“What is going on?” She looked around the room, looking for the joke. And while she was doing that her big Scot dropped to both his knees before her … which almost brought them eye to eye. She snickered out her nose. “Have you been drinking scotch with Ihron again?”

“No. Though I wish I’d thought of it. I need tae speak wi’ you.”

“Well, I …” She looked over her shoulder only to find Grey had disappeared. She sighed. “I wish people would stop doing that,” she muttered.

“Doing what?”

“Nothing,” she said dismissively. “What is all this?” she wanted to know.

“You canna tell? I’m on my knees before you, lass.”

“Well, I didn’t really think …” She frowned in consternation. “Can’t you just speak plainly?” she almost whined. But she hated whiners, so she didn’t. Barely.

“Och, lass, doona be so blind tae me. Canna you see how much you mean tae me? I’m trying tae ask you … can you no’ be my wife or am I just too stupid tae deserve you?”

“You are not too stupid!” she snapped off. “Why do you have to put yourself down like that? Why can’t you j—”

She stopped.

Blinked.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”

“Kat lass, I love you wi’ all my heart. You have tae understand, my heart was made of stone, but now … you make me feel things I never thought I would. Things I doona deserve tae feel.”

“Why not? Why don’t you deserve it?” she numbly wanted to know.

“Because … because I have nothing to offer you, Kat lass. No home of your own. No true security or safety, no normalcy. Life with me would be … hard.”

“Life is hard, period. Life for me, as a Nightwalker, is going to be hard.” Suddenly a thread of true understanding slid through the eye of the needle. “You’re … you’re serious? This is serious?”

“As a bloody heart attack, woman,” he said, looking completely offended.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she said hastily, squeezing the hands that now clasped hers. “Just give me a minute to catch up. Just … just a minute.” She took a deep breath. Two. She closed her eyes and exhaled through her teeth. She opened them.

Yup. He was still there. Still real. Still looking for all the world like he was expecting an answer.

All this time … he had meant it. All those times he’d made her feel as though the sun rose and set with her … they had been real.

“You doona love me,” he said dejectedly, his breath leaving him on a deflating sigh. “I’m sorry. I thought maybe … Och, I’m an ass!” He went to get up and she lunge forward to keep him on his knees.

“No! No, I do! I … I …”

I do! Kat thought. I do love him! All this time I kept telling myself I was seeing too far into things, that I was making things up in my head … but all this time … I do!

“You do?”

“Yes, I do,” she breathed.

“So … will you please marry me, Kat? Or is this too soon?”

“No! Not too soon!” she said hastily, gripping his hands harder as tears leapt into her eyes. “Just soon enough! Oh my God. Oh my God! I never thought …” She began to cry in earnest and he hastened to his feet, wrapping big arms around her.

“Never thought what, Kat?” he asked gently as he comforted her.

“I never thought I would get married,” she sobbed. “I was always thinking … what if I pass this disease down to my kids? How can I expect to find a man who would put up with living in the dark? And now … here you are … all handsome and big and … here.”

“Oh aye. I’m here. And I’m no’ going anywhere,” he promised her.

“A-are you sure? I mean, you never even said or acted like this was something you might want.”

“Are you trying tae talk me ou’ of it? Because it willna work,” he warned her.

She sighed and smiled. “Okay, then. Just checking.”

He chuckled. “You still have no’ answered my question. Will you marry me?”

She grinned up at him.

“Oh. Aye,” she said. “A great big aye!”

“Good,” he said with a relieved sigh. “Now give us a proper kiss.”

“Aye.”

“Stop that. You sound like a bloody pirate.”

“Aye.”

“Kat …”

“Aye! Aye! Aye!” She whooped and jumped up into his arms. He accepted the leap with a laugh. He hugged her tightly to himself, as always careful not to hurt her.

“I’ll always be careful no’ tae hurt you, Kat lass.”

“I believe you,” she said with a smile as she hugged him back. “I really do believe you. And I promise not to hurt you, too.”

“You canna hurt me. I’m forged from stone, lass.”

“Mmm. Just the same. Some parts of you, while hard, are not always made from stone.”

“Here I am being serious and you’re being lewd and dirty.”

“I am not!” she gasped. “I didn’t mean that!”

“Sure. Whatever you say, dear.”

“Ahnvil!”

“No, I mean it, I believe you,” he said kindly.

“Stop it!”

“I understand, you’re no’ that kind of girl …”

“Ahnvil! I am, too, that kind of girl!”

“See, I knew it all along.”

Kat threw back her head and laughed. “You’re horrible.”

“Oh aye. But you said aye, so now you’re stuck wi’ me.”

“That I did,” she said with a happy sigh as she hugged him again. “And that I am.”

For Alisha and Mitchell

May your future together be filled with

many blessings

BY JACQUELYN FRANK

The World of Nightwalkers

Forbidden

Forever

Forsaken

Forged

Three Worlds

Seduce Me in Dreams

Seduce Me in Flames