Page 120 of Married to a Frozen Duke
"My brothers were wrong about a lot of things."
"They were right that you were disappearing. I could see it happening, you becoming quieter and smaller, trying to fit into what you thought I wanted. It was killing me but I didn't know how to stop it without admitting I cared."
"And admitting you cared was that terrible?"
"Admitting I cared meant being vulnerable. Being vulnerable meant possibly losing you. Losing you meant..." he paused, seeming to struggle with the words. "I don't know what it meant because I couldn't let myself think about it."
Ophelia touched his face, mirroring his earlier gesture. "You're not going to lose me."
"You don't know that."
"I do, actually. Because I'm falling in love with you too, which is possibly the most foolish thing I've ever done, but here we are."
Alexander stared at her. "You're what?"
"Falling in love with you. Theyouthat defended me tonight. Theyouthat forgave the Wheelers' debt. Theyouthat's currently drunk and rambling and more human than I've ever seen you."
"This is the brandy talking."
"The brandy's just letting us say what we've been thinking." She kissed him again, softly. "I've been falling for you since you stood at that altar covered in vomit and still married me."
"That's a terrible basis for love."
"It's a perfect basis. You could have humiliated me completely. You could have walked away. You had every right to. But you stayed."
"I had to stay. The contracts..."
"You stayed," she repeated firmly. "And tonight, you defended me like I actually mattered to you."
"You've always mattered. I'm just very bad at showing it." He rested his forehead against hers. "I'm probably going to continue being bad at it."
"I can work with that."
"I'll try to be better. Less cold. More... whatever the opposite of cold is."
"Warm?"
"That. Yes. Warm. I'll try to be warm. Though I should warn you, I have no idea how to do that without brandy."
"We'll practices."
"Practise being warm?"
"Practise being us. Whatever that looks like."
They sat there for a moment, her in his lap, his arms around her, both slightly drunk and emotionally overwhelmed by their admissions.
"This changes everything," Alexander said finally.
"Everything was already changing."
"Yes, but now it's changing with kissing. That's different."
Ophelia laughed, that snorting laugh he apparently loved. "You're much funnier when you're drunk."
"I'm much everything when I'm drunk. It's very alarming. I might actually be enjoying myself."
"The horror."
