Page 82 of Snowbound in Her Boss's Bed

He didn’t flinch at her words; he couldn’t. He was too glad she was still here. Instead, he just shook his head, smiling like a fool in the snow. “No. I don’t want that either. I want you to marry me, Miri. You were right about what I said earlier. I don’t have a right to ask you to trust me. I’m not your husband. But I want to be.”

She stilled, like a deer in the sights of a predator. “What?” she asked.

“I want you to be my wife, Miri, and the mother of my children. I want to build a family with you and keep my family traditions alive. I couldn’t trust my grandmother’s recipes to just anyone, but I can trust them to you. I’ve made a career out of understanding complex patterns that underlie function and trusting my instincts. I don’t need more time to see your beauty or value, just like I can’t pretend that you’re not everything that I want just because the storm has passed. Losing you now or losing you at the end of a long life together feels the same, and in one case I end up a lonely old fool with more money than I can spend, too scared to have really lived.”

“But...” she said, eyes wide and mildly stunned. “The foundation...my job...”

“You can keep your job, Miri. I’ll step down from my role with the board citing my need for more time for private business projects, effective immediately. The foundation won’t dare reprimand you when they see the endowment I’m going to leave them, nor after the spectacular gala you’re going to throw for them. I don’t need you to give up who you’ve worked to be, Miri, nor was this ever about you putting your job at risk or being my mistress. That was your label, not mine. I just didn’t want to lose you, Miri. Death isn’t the only way love can leave you devastated.”

Her amber eyes glowing, she cleared her throat before she said, her voice still thick when it came out, “You’re going to have to be a little more direct if you want to start throwing that word around.”

She was trembling, he could see it, even through the warm jacket she wore, but would hold her line even through her emotion.

There was that spine he loved so much.

“I love you, Miri. Marry me.”

It was so cold outside, he could see his breath, could literally witness the command hang in the air.

And then she nodded. And then she said, “Yes. Yes! Absolutely yes!” and ran to him, leaping into his arms.

He held her there, kissing her, standing barefoot in the thick snow beneath a bright blue sky, the lonely chill he’d always relied on his fires to warm gone.

Until she pulled back, horror in her face, and said, “No shoes and a T-shirt? And you gave me a hard time for wearing a cardigan,” as she unwound herself from her coat to wrap a side of it around him, too.

Smiling, he said, “I dress for the occasion, which, in this case, was running as if my very life depended on it. Because it did,” and kissed her again.

---