Page 80 of Her Magnificent Mistake
“I always felt so guilty.”
“And I am guilty now,” she admitted against his chest. “I am sorry I ever believed you a murderer. I am sorry I manipulated you as part of the investigation. I should never?—”
He interrupted her with a kiss.
It started soft, but soon the memory of how close she’d come to losing him crept in, and Marcia twisted her fingers through his lapel and crushed herself to him as if she could keep him safe here with her forever.
Forever.
They were panting when they pulled apart. Hawk dropped his forehead to hers. “Marry me, Marcia. Give me the chance to set things right with ye. Let me spend the rest of my days proving how much I love ye.”
“Only…” Her lips tugged upward. “Only if you allowmeto spend the rest ofmydays proving just how much I love you.”
When he exhaled, it sounded as if he’d been holding his breath. Slowly, he straightened, smiling gently. “I should have been braver all those years ago. I should have been honest.”
Her attention on the buttons of his own shirt, Marcia shrugged. “That is in the past, and cannot be changed. If you had been brave enough to confess to my brother, we would have taken this step.”
“A forever?” Hawk murmured. His hands closed around hers as they reached the end of his now untethered buttons. “And now, love? Are ye ready for a forevernow?”
“With you?” She stretched up on her toes to brush a kiss on his lips. “I am. I love you.”
“I love ye too, lass,” he growled suddenly, pulling off his shirt.
Her heart sped to see him disrobing. Or maybe it was in excitement for their future. Whichever it was, she knew what she wanted next.
Marcia began to fumble with her corset.
“Ready for that bath now?” There was a wicked gleam in his eyes.
“A chance to see you naked?” She laughed. “Always.”
“Forever.”
Much later, after a good scrubbing and wetting—and then a bath—the pair of them stood outside the door of the blue suite, arms locked. While the proper thing to do would be to send McMackinacker, or one of the other footmen, to ask his guests to meet in the parlor, it had seemed too…formal.
Hawk had guessed they would be in Bull’s quarters, where the council of war had been.
He glanced down at the woman by his side. The woman who’d proven today—and every day—that she was his perfect match. “Are ye ready, love?”
Marcia took a deep breath and her hand rose to her throat. It wasn’t until her fingers scrambled a few times that he realized what she was doing. In her time at Tostinham, he’d often seen her fiddling with the strange blue pendant as a sort of nervous gesture.
Only an hour ago, as they held one another—thoroughly satiated—in the bath, she’d told him the full story of the pendant. How it had been a gift—aninheritance—from Lady Mistree, and how it had never made any sense to her.
“Perhaps,” he’d said, “it didn’t need to make sense to you. Perhapsyewerenae the one who needed to believe that it was a home to a sprite.”
She’d hummed thoughtfully, then nodded. “When the moment came, Artrip had believed. I saw it glow when he grabbed it. As if…as if it washappy. As if it knew it was finally going to be free?”
“Whether it was a spirit, or just some glowing lapis glitter, it was exactly what we needed.” Hawk had tightened his arms around her in the soapy water, trying not to think of how disastrous the day could have been. “It distracted Artrip exactly the way we needed, when we needed. He willingly gave up his murderous efforts to hurt Allie to get the pendant, which allowed me the time to get him away from both of ye.”
Marcia had turned in his arms then and given him a mock glare. “And I have not even begun to scold you for how foolish and dangerous and bravethatmove was, you magnificent man.”
Since she’d kissed him straight after that statement, however, he hadn’t minded her “scolding” one bit.
Now she looked a little lost, standing outside her brother’s room without her pendant.
“I’ll get ye a new one,” he whispered, raising his hand to close around her empty one. “No’ a mystical home of a sprite, but something big and blue and worthy of ye.”
Her smile was a little crooked. “I had not realized how much I was used to it…until it was gone.”
