There was laughter in his eyes. 'Completely.'
He walked round to her side of the car and scooped her into his arms.
His dark jaw was only inches away from her lips and the urge to kiss him was almost overwhelming.
'I could probably walk,' she said breathlessly, and he gave her a look that she couldn't interpret as he opened the door to her cabin and carried her across to the sofa.
'Ellie, there are some things I need to say to you...'
'Oh.' Her heart sank. 'You're going to tell me off. Ben, you don't need to. I know I was a fool. I know that you're always having to rescue me. I owe you a huge debt—'
'That's not true.' He shook his head slowly. 'This time you rescued yourself, but if I have to rescue you every day for the rest of our lives, your debt to me will only be a fraction of mine to you.'
Breathing was suddenly incredibly difficult. 'Wh-what do you mean?'
'My life had been torture for so long,' he told her hoarsely, 'that I'd forgotten what it was like to feel pleasure, to experience anything other than pain and guilt. The way I dealt with it was to shut out the whole world. And then I met you and you refused to be shut out.'
Her heart was beating erratically. 'Ben...'
'And you wouldn't let me hide.' He took her hand in his, stroking her fingers gently. 'You wouldn't let me hide myself, and you wouldn't let me hide my pain. You were so loving and generous and in return you asked nothing. Nothing at all.'
She swallowed hard. 'Because I love you.'
His eyes locked with hers. 'I know that now,' he said softly. 'And I know that I love you, too. And I'm about to kiss you, so you'd better decide whether you're going to keep your eyes open or not.'
It was some considerable time later when he finally lifted his head. 'You closed them.'
'I know.' Her voice was shaky. 'I think I fainted. Can we try it again?'
The smile he gave her was so sexy that she felt her limbs start to tremble. 'Do you want to?'
"They say practice makes perfect...'
'Well, in that case, you have nothing to worry about,' he said softly, 'because you're going to get all the practice you need.'
She stared at him, heart thumping. 'I am?'
'Definitely. But before you agree to marry me you'd better understand that there are ground rules.'
The room spun round.
'Ground rules?' Her voice was a pathetic squeak and he gave a slight smile.
'Oh, yes, definitely ground rules.' Laughter lit up his dark eyes. 'Number one, absolutely no thumbing lifts. I don't want you climbing into cars with strangers.'
'No lifts.' Ellie stared at him, breathless. 'And number two?'
'Number two.' His fingers were still stroking hers. 'Number two, absolutely no stripping off in front of strangers. And no kissing strangers, with your eyes open or closed, no matter how good-looking they are. Even out of gratitude.'
'That's more than one rule,' she pointed out, and he scowled at her.
'I haven't finished yet.'
Her heart felt incredibly tight. 'There's more?'
'Oh, yes.' His eyes dropped to her mouth. 'I can't stop you being reckless because that's part of your nature but no one, absolutely no one is to rescue you from your disasters apart from me. Understood?'
She nodded, smiling through her tears, and Ben lifted a hand to touch her damp cheek.