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He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes and blew out a breath. “You don’t respond well to royal decrees…or ducal ones. You must truly love me since you didn’t flee the country after my uncle spoke with you.”
“Jerk.” But she said it with a sense of reprieve. “If you’re done laughing at me, I want to say something serious.”
He stopped chuckling and ran his hand over the bare skin of her back. “I’m listening, cariño mío.”
She closed her eyes to relive the memory. “When you launched yourself at Odette, I was terrified and furious with you for risking your life. But that’s also when I knew that your love was strong enough to survive whatever the world throws at us.” She opened her eyes to savor the elegant angles of his jaw, the soft smile on his sculpted lips, and the light in his blue-gray eyes. “You did something no one else in my life has ever done. When I was in trouble, you put me first.”
His smile vanished, and his eyes blazed with intensity. “And I promise you I always will.”
Epilogue
Fourteen months later
“Shit!” Quinn said as Gabriel led her into the tower room where dozens of candles stood flickering on every flat surface, even though it was lunchtime.
“You are ruining the ambience, cariño mío,” he said, but he smiled.
He was going to propose. She fought down the panic. Not because she didn’t want to marry him, but because she wouldn’t know the right thing to say in response.
“Come. Sit.” He handed her into the carved dragon chair she’d sat in many times while he practiced.
He sat on his favorite stool and took his guitar out of the case. “I’ve written a new song which I wish to play tonight at the concert.” He settled the instrument on his thigh.
She sagged in relief. He just wanted her to hear the song before his performance tonight at the Festival de las Artes de Caleva. Now everyone referred to it as DragonFest because of the frilled dragon in the logo.
Somehow Gabriel and Raul had pulled the festival together in a little over a year, and every event had sold out. Kyran Redda and Marisela Alejo had been joined by a dozen more major international stars. Gabriel had filled out the rest of the three-day event with a carefully selected roster of up-and-coming musicians whom he felt should receive more exposure.
Tonight was Gabriel’s public solo debut. He’d been practicing like a fiend between festival-planning meetings and trips to recruit musicians.
He strummed the guitar, tuning a couple of strings. She loved watching him prepare to play. All the focus of his elegant face was on the music while his long fingers made delicate adjustments to the tuning pegs. The candlelight seemed to slide along the glossy, dark waves of his hair.
His hands went still, and he gave her one of the intense looks that sent delicious shivers up and down her spine. “I wanted you to hear it in this room because this is where you first heard me play.”
“And where I threw myself at you.”
“As I had dreamed you might.” His eyes went hot. “This song is for you.”
His fingers skittered over the strings in angry skirls of notes punctuated with the slap of his palm against the guitar. Then the anger fell into a trough of sadness that made her fight back tears. But some chords of hope crept in. She found herself waiting for the next one to lighten the sorrow.
Gabriel paused for a split second, his gaze on her. When his fingers moved again, he conjured a melody so exquisite that it left her breathless. The notes held longing and fear balanced by love and those chords of hope. The music swelled and blossomed until the longing and fear were gone. All that was left was love.
And then he played a final chord, which was pure hope.
He let the chord fade to silence. Unslinging the guitar from his body, he laid it in the case and slid gracefully onto one knee in front of her, his face holding all the emotions evoked by his music.
Everything around him faded away. He filled her vision as she realized what he intended to ask her.
“That was beautiful,” she managed to say. “Sad and then happy. The last part was amazing.”
He smiled and took her hands, his grip warm and firm. “It is the story of how you saved me from the darkness and brought me to this place of joy.”
“Er, um, the audience tonight will love it.” She still had a hard time taking credit for helping him, no matter how often he said she had.
“The only person whose opinion I care about is yours.” His gray eyes held reflections of the candle flames.
“I loved it. With all of my heart.” She wasn’t as good at compliments as he was, but she tried.
His smile was radiant. “That is what I ask you for. All of your heart for all of our lives. Because I know that you have mine now and always. Quinn, my beautiful, courageous, extraordinary love, will you marry me?”
