Hours later, Zack and Nicholas Trott found Allison in her bedroom near the window overlooking the garden. The garden lights were on, and she’d lit the room with candles.
He came up behind her and took her in his arms. She’d changed into a white silk nightgown. “You sure you’re okay giving up that position at UVA?”
“It was an easy escape, but I realized that the things worth having are the things worth fighting for. I’m not sure what I’ll do when we eventually move to Savannah, but we’ll figure it out.” She rested against his chest. “Although we don’t know what happened to Fenwick, I’ve no doubt you’ll defeat anyone who comes against you. In fact, I feel sorry for them.”
He chuckled. Her faith in him made him feel like he could load a Howitzer with one hand while fighting zombies with the other. “Why the mulling?”
Nicholas Trott yawned and stretched in his bed near the fireplace.
“I’ve been thinking. About us.”
“Okay...”
She turned so he could see her shimmering green eyes. Had she been crying? “I want to ask you a question.” Her finger traced his lips. “I’d like you to say yes first.”
He gently bit the tip of her finger. “Anything.”
“Tonight, Rafe told me the church on the Isle of Grace was being rebuilt and should be done in a month. So I was thinking, once that church is complete, I want to get married there.”
Zack’s heart lodged in his throat. “You don’t want to get married at Saint Philip’s?”
She shook her head. “I want to marry you in the church where I realized how much I love you. The church where you saved me. The church where I found my treasure.”
He took a ring Vivienne had helped him choose out of his pocket and knelt.
She touched his head. “What are you doing?”
He slipped the diamond solitaire on her left-hand ring finger. “I will marry you anytime, anywhere you want. As long as you’ll promise to be mine forever.”
She drew him up, threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her soft body against his hard length. Somehow her nightgown ended up on the floor. “Forever and ever and ever.”
* * *
Hours later, Allison laid her head on Zack’s bare chest. They were curled up, naked, in her bed. Her hair covered the tattoo on his arm, one of her hands rested on his lower stomach. He’d made love to her in such a way that if she died in that moment, with only the moon as a witness, she’d have no regrets.
Non ruta non dolor.
So much had happened since that night it was difficult to relive it all in her mind. Yet all that mattered was this moment with Zack. There was no point in dwelling on the woman she’d once been. No point in fussing about the choices she’d made and the years they’d lost. The only thing that mattered was that she and Zack had found each other. They’d fought for each other. Now, they’d live for each other.
That made her the luckiest woman in the world.
“Are you worrying?”
She kissed his chest. “Just being grateful. So very grateful.”
He rolled until his body was on top of hers, his leg between her thighs. “I still can’t believe I’m here, with you, and this is real.”
She untied his hair so it fell forward, trapping them in this private, intimate space. She kissed his eyelids, his cheeks, and his lips. She felt his strength and his length and smiled. Again? Really?
“We only have a few hours, and I want to spend all of it like this with you.”
She kissed his nose. “A few hours until what?”
He nuzzled her neck. “Didn’t I tell you? Some of my men stayed in Charleston overnight at Vivienne’s. I invited them to breakfast. They’re coming in a few hours.”
“The men are coming?” She laughed, not sure if he was serious. “In a few hours?” No, he hadn’t told her.
“Uh-huh.” His lips moved lower. “You’re not mad?”
No. But that just added an urgency to her caresses.
“Your men are your family, which makes them my family.” She smoothed back his hair and met the brown gaze of her wild man. “I want a family. With you. Because I’ve finally realized that while certainty is an impossible truth, it can be fought for, won, protected, and treasured.”
Zack’s breath hitched and his eyes darkened in the candlelight. “Meaning?”
She smiled and pulled him down for a kiss. “Zack Tremaine, I’m certain that I love you.”