Until there was no escape. Until he no longer wanted one. Her hold on him was irrevocable. As a result, the direction of his life had changed. Every path after her first smile had always led him back to her.
“Are you going to be a fool all your life?” Drake remarked from the side. “Answer the woman.”
Dare shot his cousin a glare.
Leonora squeezed his hands, drawing his focus back to her. “Are you not willing to find out with me?” she asked softly.
Dare started. Find out? He was willing. Very damn willing. “I am. Willing, that is.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. Confound it! Why was it so hard to string along more words? They sat there on his tongue, heavy as lead and light as a feather.I love you, too. Or maybeI never want to part ever again. Most definitelyI never want to let go.“Don’t go,” he managed—just. Sky-blue eyes blinked at him. “I mean...”
A grin followed his failed explanation, and her smile held all the rays of all his sun. “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving.” A teasing glint entered her gaze. “As long as you hold on, and perhaps even beyond that, I will not go.”
Dare wanted to gather her into his arms and kiss her senseless. “Most men are better than me.”
“I don’t want better. I want you,” she said without pause. “But what about me? There are better women than me, too.”
No, there weren’t. There was only her. Only Leonora.
Forever.
His limbs finally moved, his hands leaving her face as his arms wrapped around her, lifting her up against him. “Just you.” His gaze bore into hers. “And this idiot earl who loves you so damn much.” The pressure coiled inside him finally loosened completely. “Your tentacles have wrapped around me tight and secure.”
“Are you calling me a sea creature? How brazen!”
“A beautiful little tempting one.” He nuzzled her cheek. How the hell had he stayed away from her for a fortnight without going mad? “And you will marry me?”
She didn’t answer at once.
The longest second of his life stretched between them, and he felt like a man holding his breath at the edge of a cliff. Then finally, her lips split into a grin, stealing the very breath he’d been holding so tightly.
She brushed a kiss over his lips and said, “I hope you can procure a special license.”
Dare grinned, starting to walk to the exit with her still in his arms, leaving his cousin and the crowd behind. “Wait. Your brother is now my secret father-in-law and your parents are—” A finger hushed him.
“Just focus on me.” Her eyes sparkled at him.
“I can do that.”
Drake cursed behind them. “I want my damn deed!”
Dare ignored him.
She laughed. “I suppose all my gathering of moments led me to my dream—before I even knew I had one. And it was you, always you.”
He was a dream? He quite liked that. “If that is the case, you can pursue all your moments, as many as you want, just don’t ever lose your dream about me. Let me always be your dream. Grow old with me.” If that were her dream, she’d surely stay with him forever to reach it.
“Now thatIcan do.”
Ah, hell. He was ridiculous. Ridiculously, madly in love with her. And now that she was in his arms, he could never part with her. He could never let go. He wasn’t that strong. He doubted he could have lasted much longer anyway. Even if she hadn’t come here today, hadn’t looked his way again, he probably would have slowly inserted himself back into her light. Like a moth to a flame.
“I suppose my reputation as a rake is shattered.”
Her arms moved from his shoulder to circle his neck. “Oh, do not worry that much about it. You are still one part refined gentlemen and nine parts rogue. Only now you shall aim all that roguish charm at me. Just how I like you.”
“A rake?”
