He stood and walked over to me, then knelt in front of me, taking my hands in his. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
I choked out a sob. “When I found out Witch Superior is your grandmother, I got scared. It reminded me of my father and Johanesall over again. I survived both of them leaving me, betraying me.” My voice broke. “But I don’t think I could survive you doing that. So I left before you could reject me.” He rose up and gathered me in a hug as I sobbed into his shoulder. “But now I’m afraid I’ve ruined everything.”
He pushed me at arm’s length. “Elspeth, I was prepared to chase after you. I was going to follow you to every corner of this realm if that’s what it took to get you back. I wasn’t going to work. To eat. To sleep until I turned over every damn rock on the continent and found you.”
“You were?” I laughed and wiped at my tears.
“Well, at first I was going to drink myself into oblivion. But then Elm talked some sense into me. Made me realize how much I love you. That I can’t live without you.”
The words knocked the air out of me. “Even after everything I told you?”
His eyebrows drew together. “You think I care about some stupid curse? I can survive you being cursed. What I can’t survive is a life without you. I love you, Elspeth.”
I didn’t even realize how much I wanted to hear those words until he said them. My heart swelled. “Well it’s a good thing I love you too, then.”
His lips tipped up, and he pressed his forehead to mine.
“There’s something else,” I said.
He reared back. “Something else? More than what you’ve already revealed?”
“There is a way to break the curse. Each of us must marry, and we’ll get our magic.” I hated the way it sounded. “But I’m not expecting a marriage proposal from you. I want to take our time and get to know each other. If I wanted to marry, I would’ve done so already. We all would have.”
“So you don’t want to get married?”
“To the right person.” I gave a small shrug. “But I want to model that for Prue and Auggie. I want to show them real love. I want to show them that it’s worth waiting for.”
He wrapped his arms around me, and I stood with him.
“And you think that’s what you’ve found? With me? Real love?”
I gave him a watery smile. “I think so, Mr. Darkstone.”
His gaze turned feral. “My sister is safe?” he asked. “You’re sure she’s at your cottage?”
“Yes,” I answered quickly. “She’s with my sisters and Edgar. They’re okay.” I hesitated. “Why?”
He leaned down and pressed a deep, searing kiss to my mouth. “That means I can do this.” He gripped my hips and lifted me onto the table, and I spread my legs as he wedged between them.
“Here? In your tavern?”
“Oh yes, my tavern will do just fine.”
He pushed me down onto the table, and heat flooded through me.
He kissed my neck, and I laughed. “Your apartment is just upstairs.”
“I can’t wait that long.” His hard length pressed between my legs as he hiked up the skirts of my dress.
“You know.” I sat up, and he growled. “You’re very pushy.”
He bared his teeth at me. “Are we doing this right now?”
I gave a half shrug, hiking up my skirts a little farther to reveal my thighs. He took a measured breath.
“I just think you have a bit more groveling to do.”
“I thought you said I had nothing to apologize for.”