“And you might possibly be the most useless man at giving compliments to have ever walked this Earth.” She shook her head. “How can you say that you love me and then insult me?”
“They are not insults. Just statements of facts. And they are part of the reason I love you. I do not only love you for your magnificent mind, for your beauty, for your quick wit and elegance. Those are the easy things to love about you.” Luke replied.
Luke gestured to her, his blue eyes full of steel. “There is no part of you I would change. I love all of you, even the bits of you that make me utterly irate.”
“Well you are hardly the picture of perfection. You are snobbish and arrogant and irritatingly charming, even when you are a bedraggled mess. You are entirely too focused on order and propriety.” Emily scowled at him, trying to keep the ice around her heart, even as the warmth of him seemed to course through her.
He pulled her closer to him, catching her face in his hands. “And you are too comfortable with chaos.”
“You are clever.” He kissed her cheek.
He kissed her other cheek. “You are kind.”
“You broke my heart.” Emily whispered.
Luke stopped, his eyes full of sadness and longing. “And I will spend the rest of my life mending it, if you will allow me to.”
“You have rather a lot of work to do.” She breathed.
She could still feel his lips against her skin. Every part of her itched to close the distance between them, but she forced herself not to. She held his gaze.
Luke smiled, but she saw the sincerity and the worry in his eyes. “Then there is no time to waste.”
“Luke… What if you change your mind?” Emily breathed.
“I will never change my mind. I am done running from my life.” Luke’s breath tickled her skin. “I choose you, Emily Pembleton. I will spend the rest of my life choosing you.”
“Kiss me.” She said.
And he did. He kissed her slowly, full of tenderness and passion. His skin was slick with rain water, his clothes sodden as she wrapping her arms around him. She knew her dress would be ruined, but she did not care.
He chose me.She kissed him, losing herself in the warm, comforting taste of him. He lifted her into the air, crushing her to him and she gasped.
“I love you.” She murmured as she kissed him again.
“Marry me?” Luke muttered as they broke apart.
“Yes.” She rested her forehead against his, breathing heavily as he held her in his arms.
“Am I interrupting something, or do we have a second engagement to celebrate.” Emily’s mother’s voice sounded from the door.
The Viscountess Cotswalts stood before her, flanked by Rose, Jane and Natalie each of whom was grinning like an idiot.
“It is good to see you, Mother.” Emily said, trying to muster as much dignity as Luke carefully lowered her to the ground. “I would like you to meet Luke Baine, Duke of Warren. My fiancé.”
“Finally!” Rose exclaimed.
And Emily began to laugh.
Chapter Thirty-Two
She called me her fiancé.Luke felt the thrill of the word like a bolt of lightning coursing through his body. And then he realised that his future mother-in-law had just seen him behaving in a most ungentlemanly manner.
Luke could only think of one more mortifying circumstance to have met his future mother in law, and as that involved behaviour that he would simply not engage with, he supposed this was about as embarrassing as it could get.
He tried to move away from Emily, but slipped in the puddle that had collected around them. She put out a hand to steady him, and he smiled at her.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Viscountess Cotswalts.” Luke bowed, his cheeks flushing.
