The Stolen Princess
Page 34
“Is there ever a right moment?”
“Yes, I have to say it now, otherwise I will regret it all my life. I may—never mind.” She closed her eyes and told him, “I love you, Gabriel Renfrew, and I want you and need you to stay on as my husband, my real husband, and go to Zindaria with me, and grow old with me.”
There was a long silence. Gabriel felt as though he’d been hit by a falling tree. If a falling tree could make you want to shout and sing and dance.
He slipped out of bed and moved until he was close enough to smell her, close enough to see each individual eyelash fanned out across her pale satiny cheek, but not close enough to touch her. If he touched her, he wouldn’t trust himself to be able to speak. And the words needed to be said.
“Why are you saying all this with your eyes closed?” he asked gently.
“Because I’m a coward.” Her eyes were still shut tight.
“No, you’re not.”
“I am. I’m scared to look, scared to ask. In case it’s no.”
“Open your eyes.”
She cautiously opened them, bracing herself for whatever he might say.
He smiled, crookedly, and said the words he’d had locked in his heart for so long. “I fell in love with you the first time I met you, when you were standing on a cliff top, wet, tired, angry, frightened, and beautiful. I’ve fallen more in love with you every day I’ve known you, and I can’t imagine that ever changing.”
Her eyes shimmered with tears. “Oh, Gabriel, is that really true?”
“It is, my dearest love.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I have a house, a family, friends, and fortune in England, it’s true, but everything I want is right here in my hands. Everything. You are my home, my family, my purpose, and my heart.” And then he kissed her.