She frowned in puzzlement. “Thank you,” she said, not sounding very sure.
“Anyway, not that bit. The other bit.” He stepped within touching distance, and this time he let his hands curl around her slender arms in their loose flannel sleeves. She started at the contact, but didn’t move away, thank the Lord. “The bit about loving me.”
She had such an expressive face. Joss watched fear and vulnerability chase each other across her features, before the valor so essential to her nature took over. “Of course I love you. But that doesn’t mean you owe me anything.”
It was his turn to frown, even as his heart performed elated cartwheels. She loved him? How could he lose?
“You ask too little of life.”
“Life has taught me not to expect much.”
“So when happiness comes knocking, you send it away?”
“I said you make me happy.”
“For one night, not for a lifetime.”
Shock darkened her blue eyes. “I thought you meant to stay with me over Christmas.”
“I do,” he said seriously. “And past that, for every Christmas the good Lord allows us.”
She trembled in his hold. “But only because you think you have to.”
“I do have to,” he said urgently, and watched despair darken her gaze. “Haven’t you been listening? You’re the woman I want as my wife. I’ve never met anyone like you. I’ve never felt the way I have in the last days. If you make me leave you behind when I ride out of this valley, you’re sentencing both of us to a lifetime of heartbreak.”
She studied his face as though it was a textbook, and she had a big examination to sit tomorrow. “Joss, I’m not the bride you should choose.”
He released one arm and cupped her cheek with the tenderness she always aroused in his heart. “Should has nothing to do with it. You were meant for me, and I was meant for you. Don’t make me go on without you.”
She kept staring at him, her eyes seeking the answer to some profound question. “Do you mean that?”
Solemnly, he nodded. “With all my soul.”
Maggie bit her lip, and he barely resisted the impulse to kiss her. But this fight wasn’t about passion, but gaining a commitment from her gallant heart.
“And do you think one day you might love me?” she asked in a small voice.
What a bloody numskull he was. He’d told Maggie everything, except the most important thing of all. No wonder she still hovered on the brink of saying she’d take him. Because she was so close to saying yes. He sensed it in the way her body softened and tilted forward. As if the space between them, however narrow, pained her as much as it pained him.
He slid his arms about her. “My darling, don’t you know I love you?”
She pushed back against his hold, just as he prepared for her surrender. “No, I don’t,” she said with a hint of acerbity.
His laugh held a note of exultation. She was a delight, his Maggie.
“You damn well should.” His voice deepened into ardor. “I love you. I loved you when I first saw you, although being the blockhead I am, I confused love and lust. It took me far too long to see that I’d found the woman I want for all time, not just for Christmas.”
The tension eased from her features, and her eyes lit with what he frantically hoped was happiness. “It didn’t take you that long. A few days.”
“A few days can change the path of a lifetime. By the time I came back to you tonight, I was in no doubt that I’ll love you until the day I die.”
Her luscious mouth curved up in a radiant smile. “That’s a very nice declaration, Joss.”
“I thought my declaration when you first came in was very nice, too.”
“It was.” She slid her hands up his chest and linked them behind his neck. “But this one was nicer.”
Dear God, if he didn’t kiss her soon, he’d explode. But he hadn’t quite got what he wanted from her. “Nice enough for you to say yes?”