Page 108 of Cocky August Rake
Rose stared at the pieces. “What is that?”
“The contract for the sale of The Domus.”
Her gaze flew to his.
“I’m canceling it. The property will be conveyed to you. Or to you and Nell together. Or placed into whatever trust you believe will best protect everyone living there.”
Finally, finally he was doing this right.
Rose looked down at the scraps of paper. “Why?”
“It should belong to someone who understands what it is. And this isn’t a transaction. It’s not even a gift. The Domus is yours whether you marry me, refuse me, or decide never to speak to me again.”
Slowly, she looked back up at him.. “Marry you?”
There was no elegant way to do this. No carefully charted course that might spare him the terror of waiting for her answer.
Reginald lowered himself onto one knee.
“You’ll always know The Domus is there for you,” he said. “But I want your home to be with me.”
She eyes, dark and shining, widened.
“Marry me, Rose.”
“Reginald…”
“I never believed in fate.” His fingers tightened around hers. “But that night at the masquerade, I looked at you, and my entire world shifted.”
A rueful smile pulled at his mouth.
“Then I made a bloody fool of myself in the garden. I didn’t learn your name. No one seemed to know who you were, and it was the final ball of the Season. I had no notion how I would ever find you again.”
Rose laughed, though tears had begun spilling down her cheeks.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Only after I’d convinced myself I’d imagined the entire thing, I found you.”
His voice roughened.
“I think I’ve loved you since that first night. I don’t know how else to explain it. I crossed half the world without knowing what I was searching for.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth.
“Until I met you.”
Rose blinked down at him, her mouth softening, and the sight sent hope surging through Reginald so sharply it almost hurt.
“Please,” he said. “Put me out of my misery and say you’ll marry me.”
“You truly love me?”
“More than life itself.”
“More than the Phantom Gale?”
Once, Reginald might’ve believed such a choice impossible.
Now, it wasn’t even a question.
