“Stop it!” His voice was sharp.
“No!” she said, her voice unfortunately close to a wail. “You’re a miserable rotten pig and I hate you. ”
“Of course you do,” he said grimly. “You have every reason to and you’ve always been a most reasonable female. ”
“Well, I do,” she said uncertainly. Her face was wet now, damn it. “So just go away. ”
“I was attempting to do exactly that,” he pointed out.
“Well, who’s stopping you?”
“You are. ”
“This has been…an extremely difficult day,” she said, trying to control her voice. “I’ve been married, kissed by my brother—” she allowed herself a shudder “—almost murdered, saved from a nasty death, and you just stand there saying nothing. ”
“What would you have me say, child?”
“I’m not a child!” she shrieked, stamping her foot like a two-year-old.
A faint smile quirked his mouth. “I’ll ask you again, what is it you want from me? Would you have me grovel? That would hardly be punishment enough. I was cruel and stupid and a coward, three things I most despise. I scarcely deserve to get the one thing I need most in this world. What is it you want?”
I want you to love me, she wanted to cry. She wiped her tears away. “I’ll have you know I don’t usually cry. This has just been a bit…trying. ”
“Indeed,” he said politely. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You don’t want me, and I’ll be just fine on my own. ”
He stared at her, and some of the grim tension began to leave his body. It was more than a faint smile by now. “Why, poppet, whatever gave you the impression that I don’t want you? I must point out that in this country there’s a price on my head, and I came after you anyway. I’d have to be mad not to love you, and for all my sins, I’ve never been considered mad. ”
She stared at him. “You love me?” she asked in disbelief.
“More than life itself,” he said simply, and took her in his arms. There was a light behind his hard blue eyes, one that danced. “Mind you, no more wickedness. I’ve given up my allegiance to the Heavenly Host, and I intend to be the most staid, honorable gentleman. You’ll have to marry me now. ”
She stared up at him. “And what if I think you’re doing this out of a misguided sense of decency?”
“Oh, any sense of decency
I possess is most definitely misguided,” he said cheerfully. “I never do anything unless I want to. ”
“And what if I don’t want to?”
“Look at it this way, poppet. You can spend the rest of your life making me suffer. ” And he kissed her.
It was rapture, astonishing, bewildering, and his hold on her was so tight it felt as if he’d never release her. She sank against him, letting go of the last of her anger, the last of her fears, the last of her sorrow. She slid her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, and kissed him back. He was hers, and she was his.
“I think we’d best get going,” Charles Reading interrupted them.
Rohan moved his mouth to Elinor’s ear, biting it lightly, and a shiver of delight swept down her body.
“Did I tell you, dear Charles, that you are most definitely de trop?” he murmured against her skin.
“Not as de trop as the king’s men should anyone discover you’re here. Come on, you two. The yacht’s waiting for us in Bournemouth. The sooner we’re out of here the better. ”
Rohan threw back his head and laughed. “He’s right,” he said. “Come, my love. That is, if you’ll have me, miserable bastard that I am. ” There was just the slightest look of uncertainty in his hard blue eyes. It was probably the only time she would ever see it, and she would treasure it for the rest of her life.
“Oh, I’ll have you, my lord,” she said in a dulcet tone. “After all, it’s better than rats. ”