Page 46 of One Bed for the Bluestocking
“I want no such thing.”
She glanced up at him, brows creased in confusion.“Then what, exactly, are you proposing?”
“Proposing.An apt choice of words.”He took her hand.“What I want, Kate, is to marry you.”
Chapter22
What I want, Kate, is to marry you.
Considering the fact that she was hopelessly in love with Nathaniel, one could have been forgiven for supposing that this statement would fill Kate with elation.
It did not.Unless elation bore a striking resemblance to nausea.Because that was the only sensation rising in Kate’s chest.
“You don’t have to do that,” she muttered.This was, after all, the thing she had most feared—that Nathaniel would discover her secret before the completion of their project and feel duty-bound to marry her.
He gave her a shrewd look.“I didn’t say Ihadto marry you.I said Iwantedto marry you.”
Now Kate was sure she was going to cast her accounts.It seemed there was a thin line between love and dyspepsia.
Nathaniel continued, “It cannot have escaped your notice that am incapable of keeping my hands off you in my sleep, nor that I awake each morning in a state of extreme arousal.”
Kate’s cheeks burned.Was his arousal reallyextreme?She would have to take his word for it, as she had no great expertise in the subject.
He pressed her hand.“Ever since we departed Edinburgh, I have been struggling with my feelings for you.And I do not mean that merely in the physical sense, although I assure you, I have been excruciatingly aware of the physical attraction I feel for you.But working with you, spending each day with you by my side…” He looked at her, and his brown eyes were entreating.“You’re perfect for me.You are literallyeverythingI want in a wife.I want to spend my life with you.I never want us to be parted.I’ve been struggling to figure out how I could suggest as much when I believed you were a man.But I’ve been certain of it for weeks.You’re my partner, Kit.”
“Kate,” she corrected.
“Kate!”He knit his brow.“Kate, Kate, Kate.I’m sorry.I’ll get used to it soon.”
“That’s all right.”She gave a rueful laugh.“It’s not your fault.I’m the one who lied to you.”
“I’m glad you did.”She looked at him in shock but saw nothing but sincerity on his face.“If you hadn’t applied for that job, we might never have met.Thatwould have been the real tragedy.”
A strange, burbling feeling was rising in Kate’s chest.Her fingers had started to tremble, and she had a terrible feeling that she might burst into tears.Because this was everything she’d been longing for since the second she laid eyes on Nathaniel Sterling.And now that it was happening, she found that she did not trust it.She was aWeatherby Wallflower!Nothing ever happened according to her hopes.And no one ever chose the likes of her.
An image of her father flashed unbidden across her mind, and she shuddered.
Nathaniel was still talking.“When I discovered your secret, I wasn’t angry, not even for a second.It was as if I’d found the missing puzzle piece.Suddenly, everything I’d been feeling made sense.And there was a possible path before me, leading me to the future I longed for.”He reached toward her with a tentative hand, framing her face.“One where I awaken with you in my arms every morning.One where I spend each day with you.I never want to be parted from you, Kate.I want you to be my partner in every sense of the word.I… I love you.”
A fraught silence fell inside the shieling as she studied his face.There was nothing but sincerity in his brown eyes.“You… you truly mean it.”She could hear the surprise in her own voice.
“I do.”He swallowed thickly, and she sensed that he was struggling to remain calm.“Please, Kate.I’m in agony.What is your answer?”
She tried to form the words, but they caught on her lips.It seemed that her heart had swollen to twice its normal size, making speech impossible.
So, she did the only thing she could manage.
She threw her arms around his neck, not caring when the blanket fell into her lap, and brought her lips to his.
Chapter23
Nat groaned as Kit… no,Kate… kissed him.
He had wanted this so desperately, and for so many weeks, and he had honestly believed it would never happen.The happiness he was experiencing now felt almost excessive, as if his heart might burst from it.
He would have liked to say that he kissed Kate gently.Reverently.Like the precious treasure she was.The way she deserved to be kissed.
But he had awoken painfully hard for this woman every day for the last month, and now, she was in his arms, naked to the waist and willing.What chance did a man stand against such delectable temptations?
