Bemused at the sound of his chuckling as he fell to his side on the bed, I smiled uncertainly. “What?”
“I need to shower again.”
“Worth it though, right?”
His smile died, a solemnity falling over his features. Pulling me into his arms on the now-damp bed, Lachlan brushed his mouth over mine and whispered, “You’re worth everything.”
Romantic bastard. I grinned, pleased, snuggling into him. “Don’t go to work today. Let’s just stay in bed.”
“Okay.”
I lifted my head, surprised. “Really?”
“Do you want me to?”
“I don’t want to keep you from work.”
“Do you want me to stay with you?” he pushed.
In truth, yes. We hadn’t had a full day together in weeks. “I want you to stay with me.”
“I want to stay with you too. I will always want to be where you are over anywhere else in the world. All you have to do is ask.”
“You’re very romantic this morning,” I teased.
Lachlan smiled. “Have you read the news? I’m madly in love with an American photographer.”
I shimmied with giddiness, unable to hide it whenever he said it to me. The man had the ability to turn me to jelly. It wasn’t fair. “I did read that somewhere. I also read that she’s madly in love right back.”
“Good,” he said gruffly, trailing kisses down my neck.
“So you’re taking the day off?”
He raised his head and answered, “Well, let’s see. Deal with a myriad of queries from staff and members or spend the day making love to my w—” He cut off, looking surprised.
“What is it?”
“I … I almost called you my wife.”
I grinned, unable to contain the explosive feeling that moved through me. “Really?”
Lachlan’s blue eyes turned a lighter shade of azure as he studied my reaction. “It sounds right, doesn’t it? It never sounds right calling you my girlfriend. That sounds impermanent.” He scowled. “Wife is better.”
The caveman quality to the way he grunted it made me snort. “Is that a proposal?”
Lachlan’s eyebrows rose. “Is that a yes?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been proposed to.”
“I thought you’d think it was too soon.”
Deflating quickly and miserably, I shrugged, easing away from him. “Of course.”
Refusing to accept my retreat, Lachlan rolled on top of me, straddling me as he gently held my arms down above my head. I felt a renewed flush of heat between my legs. He stared at me, amazed. “You would marry me?”
“You haven’t asked,” I repeated.
His expression darkened with something beyond desire. “I would ask you in a heartbeat. I didn’t want to rush you into anything.”
The joy that blossomed before began to bloom again. We’d talked so much over the last few months about what we wanted in life, I had no doubt that our wants and needs aligned. Lachlan never thought about having kids, but now that he’d found me, he seemed eager to get started on that whenever I was ready. Being a decade older than I was, I knew he didn’t want to wait too long, so we wouldn’t. We’d travel a bit first, and then we’d start a family.
I could see it playing out in my mind.
And it was more gold than I ever imagined I’d mine from my life.
With Lucy’s trial hanging over us like a dark cloud, the thought of planning beyond that filled me with the kind of anticipation I didn’t realize both of us needed.
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” I promised him. “And you know when I make up my mind about something, I don’t fuck around.”
Lachlan smiled, a smile I’d never seen on him before.
It erased every shadow in the back of his eyes, every cynical line between his brows.
It took my breath away.
As did his next words. “A man should plan a proposal better than this, and I promise there will be a grander one with a ring and all the traditional stuff … but I can’t leave this bed without asking now. Without knowing I leave it with a promise. Robyn Galbraith Penhaligon, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
I bit my lip to stop the stupid girlish squeal from escaping and nodded frantically.
Lachlan laughed. “Was that a yes?”
“Yes!” I yelled and then escaped his hold and grappled him onto his back. I peppered his face and chest with kisses and said, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” feeling him shake against me with laughter.
And I didn’t care about a ring or him planning a romantic dinner or whatever people were supposed to do when they proposed. All I cared about was this feeling. This laughter and joy between us that came from deep within our very souls.
Epilogue
LACHLAN
For a moment as Lachlan contemplated his companions, he smirked at the thought of what the tabloids would do to get their hands on a shot of his stage office right now. He would have used his real office, but it was too small. Instead he’d shut the door of this one, with one of the footmen, Gerard, standing guard outside in case a guest came knocking.