Page 47 of A Celtic Memory
“And how did everyone here nearly a thousand years in my past take that?” She nibbled at her lower lip. Her cheeks turned rosy, and she bit back a grin, however mortified she might be. “Because my evident quest for gender equality aside, I can’t really see you being my queen...or their queen.”
He thought about it and answered truthfully.
“We’re Irish, lassie, and were well in our cups too.” Cian chuckled and shrugged. “Everyone toasted, and all was well.” He winked. “But if we’re to get right down to it, nay, I’m no queen, but....” He held up his pinky finger, still grinning. “It seems I have become something else, to be sure.”
“Oh, God.” She went to speak but snapped her mouth shut before she finally found her words. “You mean to say I actuallyproposed, and you said yes?”
“To be sure.” He admired the bits of twigs wrapped around his finger with more affection than he’d felt for anything in years. All his life, to be honest. Especially when it was attached to the memory of her dropping to a knee in front of his people and holding it out to him.
Madison put a hand to her mouth. Her eyes turned saucer round before she mumbled through her fingers. “I did not? You did not?”
“You did.” He shrugged again. “And I did.”
“How could you have?” she gasped. “How couldIhave?” She shook her head. “We barely know each other.”
Even as she said it, he knew they were long past that. Theydidknow each other. Somehow, someway, they had known each other for a very long time.
“Okay, so we know each other,” she granted. “But ugh, Iproposed? That seems a bit over the top.”
“You didn’t think so last night.” He threaded his fingers with hers. “And neither did I.”
“You seriously want to marry me?” she said softly rather than incredulously.
“I do.” He kept grinning. “And would have proposed first had I realized you were ready for that step.”
“I was drunk, Cian.” She shook her head but didn’t sound all that convinced. “So you had to know it was all in good fun. I mean, really, we don’t even know if we’ll be allowed to stay together in the end.”
“Was it all in good fun, then?” He considered her. “Because there was something betwixt us when you asked.”
She went to speak, then stopped before she seemed to understand.
“A feeling of familiarity,” she finally whispered. “I remember.” She ran her finger over his ring. “Almost as if we had been in that position before.” Her eyes brightened with emerald, and she blinked several times. “Ohwow.” She clearly saw something in her mind’s eye. “Wehave.” She bit her lower lip again, emotional. “You were little the first time you proposed.” Her eyes grew glassy as she ran her finger over his ring again. “You made something similar to this for me out in the woods....”
The emerald faded from her eyes and, with it, whatever she had been witnessing.
“The first time I proposed?” He wrapped his fingers with hers once more. “So there was more than one time?”
“Yes.” She wiped away a tear. “Once when we were little, then again when we were teenagers.”
“Teenagers?” he exclaimed. “Truly?”
She nodded and smiled. “I had said yes the first time, but we were just kids, so you did it again when we were old enough just to be sure.”
“And what did you say?”
“What do you think I said?’
He smiled. “So we were already engaged when you proposed last night?”
“So it seems.”
He wiped away another one of her tears. “And how do you feel about that?”
“Sad,” Madison confessed. “But...happy too.” She shook her head. “Sad because we’ve clearly forgotten so many important moments. Happy because I feel what I’m supposed to feel now. What I felt last night.” She nodded and wiped away yet another tear. “So yes, I want to marry you, Cian. Be married to you even if we lose each other in the end.”
Never so happy to hear anything, he pulled her into his arms and held her. Felt her like he had hundreds of times, yet the memories remained out of reach. Even so, that ever-growing sense of familiarity was there.
Especially when he cupped her cheeks and closed his mouth over hers. He had wanted to kiss her again every moment between last night’s kiss and now.
