His lips rose a fraction. He still looked so sad. “Even after all this, after everything my family has done…you want to marry me?”
“It’s not your family I’m marrying,” I promised him. “It’s you.”
Still, his gaze did not waver.
“Alex,” I murmured softly, scared the sudden fluttering within me would startle away, a butterfly precariously perched atop a flower.
His eyes met mine.
And then I kissed him.
For a moment, he remained still and unresponsive and I worried I’d somehow made everything worse. But then I felt him move against my lips, warming and coming to life.
My hesitation and wariness were gone. I no longer worried about what I ought to be doing with every individual part of me. I closed my eyes and enjoyed exactly what this was, what a kiss was meant to be like, with him. When Alex pulled away, I felt breathless, giddy and radiating with happiness.
“Would it…would it be all right if I stayed with you, a little while longer?”
Alex pressed a kiss to my forehead, nodding. “Please.”
I settled onto the mattress, resting my cheek to his chest. When I dared to steal a peek at him, his eyes were closed, his face relaxed and dreamy. I studied him, my eyes traveling fondly over the length of his nose, the curve of his eyebrows.
This felt…good.
Right.
I could see our years stretching out from this point forward, Alex and me, together against the world. On the day he’d proposed, I knew I loved him—cared for him with a deep appreciation and affection—but today, in this moment, I fellin lovewith him. More than I’d ever dreamed possible.
I pushed myself up on one elbow, leaning over him, and kissed him softly, tentatively, wonderingly. His eyes flashed open, meeting mine.
“What’s that for?” he asked, and his lips brushed against mine as he spoke, sending the most delightful bubbles fizzing into my bloodstream.
“Because I could,” I said, joy swelling in my throat. “Because I wanted to. Because I love you.”
“I love you,” he echoed, unaware of the revelation crashing through my heart.
And that was all right.
It was enough that I knew it. That I’d been changed.
I kissed him again, my breath catching as his arms wrapped around my back, enclosing me in the sweetest embrace. He moved his mouth across mine slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, as if we had a lifetime to explore every bit of the other.
And we did.
“You feel like the sea,” I murmured, my fingers trailing sinuous patterns over his chest, fluttering up his face, and sinking into his dark hair. I’d never felt peace like this outside the consuming embrace of the waves. It was as if I were floating now,face toward the sun, nestled in the cool grasp of the water. It held me, covered me, surrounded me with a constant security, setting everything inside me at peace.
He paused, looking amused. “The sea? I’m as rooted to the earth as a person can get. Iama root,” he reflected, his hands splayed across my back, drawing me closer. “One root in a very large system, all holding up the same twisted, rotting tree. But you,” he said, and I let out a soft gasp as he nibbled at the underside of my jaw. “You are the rain.”
His tongue slipped inside my mouth, tracing and teasing. This,thiswas how I’d always hoped his kisses would feel, sending me aloft in shimmering spirals of wonder. I was too giddy to breathe and, even though it pained me to, I broke away from him, flopping on my back as I tried to draw in deep enough gasps of air.
Carefully, he rolled himself to his side, pressing the length of his body against mine. His skin felt feverishly warm and I wanted to pull him on top of me, losing myself under his weight, absorbing every bit of him into me.
He showered my face with little bursts of kisses, covering me with reverence and awe. “You’re like a summer storm that came crashing into my life, soaking the ground and bringing me to life. I mean it, Verity,” he said, stopping his ministrations. “I was a seed planted too far into the ground, waiting for my life to start. I had all these ideas of what I would do and be like when I grew up, when I took over my father’s title. But you…you made me realize I could be that man now. I don’t have to wait. I don’t have to wonder. You made me grow into the person I want to be. So you see—earth,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest. He ran hisfingers along my lips before leaning down into a crushing kiss. “Water.”
I lost myself in the rapturous haze of his mouth moving over mine, his hands opening parts of me I never knew existed as our gasps and sighs filled the room.
“It’s more than that,” I murmured as his teeth dragged down the length of my neck.
“More?” he echoed, his voice full of warmth and want.
