Chapter Thirty-Two

He leaned in again, his breaths tickling my lips. "I took the last two months to clear out my life. Finalize the divorce. Sell my company." He withdrew his hand from my thigh, clenching it on his lap. "And to work out my, uh… fears."

I turned my face to his without thinking and wound up eye to eye with him, our mouths grazing each other. My heart stuttered, my stomach flip-flopped. For a man's man like Lachlan to admit he'd been afraid took guts. But I didn't understand why he'd made such drastic changes in his life. "Why sell your business?"

"Because I don't need the income anymore, and I've lost my taste for helping avaricious elites stuff their coffers with more money than they'll ever spend."

My brows lifted. "Were all your clients that bad?"

"No, most were good folk. But I'd had enough of the few greedy ones." He scratched his jaw, his lips contorting. "I want a better life. I want to build a family, but I'm missing the keystone."

"And what's that?"

His voice was soft, almost a whisper. "You, Erica. You are the keystone, and the life I want will fall down around me without you."

"Oh." The blood must've evacuated my face because my cheeks no longer sizzled. I opened my mouth to speak again but clapped it shut. I had no clue what on earth to say.

His pulse throbbed in his neck and he took slow, controlled breaths as he watched me with wary eyes. He scooted closer until our bodies collided and his mouth hovered so near mine I could taste his breath. "I made a mistake. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I love you, lass, with all that I am. My life will be meaningless without you in it."

Surprised by the steady, deep pitch of his voice, I searched his face, noting the determined set of his jaw and the clarity in his eyes.

He reached into the breast pocket of his T-shirt and took hold of a small object I couldn't see. With it concealed in his palm, fingers closed over it, he offered his hand to me. "This is yours, whether you take me back or not. It's a token of my love and respect for you, both of which will never die. I'm yours forever, my sweet Erica, my gràidh, the bonniest, sexiest lass ever to grace this earth and the cleverest, strongest woman I've ever known."

His words burrowed deep into my soul, fanning a flame that had never quite died, no matter what he might've done. I couldn't let the flame sputter out because that meant I'd given up on him.

Lachlan spread his fingers, revealing the object in his palm. A diamond ring.

I stared at the ring, at its gold band topped by a glittering diamond. Tasteful. Beautiful. Not so large I'd feel weird wearing it, but not too small either. Perfect. I jerked my head up and our gazes intersected, locked together as if a steel cable had snapped taut between us and nothing could sever the connection. The air around us seemed to crackle with the energy of our passion and adoration for each other.

He crooked a finger under my chin. "Will you marry me?"

My gaze flitted to the ring. Tell him now. My trembling hand flew to my throat, but I could not break eye contact with him. Staring into the depths of his topaz-blue eyes, a certainty resonated through my soul. I trusted him. So, I confessed — in a roundabout way. "Remember on our road trip, the first night we stayed in the bed-and-breakfast?"

"Yes. I upset you, though I didn't understand why at the time."

"Now you do?"

He nodded. "I was still pretending I could walk away from you and feel nothing about it."

"It's all in the past." I folded my arms over my belly. Telling him the whole truth suddenly seemed vitally important, for reasons I couldn't fathom. "Do you remember what happened after I threw my boots at you?"

He flashed me a grin. "I made love to you, and after, you were very relaxed."

"Uh-huh." I watched his profile, losing myself for a moment in the rugged beauty of his features and the knowledge he was mine, for good. I cleared my throat and forged ahead. "We forgot something."

"I don't follow you, sweet. You'll need to be a wee bit more specific in what you're trying to say."

My instinct was to look away, but I made myself meet his gaze head-on. "No condom."

He arched one eyebrow at me, then his gaze went distant as if he were mentally rewinding to the night in question. He relaxed, brushing his lips over my cheek as he patted my naked thigh. The casual touch segued into a long, sensual caress that had me squirming. His voice flowed through me like the warmth of whisky in my veins. "Hardly matters now."

"You don't understand." I winced, wringing my hands on my lap. "I'm pregnant."

His eyes bulged. A fragile smile tugged at his lips, faltering in repeated attempts to take hold, until at last a grin overpowered his face, tightening lines of joy around his eyes. "We're having a bairn?"

My brain could produce nothing more meaningful than a grunt and a nod. Maybe he hadn't yet realized what I'd been fumbling to say. "It's my fault."

His hand stilled, but his voice stayed sexy and sweet, with a hint of pleasure in his tone. "Your fault?" He shook his head. "Is this what you were afraid to tell me? Did you think I'd be angry?"

I hunched my shoulders and hugged myself. "Should've reminded you. About, you know, the condom."

"I seduced you that night." He sighed, nuzzling my neck. "It was my responsibility to remember a condom. I got so caught up in needing to wipe that frown off your face, I forgot everything else. It's my fault."

"Are you sorry it happened?"

"I'm sorry I was so careless with you." His hand started moving again, drifting higher, perilously close to my mound. He dragged his lips down my throat, then angled his face up to mine. "But I could never regret making a bairn with you."

The anxiety flooded out of me so suddenly I sagged into the sofa back, relief freeing me to gaze at him with loving admiration. "Neither could I."

I nodded, helpless to speak anymore. Tears filled my eyes — tears of elation this time.

Something metallic pressed into my cheek, and I realized he had the ring hooked over one finger. I grasped his hand, drawing it down to my chest, holding it over my heart. I plucked the ring off his fingertip. "Yes."

"What?"

"Are you deaf? The answer is yes. I would love to marry you, Lachlan."

His laughter, deep and throaty, resonated in his chest. A reckless grin spread his lips wide, making him resemble a child who'd just gotten the most expensive toy ever for Christmas. "Thank you, gràidh. Thank God for creating a treasure like you and, heaven almighty, thank you for giving me another chance." He peppered kisses over my cheeks, my jaw, my chin. "You will never regret it, I swear on my life."

I soared through the stratosphere again, lightened of a burden I hadn't realized had weighed me down until this moment. The diamond sparkled in the muted light, held between my thumb and forefinger. Half crying, half giggling like a schoolgirl, I said, "Are you going to put this thing on my finger or what?"

"Och, yes." He hauled me onto his lap and shimmied down the sofa to its end. Rising, he deposited me on the sofa with my feet hanging off it. My dress had ridden up even higher to crumple around my waist, and my black lace panties peeked out from under the fabric.

Lachlan knelt before me on one knee. His gaze flicked down to my panties. He scrubbed a hand over his mouth, blinked furiously, and lifted his gaze to my face. The familiar hunger simmered in his eyes and roughened his voice. He took the ring, raising it between us. "You are the center of my universe, Erica Teague, and I'm blessed to have you for my wife."

"My goodness, I've never heard you babble before tonight." I grinned despite the tears flowing down my cheeks because they were borne of pure, unadulterated bliss. "You really are a changed man."

He slipped the ring onto my finger, head bowed, and turned his eyes up to look at me. "Don't care if I sound like an eejit. Best get used to my babbling because I intend to let you know every single day how much I cherish you." He dropped his head, pressing his puckered lips to my belly. "And our bairn. Which I'm certain will be a bonnie wee lassie just like you."

When he tilted his head back to smile at me, I bent to rest my forehead on his. "I think it'll be a boy. Braw and handsome like his father."

"Hmm. Maybe we should have several bairns, to make sure we get a boy and a girl."

"How about dozens of little MacTaggarts running around in the heather?"

"Dozens, aye." A smile of unrestrained joy broke across his beautiful face. With half-closed eyes, he drank me in from top to bottom as if he were plotting which lascivious acts he would lure me into tonight. His gaze hiccupped at my breasts, but then he met my eyes and captured my face in his hands once more. His lips teased mine, his tongue sketching the outline of my mouth with short, erotic licks. I thrust my hands into his hair to drag him in for a bone-melting kiss, our hot tongues wrestling, our moans and groans muffled by each other's mouths. When I was on fire from head to toe, inside and out, I broke away.

Lachlan pulled me tight against his hard, aroused body. "Not done with you."

My breasts were crushed to his chest, aching for his touch. The hard ridge of his erection pressed into my belly, and my sex began to throb. "Oh Lachlan."

He shoved his fingers inside my panties, down into my cleft. "You're so wet."

"Please, wait —" His fingers stroked my sex in slow, powerful circles. I shuddered with a hunger so intense it derailed my train of thought. I threw my head back, exposing my throat to him. He licked and nipped and kissed his way up from my collarbone to my ear, suckling the lobe while his fingers tormented my clit. I gasped. "Not here. Please."

He stopped. Just like that. His fingers rested on my mound, not moving. "Where?"

"Can't go to my place. My parents are there."

"My hotel," he growled, and swept me up into his arms as he stood.

"Hurry."

Lachlan yanked my dress down to cover my thighs. I managed to snag my small purse off the table before he strode out of the booth, the curtains billowing around us, and down the hallway to the club proper. I padlocked my arms around his neck, certain nothing I said would halt him. He marched straight across the dance floor, and couples scattered to get out of our way. The set of his jaw told me anyone who got in our way would get mowed down by my Highlander. People stared at us in disbelief, but everyone stepped aside for the Scotsman lugging his bride-to-be out of the club.

Once outside, he paused. "Where's your car?"

"There." I pointed across the parking lot. The cool night air raised goosebumps all over me. I wrapped my arms around him more snugly as he rushed across the pavement to my car and set me on my feet beside the passenger door.

"Keys," he commanded.

I dug them out of my purse, lightheaded from the hormones raging inside me, and handed over the keys. "I see we're back to monosyllabic Lachlan."

He grunted, unlocked the door, and hurled it open. "Not capable of conversation right now. All I can think about is stripping you naked and ravishing you until sunrise."

"Well, in that case…" I climbed into the car and, on purpose this time, let my skirt hike up. "Get a move on."