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Would Kilbourne?
“Would…would that suffice?”
“It’s done, my love.” Mathias tenderly touched her cheek. “Come, I need to find Sutcliffe and Pennington, and you should go home at once. I’m sure in a matter of minutes, despite my threat, the guests will be abuzz with the news.”
At the top of the terrace stairs, Nicolette slowed her steps once more and summoning every jot of courage she possessed, asked. “Mathias, do you love me?”
He turned, incredulity darkening his eyes to midnight blue. Gold flecks glinted in his irises, and her heart swelled with what she saw there. Cupping her cheek in his palm, he rested his forehead against hers.
“How can you doubt it, my darling? I’ve been unable to keep my eyes off you for two very long years. But I knew you needed time to find your own way, and I prayed, daily, that it would lead you to me.”
Tenderly cupping her cheeks, he kissed her forehead.
“Then, I beg you, don’t do this.” Nicolette clutched his hand and held it to her chest over her heart with both of hers. “I love you, too. I do, so, so much. I never thought to find this kind of love.”
He flashed her a blinding smile and crushed her to him. “Thank God,” he whispered into her hair, his voice thick and raspy with suppressed emotion.
Her head tucked beneath his chin, and her face pressed to his chest, she absorbed his heat and his masculine essence.
“I love you, Nicolette. Love your spirit and wit, your laughter and sarcasm, your winsome smile, and your magnificent eyes. I think I fell in love with you the first time I looked into your beautiful eyes.”
He had?
Why hadn’t he said anything all this time?
Ah, because Kilbourne had been courting her and had become her affianced shortly thereafter. And being the honorable man that he was, Mathias would never declare himself to a woman another had claimed. Then after she’d been discarded, she’d been rather a horror to men in general.
“I love you, Nicolette.”
His words were a balm, filling her with contentment and peace. Much like burrowing beneath thick layers of bedding during a spring storm. Sighing, she snuggled closer, permitting her eyelids to flutter shut. Loving him so much, her heart so full to bursting, it almost hurt.
“Our love means more to me than anything else, Mathias. Anything.”
“For me as well, darling.”
Angling her head, Nicolette grazed her fingertips over his granite-like jaw.
“If I can ignore Kilbourne’s insults, can you not also? For me? I…” She swallowed against the torrent of emotion, besetting her. “I don’t think I could go on without you, Mathias.”
Her voice broke, and she had to take a moment to compose herself.
“You are my other half,” she said. “I am not complete without you. Please. We’ve only just acknowledged our love for each other. I want to explore this beautiful thing between us and watch it grow and bloom.”
His eyes a firestorm of emotion, Mathias stared into hers for so long, his cheekbones standing out starkly in his classically sculpted face, that she considered he might not respond. That she’d asked too much of him.
“How can I deny you, my heart?” Mathias released a juddery sigh, one large hand brushing up and down her spine. “At least let me knock him senseless at Gentleman Jack’s. My manly pride demands he sport a black eye and a bruised face for what he said about you.”
“Yes. Yes.” Tears cascaded over Nicolette’s cheeks as she stood on her toes and peppered his beloved face with desperate kisses. She gave a watery laugh. “Yes. That will do. Blacken both his eyes if you wish and break his nose, too. He has an entirely too high opinion of himself.”
“I must tell you something, Nicolette. Something my sister isn’t even aware of. It can never, never become known.” He firmed his mouth into a grim line. “I would have no secrets between us.”
She tilted her head and searched his face. “You can tell me anything, Mathias, and I would never breathe a word.”
His eyes softened, and he caressed her cheek with his fingertip. His voice low, he murmured for her ears alone, “My mother was set upon mere days before my parents married. I was born eight- and one-half months later. My mother neither knows who her assailant was, nor for certain who my father is.”
“Oh, Mathias.” Her gorgeous eyes grew luminous. “Your poor mother.”
He tilted his mouth into a poignant half-smile. “My father adored her, and they were very happy. He always treated me as his own, even though he never knew whether I was or not.”
