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She was thanking him, when he should be thanking her. She’d brought love to his life when he hadn’t even been sure it existed.

You know, I’m due to go home tomorrow,” he said when he broke their kiss. “Back to Scotland.”

Holly nodded slowly, a flash of sadness darting across her expressive eyes.

“I can’t leave without telling you something,” he continued.

Taking a deep breath, he took that final, all important step.

“I love you,” he said simply but with the weight of every emotion she awoke in him. “I love you so much that it makes me crazy. I love you so much that I can’t leave without asking you to be mine forever. To be my wife. And to spend every day with me. Because then I can show you every day just how much happiness you’ve brought to my life, and how lucky I feel to have met you. You’ve captured my heart, Holly,” he continued hoarsely. “Captured my soul. They are yours, utterly and completely. I only ask that you become mine in return.”

* * *

Holly thought she must be dreaming as she stood and listened to the wonderful words Evan spoke.

All week, as happy as she’d been with him, there’d been an underlying sadness, for she’d known that the week would end, and he would go back home.

More than once, she’d tried to find the courage to tell him that she loved him. To ask him to extend his stay or take her with him. She could convince Grandmama to come, she’d thought during one of her more frantic moments as the time of his departure had grown ever nearer.

And if she couldn’t, then maybe it wouldn’t be terrible if she went alone. Maybe Grandmama would be happy to let go of Holly, just as Holly had let go of the pain of the past.

But every time she’d tried to find the words, her courage had deserted her.

And now she was standing here, freezing in her white satin gown as she may be, and she’d never been happier for everything he felt, she felt, too. And everything he wanted she wanted. Quite desperately.

“Holly?” his desperate plea reminded her that she hadn’t answered him.

He sounded worried. He looked unsure.

And that just served to endear him to her even more.

How could he not know that he’d captured her heart and soul, too?

Reaching up, she touched his cheek, the sudden fire in his eyes at this simplest of touches heating her blood and making her forget the bite of the winter wind.

“You’d best answer me,” he said softly, the wicked promise in his voice sending shivers down her spine.

Stepping closer to her, he encircled her waist and pulled her closer. So close that she could feel his heartbeat thundering, knew that it matched her own.

“I daren’t go back in there and face Lady Angela without an answer.”

Holly managed to laugh, even as her throat tightened and her eyes filled with tears.

“I daren’t face her either,” she whispered. “Not without first telling you that I love you, too. So much that it consumes me. I want nothing more than to be your wife. You gave me back my happiness, Evan. Youaremy happiness.”

Anything else she might have said was lost as he crushed her mouth beneath his own.

Once again, the fire that always seemed to burn between them blazed, and they were both caught in the most wonderful conflagration.

Evan’s hands around her waist tightened as he pulled her impossibly closer, pressing her against him in a way that tore a moan of need from the deepest part of her.

She would have happily kissed him forever right there on the balcony if Evan hadn’t pulled away, his breathing as laboured as her own.

“I cannot wait until the day I don’t have to stop,” he growled, and that just made her lean into him again.

His strangled laugh stopped her.

“Have pity, please,” he rasped. “A man can only withstand so much.”