Everything Forbidden (21 page)

The crowd’s murmurs lifted to hushed, shocked whispers, but Ethan ignored them and kept his gaze on her and her alone.

“Miranda, you certainly deserve a better man than I am.”

She bit back a sob and blinked to clear the tears that were welling up, blurring her vision. “Please—”

He shook his head. “But I
do
love you. And I will make an ass of myself in front of all these people if it proves that to you.”

“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered as the tears began to fall.

He smiled. “But I do. I must say, in front of all the gossips in London that I will
never
love another woman. And that any woman who approaches me expecting me to live up to the reputation I’ve cultivated over the past decade and a half will be
sorely disappointed. Because even if you never see fit to accept my love, I will never share it or anything else with any other woman. Not ever again.”

Hot blood flooded Miranda’s cheeks as a few of the younger women in the crowd made little sounds of distress.

“You cannot mean that,” she said as she took another step in his direction.

He stared at her, dark eyes clear and filled with all the hopes she didn’t dare to have.

“Look at me, Miranda. Would I make an idiot of myself if I didn’t mean it? I love you. And if I must wait a day or a month or a year or ten years for you to believe me, if I must give up everything I am and everything I have to prove it, I
will
marry you some day.”

She stared at him, still too shocked to fully comprehend what he was saying. Her gaze shifted to the crowd. Some of the matrons were clucking their tongues in disapproval, there were at least three women who were staring at Miranda like they wanted to scratch her eyes out and several of the men, some of whom Ethan had been talking with earlier, were shaking their heads in disgust.

She sucked in a breath. He had thrown himself on her mercy. With his speech, by dropping to his knees to declare his complete surrender to her, he had thrown away that precious reputation that made his life so charmed. He had turned away any potential lover in public. He had disavowed the life he and his friends enjoyed.

In short, he had given her everything he had ever been, and asked for everything she was in return.

Miranda felt a touch on her arm and turned to find Penelope standing at her elbow. Her sister’s face was flushed and her eyes wide and filled with wild emotion.

“Don’t do this, Miranda,” she whispered, just out of the range of hearing of those around them.

Miranda glanced at Ethan again, then her sister. She touched Penelope’s face. “Don’t surrender love for duty, Penelope. Not because you’re angry with me.”

Her sister’s face twisted as Miranda turned back to Ethan. Her tears flowed freely now, but they were no longer tears of pain or disbelief or anger. Somehow, he had transformed them to tears of joy. Of hope.

She reached out to cup his cheek. “Ethan,” she whispered.

He smiled up at her. “All I ask is that you believe that I’m sincere.”

“I believe you,” she said. “And I love you so very much.”

His eyes lit up like a child on Christmas morning. He bolted to his feet, catching her by the waist and lifting her up in his arms as he stood. The crowd around them burst into applause as his lips met hers.

Miranda laughed and cried at once as he kissed her.

He pulled back. “Marry me and I promise I will one day earn your love.”

She nodded as she wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “You have already earned my love, for the rest of our lives.”