“I remember everything you said to me when we were in that church. Even if I was suffering an out-of-body experience, some part of me could hear you speaking.”
He actually looked nervous. “Everything?”
“Everything.”
For the first time since she’d met him, he appeared to be struggling to say the words threatening to burst from him.
Throwing her blankets aside, she pushed to her knees. “You said that you loved me. Did you mean it?”
“Of course, I meant it.” Scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck, he looked everywhere but at her. “I couldn’t think of anything worse than not having you at my side.”
“Then come here… and kiss me.”
“Edwina.” He tried to help her sit back down, but she was having none of it.
“I am not made of porcelain,” she scowled, “nor am I injured or feeble. And if you’re going to be my lover, then you had best bloody realize that right now.”
Sterling froze.
Edwina slid her arms around his neck. “I love you. I’m madly in love with you too, Sterling Reed, and I am finally daring to say it, because I don’t think I could imagine a world without you in it. I love you. And whilst I thought I’d had my fair share of engagement rings, if you were to go and fetch that little box, it might be the perfect time to put it on my finger before I come to my senses.”
And then she kissed him.
“Edwina Marie Sheffield,” he groaned, sliding his hands up her sides.
“I think I prefer the sound of ‘Edwina Marie Reed,’” she whispered against his lips.
Sterling broke away with a scowl. “I swear, you try to ruin every proposal I plan.”
Edwina blinked. And then she realized why he was so bloody nervous—why he’d been pacing and looking at his watch.
“You’re proposing? Again?”
He plucked the ring from his pocket, his eyes serious. “I was planning to. I was just waiting for the right moment.”
A breathless feeling swept through her. “This is most definitely the right moment.”
His startled eyes locked on hers. And then he smiled. “Is it?”
She held her hand out.
“Edwina Marie Sheffield, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” She trembled a little as he slid the ring over her finger. “A thousand times yes.”
“Good.” The word was rough silk in his throat.
Edwina grabbed his shirt collar and hauled him closer.
She kissed him again, lips soft and gentle as she learned him. It was a kiss to mark the tentative shifting of their nature.
How many times had she dreamed of this?
How many times had she closed her eyes and conjured this moment in her mind’s eye?
And none of them had ever come close to reality.
There was a physicality to the moment that she’d not understood. The sound of his breath catching as he cupped her face and deepened the caress. The slick of his tongue against hers, teasing her to open her mouth for him. The snick of their teeth against each other as they kissed and licked and ate of each other’s mouths.
