“And for me.” He gave a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair. “I love you, Marina. I’ve never been in love before. Devil if I’ll lose ye just because we cannae decide where we’ll live.”
Her lips tightened, and a tear trickled down her cheek. Now that he took a closer look, her eyes were already pink with weeping. He hated to thin
k he’d made her cry. Still made her cry.
His gut knotted with anguish as he realized her lack of response didn’t bode well for his proposition. Could he lose her yet, despite making this sacrifice to keep her?
After a long pause, she spoke in a tight voice. “You’d come to hate me.”
“Never.” He meant it.
Her delicate throat moved as she swallowed. “Then damn you, Mackinnon.”
Startled, he staggered back. “What?”
* * *
“You heard me.” Marina summoned a shaky smile, although his offer came close to shattering her heart. Unchecked tears poured down her cheeks. “Because I came here to say that I’d stay, that I’d try and overcome any qualms I have about losing my identity as an artist, because I love you too much to leave you. Then you go and turn everything around with this incomparable act of generosity.”
He made a gesture as if to dismiss his extraordinary self-sacrifice. “I ken what I want, and it’s you,” he said seriously. “You must know I’d go to the ends of the earth for you.”
Surely she must burst with joy and gratitude. She’d come so close to losing him. “Even Florence?”
The eyes he leveled on her were alight with love. “Even Florence.”
She raised her hands in a futile attempt to dash away her tears. Silly to cry like a rainspout when she was so happy. “Although I’ll always treasure your offer, you don’t have to live in Florence, amore mio.”
Even after all that soul-searching in her room when she realized that she was a fool to forsake a once-in-a-lifetime love, she’d feared Fergus’s autocratic tendencies. Hearing him say he’d give up the life he was born for told her everything that she needed to know about how dearly he valued her.
He was ready to compromise and make sacrifices. He did, indeed, love her. More than she’d ever imagined, if he’d decided he could live in Italy for her sake. The sheer magnanimity of his gift left her awed and humbled.
He looked confused. “I don’t?”
“No, I want to live here. With occasional visits to Papa in Florence.”
“He’s going home?”
“Yes. It turns out I didn’t need to worry about him after all. He approves of you—or he will, if you make an honest woman of me. We weren’t quite as clever at hiding our affair as we hoped.”
Fergus frowned, as she wondered why he didn’t sweep her into his arms and tell her he loved her. He must know she’d laid down all her defenses, and she was here to deliver her unconditional capitulation. This subdued reaction to her declaration troubled her.
She stepped closer. “Why don’t you kiss me, Mackinnon?”
He spread his hands. “I need ye to tell me straight out what you want.” His voice lowered, and the raw emotion in his expression made her heart ache. “I dinna want to make any more mistakes, like I did this afternoon.”
He’d said something similar, the night she promised to come to his bed. “I’m sorry.” Remorse pierced her like a knife. How she’d hurt him today. “You took me by surprise when you proposed, and you’re right—I reacted in blind fear.”
“Are ye saying you’re no’ frightened anymore?” Somber gray eyes studied her. Still he didn’t touch her.
Marina was now close enough to take his hand. She licked dry lips and met a gaze that asked for everything she had to give. Was she brave enough to answer yes? “I’m saying that I might suffer a few collywobbles, Mackinnon. But I’m ready to entrust my future to you.”
“Tell me, then.”
She raised his hand to her lips and kissed the knuckles. His grip tightened, and she wondered if he’d haul her up against him then, but he remained quiet and watchful.
“Complete surrender?”
He nodded without smiling. “Complete surrender.”