Rendezvous With Yesterday (The Gifted Ones #2)(95)
“Beth, I wish to spend every night with you as we have this one.”
She bit back a laugh. “I’ll bet you do. I do, too.”
“And I want you by my side every day,” he continued earnestly, “touching and kissing me freely, scandalizing any who care to watch, aggravating me, making me laugh and making me happy in a way I did not think I could ever be again.”
Her heart began to pound as he continued, both his tone and expression somber.
“I love you, Beth.”
Elation filled her.
“In the short time you have been here,” he said before she could respond, “you have become as important to me as the air I breathe.” Pressing another kiss to her palm, he pressed her hand against his chest above his heart. “Will you marry me?”
For a moment, warmth and wonder filled her, expanding her chest and making her heart race. Then something like pain ripped through her, shredding the happiness she so wanted to grasp.
A lump rose in her throat. She squeezed her eyes closed.
Robert’s heart beat abnormally fast beneath her palm as he awaited her response. She heard him swallow hard, waiting for her to speak.
“Robert,” she whispered, her voice and heart breaking, unable to find the words she needed.
Robert wrapped his arms around her and drew her face to his chest. “’Tis all right, love. I have your answer.” Though his voice was gentle, sorrow weighted it. His chin came to rest atop her head as he smoothed her hair with one large palm.
How could he comfort her like this when he thought she had just rejected him?
As Beth fought to hold back the tears that threatened, she felt the hand at her back clench into a fist around the covers. Every muscle pressed against her tensed as he fought the pain of the wound she had just inflicted.
Why? she wondered desperately. Why had they not been born in the same time?
His time. Her time. It didn’t matter which.
Why had she only found him after she had watched her brother fall?
Why had she been brought here to find love when her uncertain future left her unable to claim it?
Why did she have to hurt Robert when she only wanted to make him happy?
Struggling to find her voice, she leaned back and looked up at him, regret piercing her like needles when she saw his face. “You know I love you,” she whispered brokenly.
His shattered cerulean eyes avoided hers.
Her heart clenched. “Robert.” Grasping his chin, she forced him to meet her gaze. “I love you. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“Yet you do not wish to be my wife.”
She shook her head. “I do wish to be your wife. But, Robert, we don’t even know how long I will be here. For all we know, I might wake up tomorrow back in the twenty-first century.”
“All the more reason to take what time we may have together.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t marry you, knowing that I might leave you at any moment. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“I will not keep you here against your will.”
Beth frowned. “What?”
Robert’s jaw clenched. “What I meant to say is, I want whatever time we have together to be spent as man and wife. If, after we speak our vows, you should find a way to return to your time and desire to do so, I will not force you to stay with me. I want you to be happy, Beth. I know you miss the comforts of your time and—”
Anger suffused her. “Are you kidding me?” she demanded, her sorrow evaporating. Sitting up, she yanked the covers away from him and tucked them up under her arms to cover her breasts. “You think indoor plumbing and air-conditioning and-and-and freaking rocky road ice cream mean more to me than you do? You think that is why I didn’t say yes?”
Robert sat up slowly, brow furrowing. “I—”
“If it weren’t for Josh,” she raged, “I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if I returned to my time!”
His eyebrows flew up.
Had her language surprised him? Or the temper he had sparked?
Beth didn’t know and really didn’t care. “Those things,” she ranted, her voice rising with each breath, “don’t mean squat to me if you aren’t there to share them with me!”
“Beth—”
“Which is not to say that I won’t try to make changes if I end up staying here, because that garderobe is just not working for me, Robert. I mean, we are seriously going to have to do something about that.”
“Beth—”
“But I’m not so shallow that I’d give you up for a hot shower or chocolate or satellite television or whatever the hell else you think I can’t live without. I can’t live without you, damn it! I’m going to be miserable if I go back to my time and have to spend the rest of my life without you!”
“Sweetling—”
“I know I don’t fit in here. I keep forgetting to omit modern slang and sometimes can’t find medieval equivalents for modern words, so my Middle English probably ends up sounding more like Spanglish to you. And I shake men’s hands and curse when I’m pissed off and do a hundred other things wrong every day. But that doesn’t mean that I—”
Robert abruptly cupped her face in both hands and pulled her mouth to his.
Caught off-balance, Beth tumbled forward against him as he plundered her lips. Desire rose, swift and strong, commanding her to bury her fingers in his hair and press her breasts to his chest.