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“Good.” He slid his arm around her waist. How right it felt there, he thought, and pressed a kiss into her hair. “So, amada. What would you say to a drink at a little café with a view of the sea?”
“I’d say yes,” she said, tilting her head back and smiling at him.
“And then dinner. Paella, in a little inn about an hour from here.”
“Is there a fireplace?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.” He drew her closer. “And, after, a drive to Monroy. It’s a small town where—”
“—where some of the finest Andalusians are bred. I know about it. T
he first Andalusians sent to America were from Monroy.”
“Si. That’s right. I have a ranch there, too. I want you to see it.” His arm tightened around her as they began walking. “It’s my favorite place in all the world.” He looked down, saw her give a quick little laugh. “What?”
“Nothing. Everything. It’s just—I feel as if I’ve known you forever, and then something comes up and I realize that impossible as it seems, we’re still strangers.”
Lucas stopped and turned her into his embrace.
“In that case,” he said huskily, “we’ll just have to keep exploring each other.”
Color heightened her cheeks. “I love the idea of exploring you,” she whispered.
Lucas bent to her and gave her a long, deep kiss. She curled her hands into his shirt. When he raised his head, she swayed within the circle of his arms.
“Are you dizzy again? The doctor’s office is only a block away—”
“I’m fine, Lucas. Really.” She smiled, and the sheer intimacy of her smile made him want to drag her into his arms and ravish her right here, in the secluded little park. “It’s you,” she said softly. “You make me dizzy.”
“I like making you dizzy, amada.”
“Dizzy—and forgetful. I should have asked…Did you talk to your grandfather about the contract?”
Here it was. The moment they’d both waited for.
“Yes. Yes, I talked to him about it.”
“And?”
And, her worries were over. The contract was null and void. She would have her ranch, the money to bring it back to life…
“Lucas? What did he say?”
That she was free. Free of debt, free of him, free to leave him…
“Lucas? For heaven’s sake—”
“He said he won’t change the agreement. Not any part of it.”
“Then—then the ranch is gone.”
The expression on her face tore at his heart.
“No. No, it isn’t, amada. I have the solution.”
“You do?”
Lucas framed her face with his hands. The words that had been in his head for the past ten minutes, maybe for all his life, tumbled from his lips. “Marry me.”
