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Ignoring my heart rate, I laugh. “You just remembered that, huh?”
“I’ve never been to an event like this. My parents handled relations. I did their dirty work.” He sweeps me closer to the music, into a pocket all our own by the exorbitant stage. Light showers the stern lines of his face, bathes his full, downturn lips.
“I know.” I trace the edges of his expression as they soften, as he draws me closer, removing all space between. “When did you learn to dance?”
“About three seconds ago.” Feather-light, he guides me into a twirl, mimicking what another man did on the other side of the room moments before.
“You can tell me the truth. Did you practice alone in the guest room with a broom last night?”
“My secret’s out. Except it was a mop.” He reels me in. My body meets his. Stillness passes between us, an endless moment stretching beneath dulcet tones. Murmurs cease around us, filtering out of my head. The whole reason we’re here disappears from my mind until it’s only him, it’s only me, and it’s only us.
“What happens after this?” he asks, lowly.
I swallow. “I imagine we get what we need and race against time to retrieve our parents.”
His head shakes as he lowers it to my ear. “I mean after that.”
After…
I don’t really want to think about that.
Rowan settles firmly in against my body, and something hard in his coat presses on my stomach.
To keep the delusion going just a little longer, I whisper, “Rowan. Do you have a gun in your pocket?”
His throat clears as heat covers his face. “Briar. Behave yourself.”
That is an incredibly tall order. I’m not even sure if I know how to.
Breath eases from his lips, and something seems to harden his resolve. “Briar.” His hand cups my cheek, thumb swiping over my bottom lip. “I love you.”
My heart skips.
“I don’t know how I’ve lived without you for as long as I have.”
I swallow hard as my skin goes cold.
“I’m serious about wanting you, princess. I don’t care if I’ve been fooled. I don’t care if I’m your victim. Let me make you happy. Let me be your prisoner for the rest of my life.”
“Rowan—” His name leaves me strangled. “Is…now really the time for this?”
He drops his face near my ear again. “Yes. Our man just entered. Which means things are going to come to a head very soon. And I don’t want you slipping away from me while I’m dealing with my parents later.” He pulls a ring box out of his coat pocket, keeping it shadowed between us. “Say you’ll marry me. And, after this, allow me to meet your father and formally ask for your hand.”
All feeling leaves my body. Breathless, I croak, “What…are you…”
“Can’t a socially-awkward guy proposition an emotionally-unavailable girl without having to explain himself?”
A fluttering shiver rises in my stomach.
“I won’t ask you again,” he whispers.
My heart hits my ribs.
“Turn me down, and I’ll forge our marriage papers. Reject me for any reason less than hating me, and I will chase you to the ends of the earth. You’re a professional. I know whatever I say now won’t upset our job here, but I know if I don’t say it now, you may try to disappear on me, and while you’re in hiding for as long it takes me to track you down, I want to haunt you with these words.” His lips brush a kiss to my temple. “I love you because you’re you, not in spite of you. I want to be yours just as badly as I’d like to make you mine.”
Strength pours from my limbs, and my voice is unfamiliar when I manage to find words. “Do you know the truth?”
“The truth?” he echoes.
