Page 89 of Ravishing Camille
He shook off the vision of the sculpted ceiling and grinned down at her. “I was. Am. I love you. I will for eternities. Only you.”
She took back her hands and watched his face fall to despair. Good. She would not save him that small morsel of horror. For she had suffered her own. For so many years, she had lived with the danger that she would settle for less than the charm of living with him. Less than the bliss of loving him day in and out.
She pushed away, determined to have her say. “You cannot imagine what I’ve lived through, wanting only you. Seeing you in every circumstance. With Lily and Ada. Their children. Your friends, their husbands, with my mother. I’ve watched you laugh with a million ladies, waltz with a hundred others. Seen you flirt with dozens of girls. Known how you attracted them all, but never chose one.
“I wanted to be the one.
“Always your one and only.
“I couldn’t understand what you sought in a woman and I thought, why not me? I wanted you. Had for years and years. Age, be damned. It didn’t matter to me. And if it did to you, well…”
She laughed. To her own ears, the sound was almost bitter. “As time went by, age no longer meant a thing. Because every hour, every day, every year, I wanted only you. No other man compared. And god knew, I looked. I sampled. I tried. And each one came short. Because each examination of another man meant only one thing.
“I wanted your hands on me. Your eyes on mine. Your lips on mine. But I was confounded. Stymied.
“I didn’t know how to make me less your sister. Make me more your lover. I lived in a fortress built by other people, their mores, unable to declare how I loved you. And this time when you came home, I told myself I would not want you. This time, I vowed I’d show you, force you to see that if I could not have you, I’d have another, the best I could find.
“Because I was tired of trying to break through the barriers of custom and time.
“Because I could not go on without the love I saw all around me. With your sisters and their husbands. With your father and my mother. I deserve to be loved. And if you didn’t. I would have a man who did.”
The wary expression on his face spoke of his doubts she still cared for him. “You deserve a man who wants only you every hour of his life.”
“I’m glad you agree. So then.” She spread wide her hands. “Could you live in our little chateau in Amboise for a few months?”
“I could.”
“And take me to Shanghai once or twice for visits?”
“I can do that, too.”
“And we’ll have babies?”
“I think, my darling, we will have many.”
“Oh, delightful. And we’ll visit London and Brighton and Lily and Julian’s brood in Kent?”
“Often.”
She stilled. “And you will applaud me if someday I can run for Parliament?”
“And write pamphlets and appear in lecture halls to discuss the rights of women. I certainly will.”
She threw her arms around him. “You are the most extraordinary man. I vow to make you happy with every breath I take.”
“I’d ask for nothing more in life.”
“Nor I,” she rubbed her nose on his. “So then, will you marry me?”
He stared and grinned and drew her flush to his warm hard body. “My darling, I could think of nothing and no one in this world I want more.”
“I love you, Pierce. I have forever. I will forever. I cannot love another as I do you. Marry me, will you?”
He threw back his head to laugh then. So heartily did he roar, that the old house seemed to vibrate with it. “I love you, my darling. I want your joy and your enthusiasm, your impetuousness and your thoughtfulness. I want to live with you anywhere and everywhere in this world. And perhaps beyond it too. I must learn to live with you, in all your impulses. And I do. I want to. And I will learn that from you, too. But you must forgive me now one thing.”
“No. I mean, yes. But what?”
“I had thought I would do the asking to marry you.”
