Tempest in Eden

"You … you jerk!" she screamed. "Get out. This is the last time you're going to do this to me."

He spun around, towering over her. "Shay, listen. You—"

"You listen. I'm a woman. And I love being human flesh and blood. It beats being a cold-blooded bastard like you."

"I know all too well that you're a woman. I—"

"If making love to me is so loathsome, if I'm not wholesome enough, not good enough—"

He dropped down and gripped her shoulders hard, drawing her up and shaking her ruthlessly. His face was fierce in the firelight, with stark planes and ominous shadows. "Don't say—"

"I'll say anything I like."

"Shay, listen to me."

"No! I've had enough of—"

"I love you, damn it," he roared.

His sudden ferociousness, his curse, not to mention what he'd said, stopped her tirade with reverberating abruptness. When she remained speechless, he said more calmly, "Marry me."

Chapter Eight

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If he had just confessed to being a drug addict, a closet pervert, or an axe murderer, she couldn't have been more dumbfounded. Her mouth went slack with disbelief. In his eyes she could see her own reflection, her wide eyes and shocked expression.

When the full impact of his words penetrated, the tears that had been threatening all day finally came. She bowed her head and began to sob.

"Shay, what— Why are you crying?"

She flung off his arms, and disregarding the warning he had issued weeks ago, she both cursed him and pounded his chest with knotted fists. "Damn you! Damn you! You're cruel. Do you hear me, Reverend Douglas? Cruel!"

Tears rolled unceasingly down her face as she continued to pummel him. He accepted the blows, making no effort to stop her. At last she slumped against him exhausted.

"I swear I didn't say that as a way to have sex with you." He framed her face with his hands and tilted it up to look into her swimming eyes. "If that were all I wanted"—he smiled crookedly—"it wouldn't have taken me this long to say a few romantic words."

She gulped, swallowing hard. "Why did you say you loved me? Why did you ask me to marry you?"

"Because I do love you. And I want more than anything for you to be my wife."

She sobbed again, pushing away from him and rising to her feet. "That's impossible! You know it is. Why are you doing this to me?"

He followed her up and grasped her shoulders from behind. "Shay," he said quietly, "do you love me?"

She stopped sobbing, though tears still fell silently down her cheeks. She turned to him and met his inquiring eyes solemnly. "Yes." Her lips trembled, and her hands were shaky as she raised them to his shoulders. She rested her wet cheek against his heart. "Yes, yes, yes." She celebrated the words, chanting them. "It's crazy, ridiculous, but I do love you. I've known I was falling in love with you for weeks, but I didn't want to be." She looked sadly back up at him. "It's hopeless, Ian. Impossible."

He pressed her head back down to his chest and hugged her tightly. His lips moved in her hair. "It's not. We won't let it be impossible."

"But you're you and I'm me and—"

"We complement each other beautifully."

"I can't be a pastor's wife."

"How do you know? You've never tried it. You said yourself that you enjoyed this weekend."

"But a weekend isn't a lifetime."