Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (24 page)

Hellion’s chuckle reverberated through my ear. “That’s what I was looking for.”

“What? The pheromone thing?”

“Yeah.” He shifted around under the covers until I was lying down and he had propped himself on an arm above me. “I thought this would come much later than it has, Maddy, mostly for fear of scaring you off, but I think we’ve come to a point there’s no choice. The time is now.”

I looked up at Hellion, confused. Bright hints of color lined his strong cheekbones, his eyes pulsed and a faint wind sprang up around us. “Hellion?”

Hel cocked his head, watching me for the longest minute. Without a word, he finally slipped out from under the covers and stood, stiffening his spine and taking three rapid breaths before stepping to the edge of the lounger. “I’d have you sit up for this, if you don’t mind.” Then he dropped to one knee.

I froze, rooted to the spot. When he set the ring box on the ground and took my hands in his, my lips began to tremble. Fear wracked my body in tiny tremors.
 

Too soon! Too soon!
my mind shouted.
 

Hellion held still, staring up at me and taking in my response. He half-smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll take my five minutes starting now if you don’t mind.”

I shook my head, not sure what I was saying no to—his five minutes, his proposal, or no, I didn’t mind.

Interpreting my response as favorable, he pressed on. “I wanted to wait and do this right. I’d envisioned you in that little black dress with the tall boots, reliving our first night at Black & Bleu. There were supposed to be candles, Maddy, and wine, conversation and some flirting. We were supposed to go to Ballinlough afterward and sit in front of the fire. I would dance with you.” He stood and pulled me into his arms, turning me out and pulling me back to him with exaggerated slowness. We stood, swaying, and he continued, “I’d kiss you, like this.” He lowered his head and kissed me gently, almost lazily, and my body responded despite my mental and conversational boycotts.
 

Stepping away from me, he dropped back to one knee and I was stunned to find lit candles on the patio and roses littering the stones around us. “How?” I croaked.

“A simple twist of magic, love.” His hands shook faintly as he picked the ring box up and, flipping the lid, pulled out a ring I couldn’t see. Then he took my hand.
 

The ring he’d given me weeks before was removed and the new one took its place. Hellion laid his hand over the top of the new ring, effectively hiding it from me.
 

“And then I would have said something like this.” He cleared his throat and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing like a nervous boy’s. “I have lived hundreds of years, traveled the world and seen wonders that defy the mind. I have stared at the stars in Nepal—more stars in the night sky than you can fathom. The Venetian canals have charmed me while the Swiss Alps have humbled me. I’ve seen the greatest works of the European masters and watched a child draw with chalk beneath my window in Paris. I have fought in wars, battling for that which I believed in. I’ve served the craft of magic, nurturing my gift in the face of staggering poverty and riches galore. I have loved, Maddy—” my hand twitched, “—and I have been loved.”
 

He tightened his grip, never breaking eye contact with me. “And none of it,
none
of it, compares to your impact on my life. You are more stunning than the greatest natural wonder, more beautiful in the morning than the angels of the Sistine Chapel. Your smile lightens my heart, and your touch is balm to my soul. Loving you is more natural than breathing and more necessary to my well-being than the beat of my own heart. I could survive without you, Madeleine Dylis Niteclif, but I could not live. I could not live.”
 

He dropped his chin to his chest and took a shaky breath before standing. “And then, my love, I would rise, like this—” he stood and pulled his hand away from the ring, “—and I would do my best to keep from begging when I asked. Madeleine, never before have I pledged my undying love to another. I would ask that you be my first, my only, that you might love me even half so much as I love you. Will you be my partner, Maddy, in all things life might show us? Will you marry me?”

His hand tightened on mine and I looked down. My hand jerked in his, but he held tight. He’d replaced my commitment ring with an unbelievable asscher-cut diamond nestled in a halo setting with a split shank and eternity band. The center stone had to have been between three and five carats and I couldn’t stop the small shaking of my head as I looked at it. “No.”

Hellion’s hand fell away from mine and he straightened slowly, rising to standing. “Please keep the ring, regardless.” He spoke slowly, carefully, and I realized what was happening.

Despite the general white noise in my head, I went to my knees in front of him. I reached for his hand and he moved away from me. I scrambled back to my feet, realizing that the foundation of what we’d built was crumbling faster than I might be able to salvage it. I grabbed both of his hands and went back to my knees, pulling hard on his hands.

Hellion’s jaw was set, the muscles clenched so tight that knots formed on each side as he ground his teeth. “You’ve given your answer, Madeleine. I respect—”

“Shut up,” I whispered harshly. “Just shut up. I meant, ‘no, you spent too much’.”
 

His chin snapped down. He froze. “Come again?”
 

“You spent too much, you insane man. Come down here. Please.”
 

Nostrils flaring, eyes wary and tension lines marring his forehead, Hellion went to his knees in front of me, settling back on his heels.
 

I scooted forward until our knees touched and smiled up at him. “Here’s what you left out.”

His eyebrows shot toward his hairline. “Beg your pardon?”

I grinned. “You left out the opportunity for me to respond.” I swallowed as hard as he had, then dove in, eyes wide open, hoping the water in the deep end of this pool wasn’t a mirage. “Hellion, Son of Markalon, you are my daily sun and my nightly moon. You are the complement to my gravitational pull, so much so that I’m not sure who orbits whom.”
 

He nodded slightly, solemnly.

“You are the first face I want to behold when I wake and the last I want to see when I close my eyes at night.” The burn of tears in my throat made it hard to get my words out. “Your soul speaks to mine, and I rejoice in the sound of your voice. From the moment I first met you, I wondered if we were lovers in a former life, so strongly did I feel about you. But you know me, Hellion. You
know
me. I doubted. I fought. I railed against a prophecy that would dictate my actions and emotions.”

Watching him emotionally withdraw, slowly, was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to endure. “And when Micah told me I could have my choice of men, I panicked. I didn’t want anyone else, Hellion. All I wanted was you, and it dawned on me then that, prophecy or no prophecy, you are my other half. You are my one, my beloved, and I cannot begin to live without you.” I took a shaky breath and Hellion watched me carefully, his grip on my hands tightening so much that bone ground on bone. “I’m keeping my last name.”

“Yes?” Hellion whispered, hope trembling with an anxious need at affirmation.

“Hell yes,” I whispered back.

Hellion let out a wild whoop and scooped me up, spinning me around. Tears poured down my face and I laughed with him, shocked at my answer. I’d been so sure it was too early, but listening to him…watching him…knowing how much I loved him… How could it be wrong?

Bahlin
, my mind murmured. “Is gone,” I breathed.

Hellion set me down, laughter dancing in his eyes. “What’s gone?”
 

“Any reservations I might have had.”
 

Chapter Thirteen

Hellion and I were both reluctant to give up the bliss of the moment. Intimacy wrapped around us, as physical as the blankets we tucked up under as we again lay on the lounger. Innocent, soft kisses were exchanged. Hellion breathed deep, his sigh of satisfaction rumbling under the ear I pressed to his chest so I might listen to his heartbeat—slow, steady. I could have lain there all day, basking in the glow of a joy that felt fundamentally right. But reality was on the other side of the patio doors, and planning and progress waited for no one. I knew life would demand more from me because nothing seemed simple anymore, not even happiness. I sat up and scrubbed my hands over my face, the warm weight of mutual commitment a comfort.

I looked at the ring, watching it wink at me in the bright morning light. “You shouldn’t have.”

“Then give it back and I’ll exchange it for something smaller.”

I clutched it, hand and all, to my heart. “No way. You bought it for me with this in mind.”
 

Hellion chuckled and squeezed me tight.
 

I thought back and remembered an entry I’d seen in Hellion’s ledger after he had been arrested weeks ago. Mark, the young butler, had warned that Hellion wouldn’t want me to know about it before the time was right. I had paled, and he’d said he hoped my response to Hellion would be better than my initial reaction to seeing that ledger entry. Mark had known then that Hellion intended to propose and had warned me to be prepared. The reality made me close my eyes as a small smile played around the edges of my lips. I owed the butler an immense debt of gratitude and an even larger apology. Punching him in the back of the head hadn’t been one of my finer moments.

Hellion had prepared to propose to me well before it became a necessity, which meant far more than the value or size of the diamond on my hand. Hellion had asked me to marry him because he loved me. His decision had been made before the choice became a burden of honor.

Realization of that simple truth had every hair on my body standing to attention. A tender trembling took up in my fine muscles. Breathing around the burning lump in my throat left me oxygen-deprived, and I gasped.
 

“Maddy?” Concern laced his voice, clouding the contentment of moments before.

I shook my head and pressed my face into his muscled side. “Nothing…it’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something,
a mhuirnín
. You’re trembling as if you were cold.” He pulled me in tighter, rubbing his hands up and down my back and arms.

I clung to him, breathing more and more rapidly until black dots danced in my vision. Gasping, I drew in his scent, wood smoke and fresh earth overlaying a denser, musky smell that clung to his skin.
Mine
, my mind hummed, and I nodded in agreement. Consciously slowing my breathing, I bit my bottom lip hard. No matter what else might come, I had the knowledge that of all the men in my life, Hellion’s motivations had been the least influenced by recent events. Still…

“Why did you ask me?” I needed to know with some amount of certainty that this wasn’t going to be yanked out from under me. Life gave no guarantees. I knew that. But I sought the meaningless reassurance of words all the same.

Hellion’s work-roughened fingers traced my jaw and lifted up, pressuring me to tilt my head back and meet his gaze. He leaned in and laid his lips against mine, the kiss soft but insistent that I respond.
 

I did.

Breaking away minutes later, he watched me quietly. Emotions swam behind dark eyes, secret thoughts and immeasurable love raced across his face, one expression after another. Finally he rolled onto his back and pulled me on top of him so that I straddled his hips. Lacing our fingers together, he silently encouraged me to prop myself up using his hands as my pivot points. We stared at each other, our heartbeats dancing across our joined palms. Just when I thought I’d not get my answer, Hellion spoke.

“I would have thought my proposal spelled it out quite clearly, but I realize now that maybe I should have been more direct.”

My brows drew together of their own volition.
 

Without warning, he yanked me forward as he surged up to meet me. Our mouths crashed together in an almost painful collision. Tongues delved and stroked, teeth nipped and breath intermingled while his hands wound through my hair to direct and control the violence. He kissed me as if he would solve all the world’s ailments with this one desperate show of love.
 

I stretched out on top of him, purring as Hellion’s hands worked their way through the front of the robe and around my back, until we were as close together—skin to skin—as we could be without shedding all our clothes. Even caught up in the moment as I was, I hadn’t forgotten we were in the courtyard. I pulled away, panting, to find him watching me with the most serious look.

“Why did I ask you, Maddy? The simplest answer is also the truest. I can’t live without you.” A faint blush stole across his cheeks.

I found myself charmed. “What is it?”

He started to shake his head, then stopped. “I bought the ring before you’d officially made up your mind, between me and…” He jerked his head back toward the house. “I thought to beg you if need be, to convince you through whatever means necessary that you were meant to be mine forever and always because I loved you that much already.” He shifted me around so I was more evenly distributed then locked his hands behind his head. “Then the mess with Bahlin happened, followed immediately by Agares, and I wondered then if you could love me. But when Micah delivered his path for your life… Maddy, I couldn’t lose you. I love you too much,
mo shíorghrá
, to contemplate even one day without you in it. I’m lost to you.” He grinned, pulling one hand around to rub his nose.