He twisted around and grabbed her shoulders roughly, because in his extremity, gentleness was beyond him. “Say it again.”
Tears glittered on her cheeks, but the gaze that met his was alight with certainty. “I will marry you.”
The bruising force of his grasp eased. “And the rest.”
“Justin Kinmurrie, I love you.” She gave a fractured laugh that chimed oddly with her weeping. “I love you and I’ll take up residence in your barbarian country, and if I can, I’ll give you a pack of wild Highland brats to torment you into old age. And if that doesn’t terrify you, you’re brave to the point of recklessness.”
She tried to make him smile. But he was beyond levity.
“Oh, Verity,” he rasped as he clawed her into his arms. She gave a muffled sob against his shoulder and clung to him with the same possessiveness.
Eventually, he lifted his head and looked into her face. No trace now of the pale, unhappy woman who had come to him earlier. Color flushed her flawless skin, and her silver eyes glowed with incandescent joy, even through her tears.
Her beauty had caught and held him at first. But now he saw so much more. Strength. Honesty. Loyalty. Trust.
And love. So much love it banished the chill from his soul forever.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he said in a wondering voice. “I thought you were going to leave me.”
“Never,” she said fervently. “Never. Never.”
She dragged his head down to hers for a clumsy, passionate kiss that tasted of weeping and happiness. As she drew away, he caught her face in his hands and looked searchingly into her rain-clear eyes.
At last, no shadows lurked in those radiant depths.
Passion beckoned, as it would always beckon when he was with her. But for the moment, he resisted its urgings. “I swear to make you happy, Verity,” he said gravely.
Her face filled with a love so powerful that it humbled him. “Just love me, Justin.”
“Forever,” he vowed.
“Yes, forever.”
And he did.