“Yes. The truth.” He fought to keep his tone even. “Think you can handle it?”
When she said nothing he went on. “I want you to stay, Aidan. Not for Cullen, but for me.”
“I can’t stay. I told you, I’m…”
“I know. Determined to do the noble thing and step aside so that all this can be mine.” He fought down the wild swirl of emotions threatening to swamp him. He would have sworn he could hear music playing. An orchestra, the sound growing, swelling in his heart. A heart that had been battered by anger and mistrust, and locked tightly against any hint of trust or tenderness for all of his adult life. “The truth is, you love me. You’re ready to step aside because you want what’s best for me.”
Aidan refused to look at him.
“I need to hear the words, Aidan. Say you love me.”
She looked down at her hands and prayed her voice wouldn’t tremble. “Maybe I do. But…”
“You do love me.” He was finally able to smile. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She still refused to look at him. “But I have to go.”
“You have to stay.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you, too, little fool.”
Love. The mere word had all the air leaving her lungs. She could hardly breathe. “But Cullen’s estate…”
“Is in Cullen’s hands. Tell me, does it matter whether or not one of us inherits? Would you be willing to marry me even if I’m penniless?”
“Marry? I thought…” She swallowed and tried again. “I was told that Ross Delaney isn’t the marrying kind.”
“I wasn’t. Until now.”
“And now? What happened to change your mind?”
“You. And that damnably noble heart of yours. I haven’t any defense against it.”
Oh, the way her poor heart leapt in her chest. “But what about Cullen?”
“He has to find his own woman.”
That had them both chuckling, breaking the terrible tension building between them.
Finally, with the warmth of laughter, he could take her in his arms. Touch her. Hold her.
He pressed his mouth to her temple and growled. “Aidan, I want it all with you. Love. Marriage. Forever-after. I won’t settle for less. Starting right now. Today. This minute.”
As his words washed over her, and the reality of what he’d said began to sink in, tears filled her eyes and she was mortified to feel them running down her cheeks. “Oh, Ross. You love me. Truly love me.”
“I do. Yes.”
“And I love you. Truly love you.”
He gathered her closer, needing to feel her heartbeat inside his own chest, keeping time to his. “Thank heaven. At last we can speak the truth. Now, here’s my truth, Aidan. The first time I saw you, I felt something so strong, so powerful, I didn’t know how to handle it. I knew only that I had to be near you. To see you, to touch you. To have you. I don’t even know when lust turned into love. I love you so much I can’t sleep or eat or string together a coherent sentence. Now, finally, I understand what Cullen went through. If you left me, I’d have to spend the rest of my life searching for you. Don’t you see? We have to be together. I couldn’t bear to lose you.”
Aidan wondered that her poor heart didn’t simply burst with happiness. She took in a long, shaky breath. “I’m not sorry I tore up the DNA results. But what does that do to Cullen’s search for family?”
“I’m not sure. That will be entirely between you and Cullen.”
“And his estate?”
“It’s his to keep or give away. It’s not my concern, or yours.”
“But do you think…?
“Shh. Don’t think.” He brushed his mouth over hers to still any further questions. Against her mouth he muttered, “For now, just let me hold you, my love.”
Love. Oh, she’d never heard a sweeter, more beautiful word. It filled her up until she was exploding with joy as she gave herself up to his kiss.
Cullen and Bridget stood in the parlor, peering around the open door, listening to every word. When the young couple embraced, they turned to each other with matching smiles of delight.
Bridget shook her head and whispered, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen and heard it myself. I was truly afraid she wouldn’t be talked out of leaving. But you were right again.”
“Nothing like being young and wildly in love.” Cullen patted a hand to his heart. “I’ve never forgotten the feeling.”
He crept silently from the parlor, trailed by the housekeeper, and together they descended the stairs to his library.
Meath and Mayo looked up from the rug in front of the fireplace.
Cullen walked to his desk and stared long and hard at the envelope delivered by the courier. It was identical to the one given to Aidan.
Bridget clasped her hands together. “Finally, you have scientific proof of whether or not the lass is your kin.”
He nodded, but still he didn’t make a move to open the envelope.
Bridget twisted her hands together, her brow knitted in confusion.
After another long pause, Cullen snatched up the envelope and crossed to the fireplace, where he tossed it into the flames.
Bridget sucked in a breath. “Oh, no! What have you done?”
He merely smiled. “I don’t need scientific evidence to tell me what my heart already knows. I chose wisely, don’t you agree? I knew the lass was unselfish, seeing the way she sacrificed everything to care for her mother. I knew she had a wise, compassionate heart when she agreed to the DNA test for my sake. And when you ‘accidentally’ told her that Ross would be disinherited in her favor, she reacted just as I’d predicted.”
Bridget flushed with pride. “I was quite an actress in my youth.”
“And you haven’t lost your touch, old girl.”
She arched a brow. “But you said yourself you would need the test results for the Courts.”
He shook his head. “I can do whatever I please with my fortune. I have no need of a court of law. My heart knows the truth. And now I have even more than I’d hoped for. The son I always wanted, desperately in love with the one I know to be my own.” His eyes twinkled with humor. “Oh, I chose wisely. She’s the only one good enough for Ross. The only one he’d have trusted enough with that fragile, damaged heart of his. And Ross is the only one who deserves a lass with such goodness, such decency. Each of them deserved to find the best possible soul mate.”
The old woman wiped a tear from her eye. “They do make a perfect couple.”
He chuckled. “That they do. And together they’ll give me such a beautiful family to carry on this legacy. I’d say my estate, my town, and my world will be in very good hands when I leave it.”
As he followed the housekeeper from the room, the envelope and its precious documents turned dazzling white, sending out a spray of glittering sparks that had the hounds backing away.
Cullen turned. Instead of burning to ash, the paper’s edges curled up into the shape of a perfect heart. For long moments it gleamed red hot, as though alive and pulsing, before it shot straight up the chimney.
The old man smiled. A magician, was he? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing was certain. He was a man who’d spent a lifetime seeking perfect love. And wasn’t it grand that now, after all this time, it was right here in this very place?
He couldn’t wait to see this old lodge filled to the rafters with love and laughter. And babies. Oh now, there was a fine plan indeed.
The thought had him laughing like a loon and rubbing his hands in anticipation of everything that the fine, bright future was about to bring to all of them.
