“I have thought about it. But it’s a big decision. I need more time.”
He kissed her again, long and slow and sweet, and then he was gone. She had told him not to hide what he was and he didn’t. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. She pictured him suddenly appearing on the sidewalk on the street below, or transporting himself back home to Morgan Creek. What a remarkable man he was.
And even as the thought crossed her mind, a little voice reminded her he wasn’t a man in the usual sense of the word at all. Pushing the thought aside, she went into her bedroom, changed into her nightgown and brushed her teeth, all the while imagining what it would be like to share a bed with Conor, to fall asleep in his arms...and wake up beside a vampire at rest.
Suddenly chilled, she turned out the light and slid under the covers, only to lie there, wide awake. Whatdidvampires look like at rest? Movies made them look stiff and waxy pale, lyingin coffins, their arms crossed over their chests. She shuddered. Was that how Conor looked? She would have to ask him, she thought, as she turned onto her side. Because if it was true, that would make her answer to his proposal a definite no!
Chapter Thirty-Four
Conor brushed a kiss across Bryn’s cheek. “Did you think about my proposal?”
“Nothing but.” She looked up at him. “Tell me, what would our life be like if I said yes?”
“Pretty much like anyone else’s. We can live here and you could continue working at Cummings and Cox, if you want to. Or you could quit and we could move to Morgan Creek. If you want to keep working, I’m sure Saintcrow can find you something to do. I have a small house in Morgan Creek, but we can build a bigger one up on the hill. A barn and corrals, too, if you want. We’d spend our nights together, take long vacations....” He shrugged. “Anything you want to do.”
“Would we spend a lot of time with your parents?”
“If you like. You’ll meet the others, Kincaid and Ethan and Micah and their wives. You’ll like them, and they’ll like you.”
“Could we adopt a baby?”
“Sure, darlin’. As many as you like.”
She settled back against him. The life he’d painted sounded wonderful, and yet... She brushed her doubts aside. Every marriage had to make adjustments of one kind or another. Being a vampire was kind of like an illness where you couldn’t be in the sunlight or eat certain foods, but it wasn’t a fatal disease, and it wasn’t catchy. Unless you wanted it to be.
“Bryn?”
“You wouldn’t force me to become a vampire, would you?”
“No. Never. That’s a decision only you should make. I love you, Bryn. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“I have one more question,” she said. “And I need an honest answer.”
Conor frowned. She sounded so serious, looked so grim. “What is it? I’m afraid to ask.”
“Are you...do you...” She swallowed hard. “Do you look dead when you rest?”
He stared at her and then a slow grin curved his lips. “No, love. I just look like I’m asleep.”
She released a heavy sigh of relief.
“Is that the last hurdle?” he asked.
When she nodded, he claimed her lips with his in a long, slow kiss that made her toes curl and her insides melt. “Then say yes, Bryn. I don’t want to live without you.”
“Yes,” she murmured. “Oh, yes.”
“Bryn!” He pulled her body closer and kissed her again, and yet again.
She leaned into him, filled with a sense of peace and contentment, knowing that in his arms was where she was meant to be. Just a small, intimate wedding, she thought. Just her family and his. And then she frowned. “Conor?”
“Yes, love?”
“Can we get married in a church?”
“If you like.”
“You won’t go up in smoke, will you?”
