She gulped at the sound of that multimillion-dollar deal. And then something else he’d aid sank in.
“You bought the cabin?” she repeated, stunned by the extravagant gesture.
He smiled and nodded. “I’ve grown rather fond of it.”
“Oh, Kit.” She drew a deep breath and shook her head, telling herself that it would take more than blatantly romantic gestures to convince her that he’d thought this through.
“But you never said you were considering marriage,” she said. “Not that there has really been time for us to get around to that, of course,” she added quickly.
“You think tonight was the first time the idea had occurred to me?”
Kit pulled his hand out of his pocket. He held a small, velvet-covered box in his outstretched palm. “Didn’t you wonder,” he asked, “why I brought gifts for everyone but you yesterday?”
“Well, no, I wasn’t expecting a gift.” Her eyes were riveted on that little box.
“Open it,” he urged.
A diamond ring lay nestled inside the satin-lined case. It was, without doubt, the single most beautiful piece of jewelry Savannah had ever seen. A flood of emotions swept through her, filling her heart with half-fearful joy and her eyes with hot tears.
Kit laid his hand on her cheek. His voice was tender, husky. “I was going to offer this ring to you here at the cabin this weekend. Outside, at night, with the stars and the moon overhead, ‘Star Dust’ playing in the background. I planned to go down on one knee and beg you to marry me, even though I knew I was taking a risk because we’ve known each other such a short time.”
She drew a ragged breath. “Oh, Kit.”
“Last weekend, you asked me for more time and I promised you had it,” he continued a bit gruffly. “You once asked me if there was anything I did badly, and I know now that the answer is yes. I’m not very good at waiting patiently for something that I want I think I’ve known from the minute I first laid eyes on you on that Caribbean beach that I wanted to marry you. And now that I know that life will include at least two terrific kids, I’m even more convinced that I will be the luckiest man alive if you say yes.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“What was that?”
“Yes,” she said a bit more clearly. “I’ll marry you. But, oh, heavens, can you imagine how people will talk?”
“Screw ‘em,” her dashingly romantic swain said inelegantly. “The tabs will run with this for a day or two. The local tongues will wag. And then the talk will die down. Gossips aren’t interested in happy, ordinary married couples, which is exactly what I look forward to being with you. I hope my work continues to draw some attention, but I’m perfectly capable of keeping our private life just that Private. I’ve been in the spotlight, and I’ve enjoyed it occasionally. But now I’m ready to leave the fantasy behind and make a real life with you.”
“I love you,” she said, in case he hadn’t already figured that out.
His pirate’s smile flashed. “Desperately?”
“Desperately. An
d it has nothing to do with your fame or your money or your pretty face. I fell in love with the man who could have been an insurance salesman.”
He set the ring box on the coffee table, caught her hands in his and lifted them to his lips, visibly moved by her breathless little speech. “Thank you.”
And then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her senseless.
Her shorts fell over the back of a rocking chair. Her T-shirt landed on an end table. She had no idea where her bra and panties went when Kit tossed them impatiently aside.
Savannah was still tugging urgently at Kit’s clothing when he pulled her onto the couch.
They made love with more urgency than finesse. Savannah knocked something off the coffee table, and it landed on the floor with a clatter. Kit bumped his head on the wooden sofa arm with enough force to make him curse, and then give a muffled laugh into her mouth. They nearly fell off the narrow cushions and tumbled to the uncarpeted wooden floor.
Savannah wouldn’t have changed a moment of it.
“I love you, Savannah McBride,” Kit said when he could finally speak again.
“I love you, Kit—or Christopher Pace, or whoever you are,” she whispered in return. “I have loved you since our first dance.”
She remembered the first song they’d danced to. “That Old Black Magic.” And it had been magic, the way she and Kit had met and had known immediately that they were meant to be together.