider his proposal when Haydn is the last man I touched. And I need Leo to be the one to kissmethis time.
Leo didn’t wait to be asked twice. Their lips met, and Evelyn felt every ounce of his love and apology and hope flow into her.
“Please, Evelyn,” he breathed.
“I want you,” she whispered.
“Is that a yes?”
A voice in the back of her mind screamed at Evelyn to say no.
You were just in bed with Haydn! Leo lied to you and went to Hannah! He hasn’t been willing to even hold your hand in front of other people, and now he wants to marry you? This doesn’t make any sense! Even your father thinks this is a bad idea!
But Leo’s ice-and-cobalt eyes were pleading with her to stay.
I fell for those eyes. I can forgive him for everything else. I can do this.
“Yes!”
Leo kissed her again, and Evelyn could feel him smiling. He touched her face and stroked her hair like he was reassuring himself it wasn’t a dream.
“What happens now?” Evelyn asked.
“I think we panic the staff by asking them to plan a wedding in two days.”
“Two days?”
“I would marry you this very minute if I could.”
“You did say we’re in a hurry.”
“But then we will have forever.”
Evelyn hugged Leo, clinging to him.
