Page 71

“Our daughter is asleep,” Miles said, gently picking up Belle and tucking her into her basket. He draped a piece of lace over the top to make sure that she wasn’t bothered by an errant bee. “Belle has grown so much that she won’t fit her basket soon.”

“We’ll keep it for her.” They had already decided that when Belle was old enough, she would be told about the mother who had birthed her.

“Naptime,” Daisy said, throwing an arm over her eyes, which didn’t hide her smile. She loved the game they were playing. Courtship was delicious.

Sure enough, her husband placed a heavy thigh over her legs. A spark of excitement went through her body. “I’m not sleepy.” Miles’s voice lowered to an intimate burr. His left hand curled around her cheek and tipped her face toward him. “May I kiss you?”

“Yes,” Daisy whispered.

“Just to be honest, I live in hope that you will impulsively beg me to do more than kiss you.”

“Here? In the woods?” Daisy managed a semi-scandalized tone. She already knew that given rein, her husband planned to make love to her in the drawing room, the carriage, and several other unlikely settings.

“I’ve been thinking about horseback,” Miles said musingly, his eyes glowing with desire. And love. And possessiveness.

Daisy pulled him down to meet her lips. “I do love you,” she confessed, her heart overflowing with emotion that could not be corralled. “I always loved you, even when you left me naked on the bed. I couldn’t stop myself.”

Miles’s eyes fired. “My only explanation is temporary insanity,” he said, his mouth drifting over her cheek. “The moment I climbed into the carriage I knew I’d made the mistake of a lifetime.”

“You are the only man I will ever love,” Daisy said from the depths of her heart.

“I would die before I left you again,” he told her. “You—you and Belle—are my life.” His voice ached with emotion.

A large hand ran up her thigh. “Please beg me, Daisy.” His tongue danced with hers until a raw male sound broke from his lips. His hand trailed up her leg to the top of her silk stocking, pausing to tease and seduce.

“Ma,” Belle said drowsily.

Miles turned his head, reached over, and plucked up the lace fichu. “She’s still asleep.”

“You’re such a wonderful father.” Daisy couldn’t help a smile so wide that her cheeks hurt. “Everything my father wasn’t. Loving and protective.”

“Our daughter is blessed to have you as a mother.”

Miles levered himself away and rose to his knees. A ring sat on his palm.

“Will you marry me, Daisy?”

A shaft of light came through the leafy roof above them and caught a large jewel that danced with purple flecks.

“I love you. I have loved you for more than a year. I can think of no greater blessing than to be able to live with you and Belle, to be yours, to have children with you, to grow old with you.” His eyes searched hers, dark with tenderness and love.

Daisy came to her knees, feeling drunk with happiness. “Yes.” And then, as the hint of uncertainty disappeared from his eyes, “Yes, Miles. Always yes. It’s always been you.”

“I’m devilishly bad-tempered when I’m tired, but I swear that I will never knowingly hurt you. I will never walk out of the house in a rage.”

He picked up her left hand and slid off her wedding ring, replacing it with a ring graced with an outrageously large diamond that was violet, with dusky purple depths. “I sent to London for a violet that will never wilt.”

“Oh, Miles.” Tears pricked Daisy’s eyes as she reached up to kiss him. “I love this ring.”

“Do I need to say something about how my love will never wilt? I’m not poetic. But my love will never wilt, Daisy. Never.”

She believed him. Miles was on his knees, his heart and soul stripped bare. His face shone with love and desperate desire, the two so intertwined that they couldn’t be separated.

Their molten, loving kisses made a joke of begging. Words were superfluous when two people can say so much without them. As fierce need sprang up between them, Daisy melted backward onto the blanket.

She took a deep breath. “Will you please share my bed tonight, Miles? Make love to me?”

His smile was blinding. “Make our vows legal? So that you’re mine until death?”