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“Those words have always frightened me because I feared saying them would give someone else the ammunition to hurt me,” he told her, and she was shocked to see that there were tears in his eyes as well. “But I don’t feel that way with you. And If I’d let you get away without saying them, without telling you how much you mean to me, I’d have regretted it forever.”
* * *
DRAKE HAD NEVER IMAGINEDmaking himself so vulnerable to another person. But as he waited with bated breath for Heather to respond to his declaration of love, he didn’t want to take it back. He’d meant every word of it. His fate was now in her hands.
“Oh, Drake,” she said at last. “I love you too. How could I not? You are beautiful inside and out, and you’ve never failed me. You’ve always done what was right, and I love you even more for that.”
He blinked, staring at Heather for a long moment, feeling as though he’d been falling, crashing toward an inevitable death, only to be saved at the last second. “You love me?”
She only nodded, a tentative smile blooming on her face and chasing away the tears. “I love you. I’ll always love you.”
With a soft whoop of delight, he pushed to his feet and pulled her up with him, whirling her around in a circle, grinning from ear to ear. “You’re so beautiful when you smile,” he told her softly, filled with sudden tenderness. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you as happy as you are right now for as long as I live.”
“I believe you,” she murmured, and those words perhaps meant even more. Her trust meant everything to him.
Overwhelmed, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, feeling as though it had been an eternity since he’d tasted her, since he’d felt the incredible rightness of being with her this way.
She wrapped her arms tightly around him, as though he was the only solid thing in her world, and passion exploded within him.
“I need you,” he groaned. “Please, darling. Let me inside of you.”
“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, Drake. I need you too.”
He picked her up in his arms and carried her across the room to the bed, laying her upon it and then covering her with his body, kissing her and pushing aside both her undergarments and his own, too desperate to take the time to undress either of them.
When he pressed deep inside her, the feeling of homecoming was undeniable. He’d waited his whole life for this woman, and he never wanted to spend another night apart.
“Say you’ll marry me.” He pulled nearly out and then pressed home again, his whole body trembling. “We love each other. None of the rest of it matters.”
“I’ll marry you,” she said, her eyes filled with such unmistakable love that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it sooner. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“Thank God,” he murmured, then stopped thinking at all as ecstasy crashed over them both.
* * *
HEATHER LAY TANGLEDin Drake’s arms, softly stroking his brow, listening as the house settled down for the night. Allison was no doubt mad with curiosity, but her sister obviously knew how deep her feelings for Drake ran, and she would never insist that he leave.
She kissed his forehead, realizing how difficult this day had been for him. “Did you talk to Mortimer at all when you arrived at Broadmoor?”
He sighed and shook his head. “We didn’t talk, but I waited until after they’d put him in his cell, a cold sterile cage that wouldn’t be fit to hold an animal, and I looked at him through the bars. I needed to see that he couldn’t get out, that he’d never hurt you or anyone else again.”
She sensed that he needed to talk about it, so she said nothing, simply kept stroking his head, encouraging him to get it all out, here in the safety of this place they’d created for each other.
“They had him strapped to the bed, and he was cursing and screaming, demanding that they let him out, that he didn’t belong there. For just a minute, I thought of the boy he’d been, the big brother I wanted so badly to love me, but then I thought of Evelyn Lindsay’s mangled body, of him standing there this afternoon with a knife to your throat, and I knew he was exactly where he belonged.”
Silence fell between them for a while, as they both contemplated Mortimer’s fate, but Heather had seen the evil in the man’s eyes, and she had no doubt he was in the right place either.
Determined not to let The Viper steal any more from them than he already had, she put all thoughts of him away and concentrated on the beauty of their newly confessed love for each other, and the promise of all the good things to come.
“This morning, I was so certain I’d never have this,” she finally whispered, still stunned that he felt the same way she did, that he actually wanted to marry a lady’s maid when he could have had any woman of theton.
“You deserve nothing but good things,” he said, his arm tightening around her. “And I intend to give them all to you.”
“Do you want children?” she asked tentatively, having never truly allowed herself to imagine a family of her own. But his love had given her the courage to dream, and that was a dream she knew they could make come true.
“Dozens,” he replied sleepily. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother, darling. I know you’ll make each and every one of them know exactly how much they’re loved.”
Her heart broke a little as she thought of the lost, lonely children they’d both been, but it immediately lightened as she realized that he was right. Together they could do better. Together, they could do just about anything.
