Slowly, carefully, she eased from his grasp, lifting her head so she could look into his eyes and meet that questioning gaze head-on.
‘That’s why I had to bring this back to you.’
Raoul’s burning eyes went down to the documents she held. The legal forms that sorted out the whole sorry mess that she and her father had been. Financial provision for the stud, the stallion Blackjack and the small fortune needed to pay her father’s debts, and keep them solvent for many years to come.
‘I can’t take it, Raoul—I don’t want it.’
‘But how will you manage if you don’t? I wanted to give it to you. I wanted you to have it. I wanted to try to repay all the wrong that I’d done you. The way I rejected you. It will never be enough…’
‘No,’ Imogen agreed and she saw the way that shock landed like a blow on his face, bringing his head up high and sharp. ‘No, this is not enough, Raoul.’ She smiled sadly. ‘And it will never be.’
‘Then what else do you need? How can I make sure that you’re happy going forward? How can I give you everything you need?’
‘You can’t.’
‘But I will. I’ll try. Just ask and—’ he began, but she reached up a hand to lay it across his mouth, closing his lips, silencing him.
‘There isn’t enough money in the world to give me everything I need,’ she told him, turning her hands so she was holding onto his arms, feeling the warmth of his skin, the strength of powerful muscle even through the papers she still held. ‘Because money won’t do it. Money can never do that.’
She knew her words had hit home when she felt his total stillness, the tension that held his muscles taut, his long body pressed against hers.
‘You don’t want…’
It was as if he was exploring his thoughts, and trying to discover hers, finding his way slowly through a mass of confusions; travelling blind, as if he was afraid to find that the truth he’d thought he was aiming for was in fact something entirely different. And it was that hesitancy that made her heart swell with the thought that she’d judged him right and he really understood.
‘I don’t want anything that money can buy,’ she assured him. ‘How can that give me everything I need when what I need…’
At this last moment her nerve almost failed her and she had to snatch in a hard, strengthening breath in order to be able to continue.
But when she looked into his face, and saw the beginning of hope start to flare in the depths of his eyes, she knew she’d made the right move, staked all her future on the right hope. The answer to what she needed was right here in front of her.
‘You said you wanted to make sure that I’m happy going forward. And the truth is that the only way I can be happy going forward is if you go forward with me.’
‘You want me?’ It was just a breath.
‘I want you.’ His faintness made her strong and the declaration was brave and bold, joy spreading along every vein, every nerve, bringing a brilliant, assured smile to her face.
‘I want you. And only you. I love you, Raoul. You are my future—the only life I want is with you.’
‘And me with you.’
Raoul rubbed a hand across his eyes, blinking hard as he focused on her uplifted, intent face.
‘Is it possible? Can we really try again? Begin afresh? Can we have a future?’
Imogen felt her lips curve into the smile that was growing inside her heart.
‘Why not try?’
She hadn’t even finished speaking before he was down on one knee before her, holding her hand tight, looking up into her face with an expression that spoke of a near-desperate hope, a longing to get this right.
‘Imogen, will you do me the real honour of being my beloved wife? For today, tomorrow, our future? Our life?’
‘I will. Oh, Raoul, yes, I will—but…’
She’d shocked him now and she saw the hope leave his eyes and darken his face, so she had to hurry to reassure him.
‘But I can’t promise a baby.’
‘Sweetheart…’
He was on his feet in a moment, holding her close.
‘My darling—you are the only person I ever want a child with, and if it happens, then I will be the happiest man in the world. But, if it’s not to be, then you are still the only woman I want to have as my wife, to go into the future with.’