Be Still My Heart (10 page)

Then they were in the open, beneath a moonless sky, running toward what looked like her jet sitting on a runway but he didn’t particularly care one way or the other. If it wasn’t her jet, he’d still take it.

It was hers.

Vaughn had the door open. He moved swiftly out of the way as Stuart took the gangway in one jump, turning his shoulders to fit through the hall before gaining the entertainment area with that 60-inch flat screen. He didn’t have to give the orders. He liked that about her chauffeur/man-of-all-trades. The engine roared to life and the plane jolted to a start. He didn’t need to, but it felt like a good time to drop to his knees on the floor, pull his vampire assassin mate off his shoulder, and cuddle her atop his lap. Nothing had looked as wonderful as the goddess in his arms, except maybe how she gazed at him with a look he’d never seen before.

“Oh…Stuart.”

She mouthed the words, but that was a waste of kissing time. Stuart decided to demonstrate rather than point it out.

“You might want to get seated for take-off.” Vaughn announced it over the intercom, laughing a bit through the words.

“Get this bucket airborne, and cease trying to be a comedian, Vaughn.”

“Yes Sir.”

The reply came but he didn’t actually hear it. His woman had his mouth again and that was just about perfect. Except for a few items they still had to discuss. Stuart broke contact first and lifted into a chair, taking her with him, and that’s when she decided to start sobbing.

“What did I do now?” he asked.

“You said…you loved me.”

“I do. But it’s not supposed to make you cry.”

“But you said the word didn’t exist.”

She hiccoughed and then pouted. And if that wasn’t enough, she slid a finger beneath her lashes, looking so young and vulnerable he had no choice but to smile.

“You want to argue? Now?”

“And you…hate commitment.”

He waited for her to look at him, and got a full-body heat sensation the moment their gazes locked. “I admit it. I was wrong. On all fronts.”

“You…were?”

He inhaled a huge swimmer breath. “This isn’t a dream. It can’t be. Point one, I’m not imaginative enough for it. I mean, look at what I just did. I’m really something in a fight, anymore. Did you see what I did?”

“Stuart.”

He grinned. “All right. Point two. Love exists. I know because I’m totally in love…with you. Another point? I’ve discovered I’m not a one-night stand man. I want you forever. You got it? For. Ever. That means commitment, and therefore it exists, too. You going to argue any of this?”

She could blind a non-sighted man with that smile, he decided, moving his head to nuzzle his nose alongside hers.

“You know…in order to make a proper proposal, it’s normal for the gentleman involved to know the lady’s name. Unless it’s really Eve Ellensby?”

“You’re asking me…to marry you?”

“Not very well, obviously. And I suppose technically we can’t call it married, since we’re undead and all that. But, will you?”

“Oh yes! Stuart…yes!”

She had a bite to her kiss and a massive amount of sexy to her frame. And he was one willing victim. He still didn’t know her name, but what the hell.

It could wait.

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