by Nora Roberts
"Darcy, wait. Don't." His arms shook as they wrapped around her. He'd thought she'd meant to plunge into the water.
She turned on him like a wildcat, kicking, scratching, biting. In shock as much as defense, he pulled her down to the sand where he could lie on top of her and hold her still.
A hangover, he discovered, was nothing compared to the pain inflicted by Darcy Gallagher in a temper. "Easy." He panted it out. "Just take it easy."
"I'll kill you, first chance."
"I believe it." He looked down at her. Her face was streaked with tears, and they continued to fall though her eyes were burning with fury. Here, he thought, was the first time he'd seen her weep for herself. And he'd caused it.
"I deserve it for fumbling this so badly. Darcy, I wasn't asking you to be my mistress-which is a ridiculous term and completely unsuitable when applied to you. I was trying to ask you to marry me."
He knocked the breath out of her as surely as if he'd rammed his elbow into her belly. "What?"
"I was asking you to marry me."
"Marry, as in husband and wife, rings on our fingers, till death do us part?"
"That's the one." He risked a smile. "Darcy, I-"
"Will you get off me? You're hurting me."
"Sorry." He rolled aside, helped her up. "If I could just start over."
"Oh, no, let's pick up where you left off. When you were offering me houses and bank accounts. That's how you chose to propose to the likes of me?"
Her voice was like sugar, with each crystal honed like a razor. "Ah-"
"You think I'd marry you for what you have, for what you can give me?" She shoved him back two full steps. "You think you can buy me like one of your companies?"
"But you've said-"
"I don't care what I've said. Any moron would see it was just talk if they took the time to listen, to look. I'll tell you what you can do with your fine houses and your big accounts, Magee. You can burn them to the ground for all I care. I'll buy the fucking torch and light it."
"You made it clear-"
"I made nothing clear, as nothing was clear to me. But now I will. I'd have taken you with nothing. Now I'll take you not at all."
She turned, flung back her arm. It was blind instinct that made him grab her, pry her fingers open. "What is this?"
"It's mine, given to me by Carrick. Sapphire." She jerked away from him as her voice began to hitch again. "The heart of the sea. I could wish on it, he told me. One wish only, for my heart's desire. But I didn't use it and never will. Do you know why?"
"No. Don't cry any more. I can't stand it."
"Do you know why?" Her voice rose, thick with tears.
"No. I don't know why."
"I wanted you to love me without it. That was my wish, so how could I use it and have it come true?"
Magic, he thought. He'd worried about magic, and she'd held it in her hand. He'd offered her things, and she'd wanted him. Enough to have thrown the fortune he'd let himself believe she desired most back into the heart of the sea.
"I did love you without it. I do." He took her hand again, closed her fingers over the stone. "Don't throw it away. Don't throw us away because I've been stupid. I swear to you I've never handled anything as badly as I've handled this. Let me fix it."
"I'm tired." She closed her eyes and turned to face the sea. "I'm just so tired."
"A long time ago-it seems like a long time-when I told you I couldn't fall in love, I meant it. I believed it. There was no one- There was never any magic with anyone else."
She stared down at the gem in her hand. "I didn't use it."
"You didn't have to. You just had to be. I haven't been the same since I met you. I tried to compensate for that. Stay in control, stay focused. I didn't come here looking for you, Darcy, looking for this. That's what I told myself. I was wrong, and I knew it. Somehow I've always been looking for you, always been looking for this."
"Do you think I'm so hard, so small of heart that I can't love where there isn't gain?"
"I think there are countless parts to you. Every time I see a new one, I'm more in love with you. I wanted you to belong to me, and it was easier to believe I could hold on to you by offering you things."
Through the weariness was just enough shame to make her honest. "That's what I wanted once. Before you."
"Whatever either of us wanted once doesn't count now."
No, nothing had to count but this. If they wished it. So she turned to him. "Do you mean it?"
"I mean it."
"Then so will I."
"More than anything, right now, I want you to look at me and tell me you love me."
She shivered in the wind, crossed her arms over her breasts, gazed out to sea. It was the moment, she thought, when her life changed, when dreams trembled, when spells were cast and broken.
"Damn it, Darcy." His impatient voice shattered her romantic images. "Do you want me to crawl?"
She looked at him then, the beginnings of amusement lighting eyes still damp from tears. "Yes."
He opened his mouth, was on the verge of dropping literally and metaphorically to his knees. And that, he decided, would just put the cap on everything else he'd suffered that morning. "No. Damned if I will."
Her heart simply soared. After one wild laugh, she threw herself into his arms. "There, now. There's the arrogant bastard I love." She pressed her lips to his, warm and welcoming. "There's my heart's desire."
"Say it once," he murmured against her mouth. "Without swearing at me."
"I love you, just exactly as you are." She drew back, made a sympathetic sound. "Oh, no, look at that, you're bleeding."
"Tell me about it."
"Well, I'll bandage you up in a bit of a while, but I want you to ask me again, and ask me proper. Here, between the moon and the sun and the sea, before the light breaks through to morning. There's magic here, Trevor, and I want our slice of it."
He felt it, as she did, the trembling edge of power just held in check. He had no ring to give her, no symbol to seal the moment. Then he remembered the silver disk and slipped the chain over his head, over hers.
She remembered the words that had come as in a dream. Forever love.
"A charm," he said. "A promise. Marry me, Darcy. Make a life with me. Make a home and children with me."
"I will, and gladly. Here." She pressed the stone into his hand. "A charm. And a promise."
"You humble me."
"No, never that." She brushed her fingers over his cheek. "I'd take you, Trevor, prince or pauper. But, loving me, you'll understand I'm pleased you're more in line with the prince."
"You're perfect for me."
"I am, indeed." She sighed, laid her head on his shoulder when he drew her close. "Do you hear it?" she murmured. "Over the beat of the sea."
"Yeah, I hear it."
Music, full of joy and celebration, the lilt of pipes, the herald of trumpets.
"Look, Darcy." He touched her hair. "Over the water."
She turned her head, stayed in the circle of his arms and watched. As the sun broke through in the east, shimmered its light over the sea, turning the sky to the polished glow of seashells, the white horse flew with a flash of wing.
On his back rode Carrick, his silver doublet aglint, his dark hair swirling. In his arms, her head on his heart, rode his lady, her eyes of misty green bright with love.
Up they rose, a triumphant sweep of motion, over green hills shimmering with dew. And in their wake left a rainbow that glimmered like jewels.
"They're together at last," Darcy whispered. "And happily now, ever after. The spell's broken."
"That one is. This one-" He turned her face back to his. "It's just getting started. Can you handle ever after, Darcy?"
"That I can, Trevor Magee." She kissed him, sealed the vow. "I can handle it, and you."
While the sun strengthened, they walked away from the sea. The music drifted into the hush of dawn, under a rainbow that arched from beginnings to ever af
ters.
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