She hadn’t dreamed it was possible. Hadn’t even contemplated what he was saying as a realistic possibility.
But Vale didn’t hide his emotions, didn’t attempt to mask them. He let his feelings for her shine in his eyes and she basked in the glory, letting his love thaw the wall she’d protected her heart behind since the day her father had walked out, since the first time she’d watched her mother walk down the aisle.
“This is crazy,” Vale muttered, and took her in his arms before she could say anything. “If you won’t let me tell you, if you won’t believe my words, I’m going to show you.”
With an offer like that on the table, Faith held her tongue. But when his lips covered hers, she kissed him back with the desperation of a woman who’d thought she’d forever lost the man she loved. With the joy of a woman who’d found him again.
Loved. Oh, God. She loved Vale.
With all her heart and all her being. Which left her so vulnerable. But if he was just as vulnerable to her, if he was there to look out for her vulnerable heart and vice versa, everything would be okay, right?
Oh! She couldn’t think about that right now. Not when Vale’s hands were everywhere. Cupping her face, tangled in her hair, beneath her blouse.
She didn’t stop him when he made haste of ridding her of her clothes. Didn’t stop him when he laid her back naked on the table while he shed his suit in record speed.
She certainly didn’t stop him when he spread her legs and thrust inside her. She clung to his shoulders, clung to his body, loving him with all her heart and all her body.
Deeper and deeper he surged inside her, taking her back to that magical place she’d
called Cape May but which had really been in his arms. Taking her back to explosive ecstasy.
Her thighs spasmed in sweet, hot throbs, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. With his heartbeat.
Their heartbeat.
“I love you,” she mouthed on the peak of her orgasm, feeling his body tighten against hers, feeling him lose his control and explode deep inside her.
Body slick with sweat, he rested his forehead against hers and stared into her eyes. “You’ll marry me?”
She bit the inside of her lower lip. “Marriage scares me.”
“I won’t settle for less, Faith. I want the world to know you’re mine.”
“And that you’re mine?”
“I am yours, Faith. Completely and irrevocably. I’ll never leave you. Trust me.”
Heart slamming against her ribcage, she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close. “It’s not as if I really have a choice, is it? Now that you’ve made up your mind you want to marry me, you won’t stop till I say yes.”
“We Wakefields always get what we want.”
She smiled up at him, awe still filling her at the magic this man had brought into her life. “You do realize that if we marry, I’ll be a Wakefield, too?”
He looked at her with pure unadulterated love reflecting in his eyes. “And what is it you want, Faith? Because I’ll give you anything within my power.”
“You.”
“You have me. Always and for ever.”
They dressed slowly—so slowly they ended up undressed again rather than clothed.
This time Vale made love to her more slowly, gently, staring into her eyes with each thrust of his body into hers. Deeper and deeper until he was so tangled with her she didn’t know where she ended and he began.
Her breaths came in ragged pants. Her heart beat thudded in arrhythmic bursts. Her soul merged with his.
When he came, she cried out his name, cradling him in her body, stunned by what they’d shared.
Stunned by how loved she felt.