by Dawn Brower
If her heart pounded any harder behind her ribs, it would tear clean out of her chest and probably jump into his arms. Such a traitorous organ.
He extended a hand in entreaty. “I want to celebrate every small victory with you and fight against every setback. We will work to make a life worth living, bask in the joy that we will find together.” He wiggled his fingers. “Will you trust me and let yourself break away from the fear?”
Tears fell in earnest to her cheeks. “When did you become such a wordsmith?” Drat! That wasn’t what she’d wanted to say. But old beliefs were a handy burden and couldn’t be given up so easily.
“It’s all part of the charm.” His smile was a tremulous affair. He dropped his arm back to his side. “Also, that wasn’t an answer, Evie.”
Of course it wasn’t! How could she say anything to him when she couldn’t pick through her feelings on the spot? She needed time to think about things, to weigh each option against others, to gird her loins into letting her hard-won freedom slip through her fingers.
“Again, you will overthink yourself right out of a decision.” His sigh seemed to come from his toes. “If you want independence with me, you’ll still have it. You needn’t do anything you don’t wish to. Where we live, how we spend our time, how you choose to fill your days, it’s all open to discussion. There are no set rules. But know this.” He closed the distance and placed both hands on her shoulders as he held her gaze. Water ran down his face. “I’ll make damn certain you meet your dreams, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming after them along with me. That’s how much I believe in you.”
She sniffed and gave into a shiver, whether from the cold state of her wet clothing or the conviction in his voice, she had no idea. “It all seems a fairy tale, perhaps too good to be true.”
“Don’t hand me that gammon.” Irritation sounded in his voice. He stepped away and she missed the warmth he’d briefly imparted. “Above all, don’t discount what we’ve shared, what you feel deep down in your heart because your views of independence and freedom are tied up and twisted into misshapen monsters of your own making.”
That’s exactly what she’d done over the years. Fear had taken her hopes and dreams, wadded them up and distorted those images until she couldn’t discern the monsters from the heroes any longer. It had stolen the joy she’d derided out of the journey.
How did he see so clearly into her soul?
“I…” Say something instead of standing here like an idiot! Not even the chiding of her conscience could unstick her tongue. “I don’t know what to say.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t a romantic response to everything he’d laid before her.
Jasper shook his head as the light slowly faded from his eyes. “Well, I guess I have my answer.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “Don’t let me keep you from your destination. Good luck to you, Miss Bradenwilde.” He flicked his gaze up and down her person. “In the circumstances, you may keep the apron. Consider it as a memento of our brief reunion.”
Frowning, she glanced down at her person to see the black Parisian-style apron she’d borrowed when she’d helped in the shop. “Oh, I…”
But he had already turned away and began walking toward the emporium.
A different sort of panic welled within her chest as she gazed at his retreating form. Never again would he offer for her. Chances were high that if they passed in the London streets, he would only acknowledge her with polite, empty greetings. How could she go through life without him in it?
Her heart stopped its beat for a full second, and in that tiny span of time she experienced a grand revelation: she loved him unequivocally and without fear. Everything else paled in comparison. All the problems that life threw at her could be tamed if he was with her. When her heart resumed its usual course, her vision—her very intent—clarified and the confusion that had clouded her mind vanished.
I cannot lose him.
“Jasper!” Had he heard her? Frantic when he continued to walk, she put one foot in front of the other, finally breaking out into a jog after him. “Jasper Winslow!”
Wonder of wonders, he turned around to face her at the door to his emporium. “Evangeline, is there something you would say to me?” One of his dark eyebrows arched, the effect blurred by the rain.
“Yes. Yes! Of course there is, you poor, daft, long-suffering man.” She closed the distance between them at a run and hurled herself into his arms with such force they both bumped against the door. “I choose you.” She dropped her carpetbag and held his head between her palms. “I choose to risk a future with you because I love you. I always have.”
Slowly, a grin spread over his face, and it was breathtaking. “It took five years but I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses.” He tightened his arms around her.
“I’ll never live it down, will I?”
“Not for at least a little while.” His victorious tone was one of a man who had finally won a hard-fought battle.
Evangeline smiled as well. He was hers at long last. She’d merely needed to move out of her own way. “Cheeky man.” Raising up on her tiptoes, she kissed him with every ounce of need and feeling behind it. Perhaps there was something to be said for love after all. The heated, intoxicating rush banished the chill and she forgot her cold, wet state. When she broke the embrace, she said, “Shall we adjourn upstairs? I believe there was something you would ask me?”
“Now who’s the cheeky one?” When he pushed open the door, she retrieved her abandoned carpetbag, and Evangeline was quite certain her whole life was about to change.
Chapter 10
Jasper couldn’t believe his good fortune. After all this time, Evangeline Bradenwilde would be his wife. He peered at her through the gloomy shadows and she looked back with the same goofy expression on her face that he felt on his.
“Well.” He tamped down the urge to roll his eyes at his less than intelligent comment. Not exactly erudite, and if he continued on this tract, she’d accuse him of being as tight as a boiled owl. That pulled a wider grin from him. Not drunk on liquor, just on her, on love, on the possibilities their future had in store.
“Well indeed.” She dropped her soggy carpetbag. It hit the marble with a decided plop! Her eyes sparkled, more blue than green as she removed the borrowed shop apron and let it fall to the floor at her feet. “Shouldn’t there be a bit more celebration?”
“Perhaps.” Remarkably, now that most-important moment was upon him, his hands shook and anxiety slithered through his insides. “If you’ll give me a moment to find—”
Evangeline interrupted his speech by closing the distance between them. She kissed him with more enthusiasm than finesse. Not that he minded. This was the woman he’d hoped to discover and draw out when fate had thrown them back together and she’d more or less consented to marry him. “Will it…” She nipped at his bottom lip; her breath warmed his cheek. “…take very much time?” The tentative sweep of the tip of her tongue along the seam of his lips sent electric-like pulses up and down his spine. “I find I’m not inclined to linger in the shop.” Then her fingers were at the buttons on his jacket as she steadily worked each one from their holes.
“I cannot imagine that it will.” Jasper stole a light bite of his own. “Continuing this conversation upstairs is just the ticket.” He assumed control of the embrace and fit her snugly between his body and the glass counter. Her lips, as soft and plush as he remembered, cradled his. Every dip and curve of her body fit to his planes and angles—truly interlocking pieces of a puzzle. She matched him kiss for kiss, and when she made those soft little sounds at the back of her throat that pulled at the threads of his sanity, his hold on decorum slipped. He wrenched away, his labored breath mirroring hers. “Unless you’d rather have relations on this cold floor, I suggest we retire to my rooms.”
For she would be his this night. The location didn’t matter.
“Intriguing concept.” She glanced at the darkened plate glass windows
at the front of the shop at the drawn shades. One of them had slipped back up. “Perhaps another time.” Evangeline squirmed from his hold and headed toward the staircase. “I wonder which one of us would lose our nerve first knowing any person walking by could peer in?”
Jasper’s jaw dropped. Where had this daring side of her been hiding? He shook his head to clear it. “Hold onto that thought. I just might have enough cheek to do it.” Quickly, before she could surprise him yet again, he reached across the counter to a tiny, crystal pedestal. Beneath a glass dome rested one solitary chocolate bonbon—the one where he’d hidden the engagement ring. He procured the dish and then followed her up the wooden stairs.
Every swish of her wet skirting that clung to her generous curves, each sway of her rounded hips, he lost himself even deeper into the joy she represented. Unable or wait a second longer to ask the question that had haunted him for five years, he halted her progress at the doorway leading to the drawing room.
“Evangeline, wait.” His hand shook and the glass dome on the crystal plate rattled. He removed the dome and stowed it on a small occasional table in the hall. “After everything we said to each other on the street, after everything we’ve shared—not only the last few days but a lifetime ago—there is something I would ask you.”
She turned. Anticipation lit her expression, but when her gaze fell on the single-serve pedestal in his hand, she frowned. “You’re presenting me with a chocolate confection?”
“Yes.” He quelled the wont to laugh at the ridiculous picture he no doubt made. “No. For effect, yes.”
One of her blonde eyebrows arched. “Don’t you think there are other, more satisfying things we can be doing instead of indulging in confections?”
His shaft twitched to life as he thought of all the different ways he could incorporate chocolate into bed sport. “Evie, please.” An exasperated sigh left him and he offered the bonbon. “Please, for the love of God, accept the sweet and taste it.” Would that she never lost her spirit. Where many men would have wished for biddable wives, he wanted the challenged she represented. It was good for a man to remain tested.
“Fine.” She removed the bonbon from the glass, held it between her thumb and forefinger as if to inspect it and then she daintily bit into the thin chocolate shell. Pale purple cream oozed out from the break. The faint floral scent of violets permeated the air. “This is lovely.”
It should be indeed. He’d infused the violet syrup into marzipan mixed with cream.
Tears filled her eyes and made them luminous in the dim light. “You never forgot the violets after all this time.”
“Those flowers were a part of what I adored about you. Of course I wouldn’t forget.” He forced a swallow into his suddenly tight throat. “Sample more. There’s a special addition to this.” After setting the crystal plate onto the table with the dome, he moved closer to her, and when she didn’t take another bite, he appropriated the chocolate confection from her. “Look.” Gently breaking the sweet in half, he offered her the piece that contained the ring while popping the rest into his mouth.
Rich chocolate, nutty almond and sweet sugar melted on his tongue. When he finished it, the subtle floral taste from the violets lingered with a hint of their essence.
Perfection, much like the woman before him.
Evangeline nibbled at the treat and when she discovered the ring, she made short work of the confection. “Clever and darling.” She spent a few long, heart-stopping seconds licking the sticky cream from the bauble until it was more or less clean. “I never thought I’d see this ring again.” Emotion rendered her voice soft and raspy, and caused havoc with his already hard shaft. “I never thought I would have a second chance with you.” A tear fell to her cheek and mixed with occasional droplets of water still seeping from her drenched tresses.
Jasper caught the tear with a finger. “I never thought I’d have cause to bring it out of storage.”
The tendons of her neck worked as she stared at the ring. “As before, I am unsure of what to say.”
“Allow me.” He took the piece of jewelry from her and then grabbed her left hand. “Evangeline Jane Bradenwilde, you vex me beyond reason and bring me immeasurable joy.” He smiled. It was as simple as that. She was everything he needed or had ever wanted in a mate. “I want to walk beside you for the rest of my life. I wish to support you and push you to greater heights. I look forward to growing old in wisdom and humor with you. After all these years, will you marry me?”
There was every chance she would refuse him after all, and his muscles strained for the inevitable.
Her hand trembled in his. She glanced at the ring and then into his face. Hope and happiness swirled in the depths of her peacock gaze. “We’ve wasted so much time,” she whispered, her chin wobbling.
“I wouldn’t call it wasted, per say. Consider it more like gaining knowledge, so what when we came back together, we were both in the correct mindset.” He squeezed her fingers. “And that wasn’t an answer, Evie.”
The smile she offered him gave her a radiant air that belied her wet, bedraggled appearance. “My answer is yes.” Another tear fell, and this time, Jasper kissed away the moisture. “In my pursuit of independence, somewhere along the way I realized I could never have exactly that when you’ve been the keeper of my heart this whole time.” She uttered a half-sob, half-laugh as he slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand. “Silly me. I should have come looking for you sooner, for I wasn’t whole.” She threw her arms around his neck and layered herself against his body. “The best part of me was always wrapped up in you. Like a chocolate confection!”
“Ah, Evangeline.” He pressed a kiss into her wet hair, then pulled away enough to drop another onto her forehead. “You make me better too, so that must mean together, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
She giggled and once more hugged him. “Perhaps we should post a notice so at least London can prepare.”
“I concur.” Jasper framed her face with his hands as he held her gaze. “I shall do my level best by you, and I hope our life together will make you proud.”
“There is no doubt it will.” She moistened her lips. “Is it a horrible thing I cannot wait to start?”
“Not at all.” He moved his fingers into her hair and, one by one, he plucked out the pins. As the bits of metal pinged softly on the hardwood, her heavy tresses tumbled about her shoulders and back. “I feel the same.” Then he claimed her lips in a kiss that had awareness of her prickling his skin. He slanted his mouth more firmly over hers and when she opened for him on the heels of a moan, he slipped his tongue inside to duel with hers.
He was completely and utterly lost.
“Jasper…” Evangeline broke the embrace in an effort to remove him from his jacket. This time she succeeded and the garment slipped unheeded to the floor. “Will you send me flying?” She manipulated the buttons on his vest and they fell to her nimble fingers.
“Do you promise you won’t run away?” The tiny row of buttons at the back of her gown captured his attention, and as quickly as he could, he worked them from their holes.
“Absolutely.” She shoved the vest from his body. It joined his jacket at their feet. “My days of fleeing from you are over. I’ve been well and truly caught.”
“Sweeter words were never spoken.” He grunted when her gown gaped and he easily tugged it down her arms. Another yank sent it along her torso and he encouraged the heavy, wet fabric over her hips until it hit the floor with nary a whisper.
“So says the confectioner,” she whispered, and with the pull of her hand, she guided him toward the stairs leading up to his bedroom. “I wonder how I will compete?”
“Who says you need to?” He caught her at the landing, and pressing her back against the wall, he plied her with kisses as he unbuckled the belt holding her bustle into place. When it fell, he methodically unbuttoned both of her petticoats and shoved them down her hips. Snowy, lace-trimmed fabric dropped at their
feet. “I’d rather enjoy you as I do all of my treats.”
“You, sir, are quite the expert at flirtation.” Two tugs had his cravat loosened and discarded. “But how are you at the chase?” Without another warning, Evangeline ducked beneath his arm and took to the stairs at a run.
Jasper couldn’t help his grin. She would add much needed fun and excitement to his life. “If we are to be truthful, I could say I’ve been chasing you in some form or fashion for five years.” He pelted up the stairs after her, and the passageway echoed with the sound of their shoes on the wooden treads. By the time he gained his bedroom, he’d shed his cuffs and collar.
She stood in the middle of the room, already undoing the tiny hooks at the front of her corset, the same pink sateen one she’d modeled for him the night before. Her beaded, heeled slippers lay abandoned nearby. An oil lamp on the bedside table flickered in its lowest setting. Shadows jumped and lengthened along the walls. “Was I worth the pursuit?” When the corset gaped open, she yanked it off and then dropped it to the floor where it fell like a bizarre sort of butterfly. “I mean, I broke your heart and still you loved me.” When she propped her hands upon her hips, the thin cotton of her camisole pulled taut across her breasts. The hardened tips of her nipples thrust against the fabric, calling to him.
“A heart will always mend in the right hands.” He slipped off his suspenders and pulled his shirttails from his trousers. Another two jerks had the garment up and over his head. As he threw it from him, he advanced on her. “I would have searched the ends of the Earth had fate not intervened.” He toed off his shoes as he went. “I have waited too long for this day.”
