“The way I see it, you have two options. I can either kill you…”
“Or—?” she prompted.
“Or you can marry me.”
His offhand declaration was hardly the gushing proposal she’d dreamed of as a girl, but she could feel his tension in the tightness of his muscled forearms around her. He honestly thought she might refuse him. He was such an idiot.
She tossed her head. He deserved to suffer just a little bit. “Death it is, then. I’m sure you can make it quick and painless.”
He glanced at her and away. “Marriage to me would be neither quick nor painless, you know.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I can’t promise not to hurt you. In fact, I’m sure I will. I won’t mean to, but it’s inevitable. And you’ll hurt me.” He sighed. “But that’s what bloody love is, isn’t it? It’s giving someone the power to hurt you and trusting in your heart that they won’t.”
Heloise studied the profile of his half-turned face. The molten glow of sunrise touched his hair and illuminated the fine grain of his jaw and her heart swelled with love for such an impossible, wonderful man.
“Well?” he said gruffly. “Is it yes or no?”
She waited until he finally plucked up the courage to look at her. “That would depend.”
“On what?”
“On whether you love me.” Her voice trembled as she gazed up at him. “Because I’ve loved you for so long I couldn’t bear it if you didn’t love me back.”
He closed his eyes and she couldn’t tell if it was exasperation or relief.
“Do I love you?” he growled. “Of course I bloody love you! I love you when you drive me insane and when you tease and when you’re brave and when you cry. I even loved you when you ate that stupid carob and when you nearly got me killed.” He turned her in his arms, caught her chin, and stared deeply into her eyes. “I want your light. Your goodness. Your warmth. I want everything that you are. I will love you until the day I die, and probably long after that. Only an idiot would even have to ask.”
“I’m not an idiot,” she said.
“So you’ll marry me.” He made it a statement, not a question.
Heloise sighed, as if it were an enormous imposition. “Well, if Imust.But only to avert a scandal. And because I want to get my hands on your enormously impressive…library.”
All the tension drained out of him and his eyes took on a teasing glint. “Of course. What woman could resist something so monumental?”
Heloise was laughing as he lowered his lips to hers.
When they finally pulled apart Raven chuckled. “You’re doing my home a grave disservice, you know. Ravenwood has plenty of other rooms, in addition to the impressive library.”
“How many?”
“Seventy-eight, give or take a closet or two.” He nuzzled her neck. “I’m going to make love to you in every one of them.”
She smiled against his shoulder. “That’s an awful lot.”
“It is. We’ll start as soon as we get back from Egypt. If we can manage two per day we should be finished by March next year.”
“You are a rogue and a scoundrel.”
“Yes,” he said unrepentantly. “But I’m yours.”
Epilogue
EGYPT,SIXWEEKSLATER
“Time for a break, Lady Ravenwood.”
Heloise sighed as her husband of exactly three weeks came up behind her and nuzzled her neck.
“Five more minutes,” she murmured, blowing sand from a hieroglyphic fragment. “I really think I’m—”