Page 38 of Soren

My heart skips a beat. "What are you saying?" My pulse thuds in my ears. I take in the chirping of the birds nearby. The fresh breeze. The soft lights hanging from the trees, and the sun just starting to droop past the horizon.

"You have to understand..." He starts, jaw working over the words. "This is uncharted territory for me. I've been across the galaxy and have faced some of the meanest, toughest opponents in existence." Soren swallows. "Yet this trumps them all."

I lean forward and clasp his hand in my own. It trembles, only slightly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not that." He lets out a nervous chuckle. "Nothing like that. It's just...when I signed the contract, I didn't expect anything like this to happen." He looks up, meets my eyes. "I'm willing to bet you didn't either."

He got me there. "I didn't know what to expect," I say honestly. "You have to realize how scared I was, how desperate..." A lump forms in my throat and I swallow it back down. Tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

"I did what I had to do."

Soren draws closer. His lips brush my ear and send a chill down my spine. "And now?"

I somehow remember to breathe. I turn my head ever so slightly until we're face to face. We're so different. Two different cultures. Two different planets. But when I look into his deep, dark eyes, I feel like I belong for the first time in my life. "Now...I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be."

"I'm glad," Soren rumbles. His heat pours over me and his body perfectly fits with mine. We are two pieces of a puzzle, and I want to remember this moment for the rest of my life. "And that's why I want to ask you something."

I pull back. My heart leaps into my throat. My lips part in a silent question. "What...?"

"Close your eyes one more time," he whispers.

As the world fades into blackness, he moves away from me and I hear a short rustle.

"Open them."

I do, and he's there on one knee. Just like in the movies.

My mouth drops open.

"Lara. You have changed the way I look at the world. I thought I had it all, but I didn't realize how much I was missing until the day I met you. I know I'm not supposed to care about you like this, but I do. I can't help it. I can't control it. And I don't want to anymore." He pulls out a small box and holds it out to me. Even through the blur of my tears, I can see the sparkle of a silver ring and a beautiful pale stone.

"This was my mother's," he says reverently. "She gave it to me to pass on one day. And that day has finally come." His eyes sparkle with affection and unbridled emotion. "I would battle the galaxy all over again just to keep you at my side. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

My breath catches in my throat and the world -- no, the universe -- narrows to just the two of us. Only now do I grasp the enormity of all that he's done. Crafting the replica drive in movie theater. Offering me his mother's ring. And most of all, going against not only the ISA but Aesir customs by asking me to be his wife.

I take in a ragged, shuddering breath and blink away the tears. What would Janie think? Would I ever see Earth again? Would I ever see Iris again? There are too many questions to consider. Too many warring thoughts and feelings and values. But despite it all, there's only one answer on my mind.

"Yes," I whisper. "Yes, Soren. I would love to be your wife."

It doesn't matter what trials we have to face in the future. For this brilliant, shining moment, there's just us. He is mine and I am his. I can put everything out of my mind and focus on our bond. The little one growing inside me.

And come what may, we'll face it together.

Soren pops up from his knee and takes me into his arms. His grip turns almost crushing. His lips crash against mine and the passion behind his movements is rivaled only by the first time we met -- that hazy, heat-fueled incident when we were still strangers.

But we are strangers no more, and I want to give him everything I have. Everything I am. Not because a contract made me do it. Not because my hormones made me do it. Because I love him, and he loves me.

It takes a moment for me to register anything outside ourselves, but I hear it again. A voice, strangely familiar...

"Lara, I need to speak with you. Urgently."

Thoughts still hazy, I tear myself away from Soren and turn toward the source of the noise. He holds me possessively, the ring still in his hand and pressing against mine. But what I see waiting there is nothing I could have expected.

It's Orvox, and her normally professional demeanor has cracked into something bordering on panic. My stomach drops at the sight. It was in the rules, they were not to interrupt us except in case of emergency, and...

Oh my god, what had happened?

"Orvox?" I croak. "What's going on?"

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