He must have seen something in her expression, for his frown deepened. “You have other desirable qualities.”
Maddy was suddenly breathless again. “Really?”
“Yes, indeed. The ability to cope with difficult and unexpected circumstances is important for a diplomat’s wife. In the last week we two have managed to rub along in a cramped cottage under stressful conditions. You keep a cool head and respond practically, rather than with a high degree of sensibility, as most ladies of my acquaintance do.”
Oh. He meant she didn’t scream or become hysterical in a crisis. True enough. She was boringly practical.
A high degree of sensibility was something only a pampered lady could afford. As a tactic, it was wholly dependent on having someone ready and waiting to come to your rescue. Nobody ever rescued Maddy; she’d always had to rescue herself.
Until Nash Renfrew came into her life, she reminded herself. And now he was offering to take all her troubles away and marry her.
Marryher. Marryher. The reasons didn’t matter, Maddy told herself. The words didn’t matter. Only the fact.
Nash took her hand. “I believe we will deal well together.”
Deal well together?Maddy tried to reconcile the man who’d made shiveringly hot, luscious love to her through the night with this cool-voiced stranger who proposed marriage with a recitation of her deficiencies and her qualities.
“It’s not a love match, Maddy,” he said gently. “Don’t mistake what passed between us last night for, for love. It’s . . . it’s just how it is between a man and a woman. Sometimes. If they’re lucky. It’s a healthy expression of desire, that’s all.”
Perhaps, Maddy thought. She couldn’t speak for his feelings, only hers.
He tucked a curl behind her ear and even such a light brush of skin against skin left her melting inside. He said, “You have romantic notions, I suspect, but believe me, this practical arrangement is far better than a love match.”
At her doubtful look, he explained further. “I told you that my parents made a love match. The love of a lifetime, they called it. Every interaction was overly passionate and rife with . . .emotion.” His eyes were somber. “It tore our family apart. Such a liaison would be anathema to me.”
Anathema?It was Maddy’s turn to stare. He couldn’t possibly mean it.
This, from the man who had caressed her breasts when he was barely conscious? Who, even when he didn’t know his own name, curled his big warm body around hers, protective and loving, even in sleep. Who slept with his hand cupping her breast? Who could make her weep in the night with the beauty and the power of his lovemaking? And who made her insides melt with pleasure even when he was absent.
He wanted a passionless, emotionless marriage?
She would promise nothing of the sort. But now was not the time to confess it. She folded her hands and tried to look demure. And suitably emotionless. Her heart was pounding.
“So, what do you say, Maddy Woodford? Will you marry me?”
A better person would refuse him. It wasn’t fair to reward his gallantry knowing, despite his reassurance, that his world would see marriage to her as amésalliance.
But life wasn’t fair.
It hadn’t been fair to Grand-mère, it hadn’t been fair to Mama, and it hadn’t been fair to Maddy or the children.
Nash had had his chance. Of his own free will, he’d asked her a second time. That was his folly, to live with or regret.
She would seize this opportunity—and this man—with both hands.
Grand-mère, are you watching?Maddy took a deep breath and uttered the fateful words, “Thank you, Mr. Renfrew. I would be honored to accept your proposal of marriage.”
“Excellent,” he said and kissed her hand.
He kissed the back of her hand slowly, and with a burning look from those intense, blue eyes. And it sent a hot shiver through her, collecting in the pit of her stomach.
She wanted him to kiss her mouth and leaned forward, inviting it.
He rose to his feet and took a small notebook and pencil from his pocket, saying, “I’ll make all the arrangements.”
Perhaps proper kissing was to be restricted to the bedchamber. It didn’t matter, Maddy decided, as long as there was kissing.
She was going to marry Nash Renfrew.
