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Persy could see the pleading in the darkness of his eyes. For all that Casper gave off such self-confident vibes, that look of appeal revealed he was just as vulnerable as she was when it came to the deluge of emotion that now existed between them.
Her answer could either add to that vulnerability or dispel it completely.
“Marry me,” he said before she could find the right words to answer him.
“Casper—”
“Marry me.”
“You—”
“Marry me.”
“Repeating it isn’t going to change my answer.”
“Which is?”
Persy was finding it difficult to breathe as she felt Casper’s tension rise. “Ask me the same question in six months.”
His normal restless energy stilled. “Six months?”
“Yes. Please,” she added when he remained silent. “If you love me— Wait a minute.” She eyed him incredulously. “Shouldn’t a declaration of love come before the marriage proposal?”
“I would hardly ask you to marry me if I wasn’t in love with you,” he teased.
“But you didn’t say it.”
His expression softened. “I love you very much, Persephone Jones. You are the other half of me. My soul mate. The woman I am going to love till my dying breath and beyond.”
Persy blinked back the tears to stop them from falling, that feeling of rightness, of belonging, growing deeper. Still, some of her caution lingered. “How can you be so sure so quickly?”
He smiled. “I knew the first time I looked at you. I tried to resist—what confirmed bachelor wouldn’t?—but it was futile when that certainty has only grown stronger in the minutes, hours, days that followed.”
“It’s only been a few days since we met!” she reminded, overwhelmed by his absolute certainty this, the two of them, she, was what he wanted for his forever.
He was silent for several seconds before giving a firm nod of his head, as if coming to a decision. “I’ll give you your six months, Persephone Jones. But no longer,” he warned. “In the meantime, you will move out of this apartment building, well away from the despicable Jonathan Walker. I would love it if you moved into my suite on the estate with me. Or I have an apartment in London you could use, if you would prefer that. Either way, six months from today, I am going to ask you again, you are going to accept that marriage proposal, and we’re going to be married at the earlier opportunity. Agreed?”
Persy looked at him searchingly, but she could see by that continued certainty in his eyes and expression that he would still love her, still want her, in six months’ time. “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll give you your answer six months from today.”
EPILOGUE
Six months later
“Are you okay?”
Persy smiled at Remy as she looked up from staring morosely into her coffee cup. “I think I should be asking you that,” she said laughingly as she stood to take one of the babies from the other woman.
Babies.
Because the whole of the Kingston family had been surprised but totally thrilled when Remy gave birth to two healthy daughters rather than just one baby. Sinclair still looked totally dazed a lot of the time, but also bursting at the seams with the depth of love he felt for his wife and two baby daughters. And they had more than enough helpers in the Kingston family if ever the couple needed a break.
Persy had spent so much time at the Kingston estate, working alongside Casper for most of it after Sinclair, instead of firing her, had asked her if she’d like to put her obvious hacking skills to use, that she hadn’t balked at all when Casper asked her to move in with him three months ago. She hadn’t, as he’d suggested, moved into his apartment first, but had instead moved back to live with her father for those initial three months.
Having company seemed to have helped her father, and he and Casper had become firm friends very quickly. So much so that her father had encouraged her when Casper asked her to move to the estate to live with him there.
Her father visited them all the time. The warmth of the Kingston family was also working its magic on him as he finally began to emerge from the depths of his grief. Knowing of the part Casper and his family had played in avenging Violet’s death, and consequently May’s, had helped with that.
Persy loved being with Casper twenty-four-seven, and as a bonus to that happiness, Sinclair occasionally asked her to use her other “skills” out in the field.
