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Handing his car keys to the valet, he came around to the passenger side and helped her out of the car. He touched her hand and didn’t want to let go. Once inside, they were guided to the most romantic table at the intimate, cozy restaurant, in a shadowy corner near the medieval fireplace. He held her hand across the table. It was as if they’d gone back in time, he thought, looking at her beautiful face in wonder. As if they were the only two people in the world.
They ordered the prix-fixe menu for fifty euros. It started with céleri rémoulade, was followed by coq au vin, all washed down with the house red. For dessert he chose a platter of cheeses, while Carrie had crème brûlée. And all throughout the delicious, intimate meal, in the dark, low-ceilinged old restaurant, he asked her questions.
As she spoke, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. The sound of her voice was like music. His sexy lover. The angelic mother of his child. Her lustrous skin was the color of cream in winter, and her chestnut hair cascaded in waves down her bare shoulders. Her laughter was the sound of bells. He felt lost in her in a way he didn’t understand, in a way he’d never felt before.
He couldn’t lose her. Not now.
Not ever.
Carrie was chattering easily, on her second glass of wine. Her cheeks had turned pink as roses. “This is the most delicious meal I’ve ever had.” She held up the glass. “To you knowing what I like.”
He grinned. After clinking glasses, they both drank deeply. “And to our son,” he said, lifting his glass a second time.
“Oh, that’s even better! Yes! To Henry.”
They both drank, and he leaned across the table to refill her glass. They smiled at each other across the table, the mood warm and happy, and with some other emotion he couldn’t quite understand. But it was now, he thought, or never.
With a deep breath, he pulled the black velvet box out of his pocket. He placed it on the small table beside the empty ceramic bowl that had once held crème brulée.
“This is the last time I’m going to ask, Carrie,” he said huskily. “Will you marry me?”
The color in her cheeks turned pale as she stared at the huge canary-yellow diamond surrounded by white diamonds, set in platinum. She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I can’t.”
“Why?” he demanded.
She looked up at him miserably. “If we ever really needed you…if we ever really—” she took a deep dragging breath “—loved you, you would leave us.”
His eyes darkened in a scowl. “I am getting a little tired of you always accusing me of this.”
“Am I wrong?”
“The love between parent and child is sacred. It lasts. It’s different from the romantic foolishness you dream about.”
She set her jaw. “How long would Henry and I stay with you in the castle before you grew weary of our devotion and left us?”
“This isn’t about Henry. You know I would never leave him now. This is about you,” he said harshly. “And how you’re selfishly putting your own romantic dreams ahead of what’s best for our child.”
“I’m not!” she cried. “Us getting married would be a disaster for everyone—especially him!”
“How can you say that?”
“Don’t you see?” She took another deep breath. He saw her fingers gripping the edge of the table as if she were clinging on for dear life. “Living apart, sharing custody of our son while we live on opposite sides of the world, is his only hope for a happy life.”
He stared at her. “You’re making no sense!”
She pressed her lips together, her face pale. “Once we were married you’d treat me badly. Our home would become a misery.”
“How can you say that?” he ground out. “I will never treat you badly! I respect you—care for you! Don’t you know that by now?”
She started to say something, then choked herself off, midbreath. She looked away, looking across the shadows of the medieval setting. “I could say something that would make you go away.”
“No.” He grabbed her hand across the table. Her fingers were shaking and cold to the touch. He pressed her hand against the warmth of his cheek. Turning her hand over, he kissed her naked palm. “We’d be equal partners. Friends. Parents. There’s nothing y
ou could say to drive me away.”
Licking her heart-shaped lips, she took a deep breath. Then she looked at him with eyes full of pain.
“I’m in love with you,” she whispered.
