All words fled as his warm lips brushed against hers, bringing back a moment in the hot sun with the scent of rich soil and sun-warmed rocks filling the air. Barbara knew she should pull away, should reject him for his own good, but she couldn’t hold fast any longer.
Her hand came up to catch on his waistcoat as she leaned in to the touch.
This had been her fantasy. She’d had too little faith in believing it could come true, and yet he’d come to fight for her instead of with her.
Nothing else mattered. She loved him too much and didn’t have the strength to give him up a second time.
Even as she found that understanding, he pulled away to look down at her with laughter sparkling in his beautiful eyes.
“Please say you’ll marry me and you’ll stay by my side. I fear for my safety should I spend a lifetime chasing you down. Especially if you lay claim to a horse. I’ve seen your skill.”
“You seek to win me with humor when you couldn’t by argument?” Though her words might have seemed harsh, her laughing tone showed him she would not fight their connection any longer.
Aubrey dropped to his knees and caught her hand between both of his. “Had I known I need only make you laugh, I’d have pursued that method from the start. Ease my concerns, my love. Tell me plainly.”
Barbara gazed down at him, her whole body aglow with the knowledge she had not lost him. She had only to speak the words and her future would hold not desolation but love.
Confidence made her cocky, and after all, it was this aspect of her nature that had captured his interest from the start, not her ability to conform to the rules he’d been so quick to scorn.
“I’m afraid, my good man, that there is a list, a good number to consider before you. I must assess each and every one for their suitability.”
He rose to catch her in his arms and spin her around only to lower her so he could give her a kiss deeper than any other.
When she came up for air, she could only gaze at him with clouds in her eyes. “I have not said yes,” she murmured.
Aubrey shook his head. “If I were to wait for a simple agreement from you, I’d grow old and grey.”
“But what of my suitors? There is a duke among them even.”
“Had you interest in your duke, or any other on that list, you would have decided already. You wouldn’t have been sent off to the country to learn your faults. No, my love, you were meant only for me, and it’s about time you realized it.”
Barbara slapped his chest where her fingers had been pressed before. “There’s the arrogance that got you into this trouble in the first place—your fatal flaw,” she said, more humor than rancor in her tone.
Aubrey laced his fingers with hers and pulled her ever closer until Barbara had to tip her head back to see him. “This trouble is exactly where I want to be, now and forever, so if arrogance won me the place, it’s less a flaw than a virtue.”
“With virtues like that, it’s no wonder you remain unmarried.”
His expression took on a mournful cast, broken only by the dancing in his eyes. “I had to search high and low to find a woman with virtues to match my own.”
She laughed then. “Is this your courting speech? You tell a woman her flaws so she is brought down and considers herself lucky to receive only you? You forget the others who have made their case in this very room.”
“They matter not at all, not to me or to you. Give me your answer, Barbara. Put me out of this misery. Do you have any affection for me at all?”
She felt the heat of a blush sweep her features and leaned into his chest to mask the response. “Do you think I’d have been so quick to condemn if I had none? Or so quick to cast aside your offer for fear of your safety?”
“As you’ve mentioned a time or two, my offer is but one of many, and claims for my safety could have been naught but excuses to let me down gently.”
She jerked away. “Gently? Since when do you match that word to my behavior?”
“You are all that is gentle, and fierce, and strong. What you are not is forthright.”
Barbara felt her brows come together as confusion broke through their repartee.
As though he were capable of reading her very thoughts, Aubrey’s voice dropped to a low rumble as he said, “You still withhold your answer, and your feelings.”
Barbara threw her head back to laugh. “Yes, I love you, Aubrey St. Vincent. I think I have from the start, though it was nothing but an infatuation in a girl fresh from the schoolroom then.” Her voice softened. “And yes, I will marry you.”
A grin cut dimples into his cheeks as he said, “Good. I was worried I’ll have to confess our kisses to your father so he’d force your hand.”
He bent to repeat the offense, swallowing her joking protest. Their lips came together unerringly as they sealed a bargain to last a lifetime.