She laughed harshly against his mouth. “Is that all you have to say?”
He sobered instantly. “No.” He cupped her head in both hands and looked steadily into her eyes. She gazed back at his battered face, waiting. “I love you, Briar, and I want to be with you. Always. I don’t want to go to bed a single night without you next to me. I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you. The whole thing.” He inhaled a broken breath just as an ambulance sounded in the distance, growing closer. “Please say you’ll have me.”
Her heart pounded so hard that she couldn’t say anything for a moment. She reached up and covered his hands where they held her face. “Yes. Yes, to all of that. I’ll have you, Knox. For always.”
With a short exultant cry, he covered her mouth with his own, muttering against her lips, “I can’t wait to get you home.”
EPILOGUE
Four months later . . .
BRIAR LET THE door slam behind her, anxious to leave the bitter cold of the February night behind. Immediately the aroma of rich tomato sauce hit her nose.
Textbooks littered her kitchen table alongside Knox’s open laptop, but the sound of a knife on the cutting board carried from the kitchen. “I’m home,” she called, unwinding the thick scarf from her neck.
Knox stepped out of the kitchen wearing a smile. “Hey, how was work?” He pulled her into his arms, and she smelled all the ingredients that went into his delicious sauce in the fabric of his snug--fitting thermal shirt.
“Good. How was your day?”
He kissed her long and hard before answering, “Good. I’m making spaghetti.” His lips drifted from her mouth to nuzzle at her neck. “But it’s on a low simmer. We can disappear into the bedroom for, oh . . . an hour . . .”
“An hour?” she laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet, carrying her into her bedroom.
“An hour,” he repeated. “At least.”
“Don’t you have a test tomorrow?” In addition to still working at Roscoe’s, Knox had just started two courses at the local college.
“I’m ready,” he replied, lowering her to the bed and coming over her. Straddling her, he reached behind him and pulled his shirt over his head. Her hands drifted down the flat expanse of his stomach, her blood heating to a simmer that was probably hotter than that sauce on the stove.
He seized her wrist and positioned her palm on the bulge of his erection. “See? Ready.” He winked down at her and she giggled.
He sighed and leaned over to kiss her again. “I love the sound of your laugh.”
“It’s because of you. You make me happy.”
He stared at her solemnly for a moment. “I love you, Briar.”
“I love you, too.”
“We’re going to have a good life together,” he said with resolve, his eyes glittering with emotion. Almost as though a lingering part of him would always doubt that possibility.
She brushed a hand over his bristly jaw reassuringly and stared into his eyes. “I know, Knox. That’s why we’re going to move in together.”
He stilled. “We are?”
She shrugged, trying not to feel suddenly insecure. “You’re here almost every night . . .”
“Briar, my uncle needs someone with him out at the farm. I can’t just—-”
“I’m moving in with you both at the farmhouse,” she clarified.
He stilled. “You want to live with me and Uncle Mac? I can’t ask you to—-”
“I know you’ll never leave him. That’s who you are. The kind of man you are. Loyal and kind and devoted. It’s why I love you. So yeah, if we’re going to live together, it’s going to be with Uncle Mac. At the farmhouse.”
He expelled a breath and pulled her tightly into his arms. “Finding you, being with you . . . you make everything that’s ever happened to me worth getting to this moment.”
She hugged him back, her arms looped around his big shoulders, shivering a little as he spoke into her ear. “Except . . . we can’t move in together, Briar.”
She pulled back, looking at him in alarm. “What do you mean?”
“Not without an understanding between us first,” he added. She blinked, shaking her head, utterly bewildered. His cobalt gaze flicked over her face. “Marry me.”
Those two words speared her in the chest, robbing her of breath. There was a shadow of uncertainty as he stared at her, waiting for her to say something. Something good. Something like yes.
She swallowed, fighting for her voice. “Yes,” she said hoarsely. “Yes, yes, yes, I’ll marry you.”
His face broke into a smile. Then she couldn’t breathe again because they were kissing. And loving. There were no more words. Their sighs and moans and reverent touches said everything.
It wasn’t until later that either one of them could speak.
An hour at least.