Page 89 of Good Groom Hunting

Now it was his turn to put a finger over her lips. “This is what I say now: I love you, Josephine Hale. I want you to be my wife.”

She grinned. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

He raised a brow. “I don’t know. Your last response left something to be desired. This time I’m thinking about just throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you to the church.”

She shook her head. “Ask me again.”

Reluctantly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the small wooden box. Josie stood again and offered her hand. “Josie—Josephine Hale, will you marry me?”

She leaned down and kissed him. “Yes, Stephen Doubleday, I will.”

His hands were trembling, his whole body was shaking, and so he fumbled the first attempt to open the box. He succeeded on the second and had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen to the size of saucers. “Stephen?” She gave him a wondering look, and he had to take the ring out and place it on her finger.

It was huge, far too big for her small, delicate hand, but he’d known it would be and didn’t care. She’d wanted treasure. Now she had it.

“It’s a diamond.” He indicated the large pink heart-shaped stone in the center. “I had someone look at it today. It’s rare, but it’s definitely a diamond.”

She stared at the gold ring, its large pink diamond in the center with the two smaller white diamonds flanking it. “It’s beautiful. Where did you—how did you—?”

With a smile, he pulled a pouch out of his pocket. “Hold out your hand.”

She did so, and he poured two dozen doubloons over her fingers.

“The treasure!” she screamed, catching doubloons before they could fall. “The ring, too?”

He nodded. “Do you think I would leave it? We almost fell off a cliff. I was shot in the shoulder.” He rotated his still sore arm. “I was not leaving the treasure.”

“But it’s bad luck. It’s brought us nothing but misfortune.”

He shook his head. “It brought me you. And it belongs with us. With you.”

“I don’t want it,” she said.

“But it’s yours.” He pulled out the key to the new, somewhat larger, deposit box in the vault at Coutts’s bank. “You never lost hope or faith, and you never gave in. It belongs to you.”

She took the key and looked up at him. “But your family, your debt—”

He closed her hand over the key. “I don’t need the treasure to restore my family. Never did.”

She leaned up and kissed him, then held up a doubloon. “I’m finally a pirate. My grandfather would have been so proud.”

“He loved you. And so do I.”

Chapter Twenty-four

It was not a romantic wedding. Stephen had carried her outside, summoned a hack, and knocked on church officials’ doors until he found one willing to marry them right then.

They’d been married in the first house where the vicar had opened the door. The vicar had been sleepy-eyed and his wife, in her nightgown, their only witness.

And then Stephen had taken Josie home.

To his home, to his bed.

He’d thought of everything, and there were rose petals strewn on the coverlet, candles flickering throughout the room, and wine on the bedside table. She’d wanted to appreciate the small touches he’d made, but it was difficult when all she could think was how much she wanted to tear off his shirt.

As soon as he closed the bedroom door, she did just that. His skin was warm to her touch, and her mouth went dry as she watched the candlelight play light and shadow over his bare chest. “I like you naked,” she murmured, touching her tongue to the hollow at the base of his throat. His pulse jumped and she smiled. “I like you hot and naked.”

“It’s a good thing,” he said, “because I intend to be hot and naked with you a lot. Come here.”

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