Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Fergus’s apartment felt strangely empty and silent once Nikolai and Linus left.
Not that Thea had been able to hear any of the sounds of the city this high up, anyway, but it now seemed especially quiet. A world totally separate from the hustle and bustle that was London.
Thea had no doubt that was partly because Nikolai was such an overwhelming presence. Linus, at over six feet tall and broadly muscled, was no slouch either when it came to making an impact on his surroundings.
There was also this…frisson of silence between herself and Fergus that she thought they had dealt with before the other two men arrived. One that a scowling Fergus didn’t seem inclined to fill as he instead seemed lost in thought.
Thea finally couldn’t stand the silence another moment longer. “Well, that was…enlightening.”
Fergus focused his attention back on her. “I still can’t believe… It was very brave of you to stand up to your mother all those years ago.”
Thea gave a shrug, as if it was unimportant. When, in fact, her mother had barely spoken to her for the next six months, and even after that, it had only been when it was absolutely necessary. In some ways, it had been a relief when Jessica married Andrei and mother and daughter had barely interacted at all.
“You didn’t deserve her brand of crazy,” she dismissed. “No one did.”
* * *
And yet Fergus knew Thea had suffered through that craziness for almost all of her twenty-four years.
It was still a wonder to him, a miracle, how she had turned out to be so loving and levelheaded.
“You didn’t need to bear the brunt of her anger either by defending me—” Fergus stopped speaking when Thea placed her fingertips against his lips.
“It’s in the past,” she assured him, her hand dropping back to her side. “All of it is in the past. My mother. Andrei. Lev. Martin.” She shuddered. “I don’t want to think or talk about any of it or them anymore.”
Fergus knew that was probably because it hurt too much to do so.
He also had no doubt that these events, past and present, would intrude into her thoughts from time to time in the future. Fergus intended to be right by her side when they did.
“How are you so damned strong?” he murmured with admiration. “Most people would have collapsed under the emotional baggage of having a woman like Jessica as their mother, and now having these two other motherfu—bastards,” he supplemented, his jaw clenching, “trying to manipulate or kill you in order to get their hands on what was left of Andrei Yegorov’s filthy money.”
Thea chuckled. “Maybe I am collapsing, and I just don’t realize it yet!”
“No,” Fergus stated. “You’re far too strong for that. I…I’ve never met anyone I admire and like as much as I do you, Thea.”
* * *
Fergus admired and liked her?
Oh.
“No, no, no,” he hastened to assure when he obviously saw the confusion in her expression. “I’ve only known the grown-up you for less than forty-eight hours, and I know without a doubt that isn’t all I feel for you.”
“Without a doubt, hmm?” Thea was afraid to hope, to dream, of what might or could be.
His mouth quirked with humor, his gaze warm. “Are you teasing me?”
“I do that sometimes when I’m nervous or uncertain about something.”
He nodded. “Never having done this before, I’m a little nervous myself right now.”
Thea’s heart felt as if it had jolted against the confines of her rib cage, her mouth suddenly dry. “Done what before?”
Fergus straightened, his eyes staring straight into hers. “Told a woman I love her.”
It felt as if Thea’s heart had actually jumped out of her chest this time. “I… You?—”
“I love you,” Fergus repeated steadily. “I love everything about you. Your loyalty. Your honesty. Your moral code. Your beauty?—”
“But especially my bottom?” she teased, really not sure she was hearing those other words correctly.
Fergus loved her?
No one had loved her since her father died. Not her mother. Not Martin. And certainly not Lev.
“ Including your bottom,” Fergus corrected dryly. “But it’s your heart that I love the most. It’s beautiful. Warm and caring toward other people.”
She winced. “I don’t feel that way toward Lev and Martin right now.”
“We all have a choice, Thea. You gave them every opportunity to do the right thing and walk away from you. It’s on them that they chose not to.” He placed his hand beneath her chin and lifted her face until her gaze met his once again. “You are warm and beautiful, and I love you. Deeply.” He winced. “I know it’s only been a couple of days since we met again, but?—”
“I love you too,” she cut in breathlessly. “This might seem weird, but I think I’ve been in love with you for the past ten years without realizing it.”
“I can’t claim that—and it’s probably as well that I can’t, considering you were only fourteen at the time! But I’ve never forgotten the amazing color of your eyes,” he revealed huskily. “It’s how I recognized you so easily in Paris once you were close enough for me to see them properly.”
Thea moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “So we really are dating?”
“No.”
She blinked. “But… What are you doing?” She gasped as Fergus went down on one knee in front of her. “Fergus…?”
He took one of her hands in his. “I’ll give you all the time you need, live anywhere and do anything you want, but I need to know that at the end of that time, you’re going to marry me.”
“And…?” she prompted expectantly.
“Oh. Yes. Thea Jane Morgan, will you do me the greatest honor I could ever imagine and become my wife? Please.”
It was that uncertain please at the end of the request that caused a sob to catch in Thea’s throat.
There was also something so very…humbling about having a man like Fergus go down on one knee before proposing.
She didn’t hesitate to answer him. “Yes!” She used their joined hands to pull him back up onto his feet. “Yes, yes, yes.”
He smiled. “That’s a yes, then.”
Thea grinned. “Very much so. And you don’t need to wait or live anywhere other than where you already do.”
His eyes widened. “You’ll live in Paris with me?”
Her smile widened. “I’m sure I can get a teaching job there. Besides, it will be an adventure.”
“The biggest and best adventure of our lives,” Fergus promised before lowering his head so that his lips could claim hers.
* * *
“I have one more request,” Fergus murmured a long time later when the two of them were entwined naked together in what was now their bed. “However many children we decide to have, Nikolai-fucking-Volkov will not be godfather to any of them.”
Thea chuckled, already knowing that was exactly what was going to happen.
She was right. Nikolai and Daisy Volkov became the loving and attentive godparents to all three of Thea and Fergus’s children.