She smiled, stunned by how easily the words formed on her tongue. “I love you.”
The expansive emotion seemed to fill the room. The adoring smile he gave her as he stroked her cheek made fresh tears spring to her eyes, happy ones. His kiss was reverent and full of longing.
“Aleksy,” she said, reluctantly breaking a kiss that so easily could have spun into something very compromising. “This is my work. There are children here. We have to take this off-site if we’re going to keep this up.”
He sobered. “Can you leave? In the long term, I mean. Can you—will you—work from Russia or must you stay here? We can come back whenever you’re needed,” he promised.
She melted, thrilled but at the same time incredibly touched by his understanding. “Thank you for seeing how important the foundation is to me.”
His ironic expression made her chuckle.
“I didn’t sleep with you just for the foundation,” she insisted.
“I’ll choose to believe that,” he said with disgruntlement. “But you’ll marry me for no other reason than that you want to.”
Not a question. A demand. Wounded he might be, but never weak. Her grin widened. “Of course I will. But I’m given to understand I have to anyway. A woman’s virginity belongs to her husband, doesn’t it?”
He didn’t betray one iota of compunction, only smiled with wolfish satisfaction. “True. But I don’t just miss you in my bed,” he added with deep sincerity. “I miss you in my life.” With utmost tenderness, he asked, “I mean it, Clair—will you come home with me? Be my wife and make a family with me?”
All the details flitting through her mind scattered, completely eclipsed by the momentous wish that had just come true for her. She couldn’t even speak she was so overcome.
Aleksy tensed as a shadow passed across Clair’s face, but when he tilted up her chin, her blue eyes gleamed. Her joy was so tangible he could taste it like spun sugar on his tongue.
“I always wanted someone to come here and say that to me,” she managed to husk. “It was worth the wait.”
Aleksy’s heart expanded beyond what he could contain. Pressing his mouth to her crooked, trembling smile, he drew her into his arms.
“No more waiting. I’m here now.”