Captured by Love (Michigan Brides #3)(58)
“This place is magnificent, isn’t it?” he said as a loon circled in the cloudless sky before dropping down and landing with ease on the water’s surface.
“This island’s the best place in the whole world.”
“You’re right.”
“I’m right?” She’d been expecting his usual contradiction about how much he loved the island, but how he loved his adventures in the wilderness more.
He turned to face her. The seriousness of his expression brought her pulse to a stop. “This is the best place in the whole world,” he whispered, “because you’re here.”
“Pierre, please don’t—”
“Let me finish before you tell me no again. If after hearing me out you still say no, then I promise to paddle away from the island at the end of summer and I won’t say anything about it again.” He reached for her hands and grasped them between his. “I can’t stop thinking about marrying you.”
She began to tremble, and her knees grew weak.
“I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t even work without thinking about wanting to be with you, Angelique.”
She knew exactly how he felt, because it had been the same for her. As much as she’d tried to be normal with him over the past few weeks, she couldn’t pretend any longer.
“I know you don’t believe I could ever give up my fur trading. I know you think that eventually I’d be unhappy here on the island.”
“It’s true—”
“No. Maybe it would have been true once upon a time with the old Pierre, the man I used to be. But it’s not true anymore, not since I repented and made peace with God. I’m trying to follow His plans for my life now. And maybe my papa was right about fur trading, that it only leads to the worst sins, that any godly man should stay as far away from it as possible.”
She longed to agree with him. But every part of her resisted, because she knew she’d be lying to him. As much as she wanted him to stay, she knew she couldn’t make him stay by being untruthful. “Your father wasn’t right. Just because he let the fur trading corrupt him doesn’t mean you have to let it do the same to you.”
Pierre started to shake his head, but Angelique went on, “You don’t have to give in to the temptations that come with fur trading. Your work doesn’t have to lead you into sin. In fact, you can be a good example to the other men and show them what it means to live for God.”
He was quiet with a faraway look in his eyes. Was he picturing his brigade and all the voyageurs he led?
“You’re a natural leader, Pierre. If anyone can go out there and make a difference, it’s you.” She didn’t want to convince him to return to the wilderness, but she couldn’t let him believe anything other than the truth about himself. “God gives us all different passions, and you love what you do. You don’t have to give it up, because He can use you wherever you are.”
The music coming from the open windows of the government building drifted around them, blending with the gentle lake breeze that waltzed through the leaves overhead.
At last Pierre faced her again and brought one of her gloved hands to his lips. Through the thin silk the warmth of his kiss sent a tingle up her arm. “Thank you for your honesty, Angelique. You’ve always encouraged me and believed in me. Since coming home, I realize just how much I’ve always needed it and loved it.”
The wind teased one of his wayward curls, and she couldn’t resist reaching up and touching it. She wanted to peel off the constricting gloves and let her fingers slide through his hair with abandon. But she forced herself to do nothing more than smooth down the errant strand.
At the soft pressure of her fingers, his gaze collided with hers, sending a spark across the short distance between them.
“I know you understand how much I love fur trading.” He fingered one of the curls next to her ear, his knuckles grazing her cheek.
“Fur trading is in your blood,” she whispered.
“I won’t deny it.” He let his knuckles make a trail down her cheek to her chin. “But I’ve found something I love more than fur trading.”
She held her breath and waited for him to speak the words she’d desperately wanted to hear from him.
“I love you, Angelique.” The words became a caress as soft as his fingers on her face.
The tenderness in his eyes told her that he desired her as a woman, that he wasn’t professing the love of a friend as he had the last time he’d spoken those words to her. Even so, she couldn’t allow herself to be mistaken again.
“We’re friends,” she said slowly. “And I love you too.”
“Friends?” His lips twitched into a smile. “Is that all I am to you?”
She waited, dared him to prove that his love was more than that of friends.
With a growing smile he circled one hand behind her neck and laid the other against the small of her back. He drew her in closer until she was leaning into him.
He dipped his head toward hers. With his cocky grin he teased his lips against hers with an agonizingly soft graze. He brushed first her bottom lip and then moved to her upper one. Her stomach quivered with each slow stroke until it fanned the fire within her, and she knew she couldn’t go another second without a kiss from him.