by Mary Balogh
She smiled at him and stopped herself from rushing across the room toward him. She sank her teeth into her lower lip.
“Philippa,” he said.
She blinked away tears.
“My love,” he said, “will you marry me?”
If she had pictured bended knee and a poetic speech and a few dozen red roses, the picture vanished beyond a trace.
“Yes,” she said.
And if she had imagined the pretty speech she would deliver after he had asked, it was gone from her mind never to be recalled.
He took one step toward her and then another, and she released her lower lip and moved toward him.
They met with a rush in the middle of the room, both of them laughing, and he wrapped his arms about her, lifted her off her feet, and spun her around in two complete circles before setting her down.
But he did not release his hold on her waist. She set her hands on his shoulders and gazed into his eyes.
She had never been this close to him before, even when they had waltzed. His arms had never been about her like this, holding her to him as if he would never let go. She had never felt the hardness, the maleness of his body against her own. She had never felt his breath warm on her face.
He had never kissed her. His mouth hovered now a tantalizing inch from her own.
“I love you,” he murmured.
Her lips parted, and she gazed back into his eyes—oh, so close to her own.
“I love you too.”
How lame words could be. Especially such words. But it did not matter. It was not words they were saying to each other. It was all that the words meant.
He loved her, and she loved him.
He closed the inch of space, and his lips touched hers.
Oh, no, words were quite, quite unnecessary. Except that they echoed in the mind, the words everyone dreamed of hearing from that special someone and dreamed of saying in return.
I love you.
Her arms twined about his neck, his wrapped more tightly about her waist, and they kissed with all the passion of young love.
Words no longer existed.
To Melanie McKay
who bid upon and won the package I donated to the Charity Royale auction in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Proceeds went to My Aunt’s Place, a homeless shelter for women and children.
One item of the package was the right to have her name used as a character in my next book. Melanie asked that the name be her sister’s rather than her own.
My heroine in this book is, therefore, Samantha McKay (nee Saul).
BY MARY BALOGH
The Survivors’ Club Series
THE PROPOSAL • THE ARRANGEMENT • THE ESCAPE
The Mistress Series
MORE THAN A MISTRESS • NO MAN’S MISTRESS • THE SECRET MISTRESS
The Huxtable Series
FIRST COMES MARRIAGE • THEN COMES SEDUCTION • AT LAST COMES LOVE • SEDUCING AN ANGEL • A SECRET AFFAIR
The Simply Quartet
SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE • SIMPLY LOVE • SIMPLY MAGIC • SIMPLY PERFECT
The Slightly Series
SLIGHTLY MARRIED • SLIGHTLY WICKED • SLIGHTLY SCANDALOUS • SLIGHTLY TEMPTED • SLIGHTLY SINFUL • SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS
Beloved Classic Novels
A SUMMER TO REMEMBER • ONE NIGHT FOR LOVE • THE IDEAL WIFE • THE SECRET PEARL • A PRECIOUS JEWEL • THE GILDED WEB • WEB OF LOVE • THE DEVIL’S WEB • A CHRISTMAS PROMISE
DARK ANGEL/LORD CAREW’S BRIDE • THE FAMOUS HEROINE/THE PLUMED BONNET • THE TEMPORARY WIFE/A PROMISE OF SPRING • A CHRISTMAS BRIDE/CHRISTMAS BEAU • A COUNTERFEIT BETROTHAL/THE NOTORIOUS RAKE