Page 207 of Courting the Wrong Duke

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You were supposed to be declaring yourself.”

“And here I thought I was doing rather well.”

“You became distracted by your own cleverness.”

That was difficult to deny. William ran his thumb across her fingers, his amusement softening as he returned to what he had been trying to tell her.

“Then allow me to do better.”

She pressed her lips together, but he caught the smile she was trying to hide. God, he wanted that too. He wanted years of making her look at him exactly that way.

His smile faded as he ran his thumb slowly across her fingers.

“I spent years telling myself I would only marry for love. But that was only because I never truly believed I would find it. I thought marriage meant surrendering the life I wanted. I thought it would make my world smaller. That choosing one person meant closing every other door.”

He looked toward the peach-colored light spilling through the windows and thought of the road from his dream, stretching endlessly beneath that impossible sky.

“You have done precisely the opposite.”

When he looked back, Rosalind’s expression had softened.

“You make everything feel larger somehow. Brighter. Even when you are being impossible.”

“I am rarely impossible.”

“Constantly.”

“William.”

He smiled, but only for a moment. “You are my solstice, Rosalind.”

The words ought to have sounded ridiculous. A month ago, he would have mocked himself mercilessly for saying them.

Instead, they felt true.

“With you, everything feels brighter. After everything that has happened, everything I have learned about my family and about myself, you are the one thing I am absolutely certain I want.”

A tear slipped down Rosalind’s cheek, and William reached up to catch it with his thumb.

She gave a shaky laugh. “I shall have to make a note for the manual.”

“Will you?”

“Yes. Somewhere between selecting appropriate garden paths and avoiding conversations beside ponds.”

“An excellent section.”

“I might add something about allowing a gentleman to become delirious from blood loss before accepting any declaration he makes.”

“I am not delirious.”

“That remains to be seen.”

William smiled, but he did not rescue her from the moment this time. He waited.

Rosalind lowered her gaze to their joined hands, and when she spoke again, all traces of teasing had disappeared from her voice.

“I love you.”