With an exaggerated sigh, he slid out of the bed and took her hands in his to pull her into an upright sitting position, and then he picked her up and placed her very carefully on the edge, ensuring she wasn’t dizzy or suffering any ill effects from the injuries she’d sustained.
Then he reached under the pillow where he’d placed the ring last night when he’d crawled into bed with her so that it would be right there when the moment was right, and well, he hadn’t had any intention of letting her out of bed until the moment was right.
He dropped to one knee and took her hands again, after having laid the box on the floor out of her sight, and he entwined her fingers in his.
“Jenna Wilder, I fell in love with you the moment you touched me and filled me with so much love and light and warmth that I was absolutely overcome. You not only healed the physical wounds I’d sustained just moments before, but you healed wounds that were buried so deep that they hadn’t seen the sun in more years than I can count.
“You are my very own miracle, when I stopped believing in miracles when I was just a child. You brought me back to life and back into the light. You gave me back my belief in a higher power, but the thing you gave me that irrevocably changed me from the man I used to be and gave me hope and the image of the man I wanted to be was . . . peace. You gave me peace, my angel,” he whispered. “No one and nothing has ever been able to give me what you did with a single touch, and I knew right there that my life had just been changed forever in the best possible way. I knew that you were the only woman I’d ever love in my life, the only woman I’ve ever loved. And I also knew that I’d do anything to keep you with me, no matter what I had to do to make that happen. I just thank God, every single day, that you love me back, that you want a life with me as much as I want a life with you. So I’m not asking you to marry me, my angel love. I’m begging you to marry me and make my life whole, to spend the rest of your life at my side, allowing me to make you happy every single day. To give you so many children that you’re utterly consumed by our life together and the products of our love.”
He reached down with one hand, refusing to let go of her entirely because his hands were shaking and only her grasp was keeping him from completely embarrassing himself. He fumbled with the box, managing to open it with trembling fingers, and after only dropping it once, he finally lifted the box, turning it toward her so she could see the huge diamond nestled in the velvet material.
Tears gathered in her eyes, but this time he didn’t panic or demand to know what he needed to do in order to make her stop crying, because she looked so utterly ecstatic, so beautifully happy, that she glistened from head to toe. There was an honest-to-goodness glow that emanated from her body and surrounded her like a halo, golden with purity, radiating from her like the rays of the sun, just like his angel should look.
For a moment, she stared at him, her eyes shining to rival the brightest star, her face soft with answering love, and then she lifted her hands to his face, ignoring the ring, and placed them on either side of his jaw. She dragged him toward her, their lips meeting in a hot, sweet rush. Her tongue lapped lovingly against the seam of his mouth until he sighed, opening to her just as she’d opened to him so many times before. Then she slid inward, exploring his mouth, tasting him while spreading her own sweet nectar on his tongue.
“Yes,” she whispered into his mouth. “Oh yes, Isaac. All I ever want is to be yours. Always. Forever. Until the end of time.”
He dragged one of her hands down to her lap while still kissing her hungrily, feasting on her mouth like a man starving. He took only a quick look down to make sure he was sliding her ring on the right finger before resuming their passionate kiss. Their first kiss with his ring on her finger and her promise to marry him fresh from her lips.
Finally she glanced down at her hand and held it out, inspecting the ring in awe as she stared and stared some more. “Oh my God, Isaac. It’s huge! I’ve never seen a ring so beautiful in my life!”
“You like it?” he asked gruffly.
She threw her arms around him, squeezing until he laughingly begged for mercy.
“I love it,” she vowed. “I’ll never take it off.”
“Damn straight you won’t. Now that we’ve got the romantic proposal and the ring all taken care of, I’m taking you shopping for the wedding dress of your dreams, because honey, I don’t know what you know about marriage and engagements, but all you need to know is that I don’t do long engagements. In fact, I don’t do engagements at all. What that means is that the minute we find the dress you want to be married in, we’re calling every person at DSS—our family—and telling them to get their asses down to the church so they can see the most beautiful bride who ever existed and watch us get married.”
Jenna laughed joyfully, and then her expression became somber as she gazed deeply into Isaac’s eyes. “I love you and I never want to be without you. I know in my heart that God sent me to you, that you are who he intended for me, and I’ll be eternally grateful to him for that.”
His expression turned even more grave than hers. “You’re wrong about that, my angel. God gave you to me and you saved me, and for that I will always be grateful. Not a single day will go by that I won’t be thankful for the most precious gift—the only gift—I’ve ever been given in my life. I was lost until you walked into my life and I’ve never been more grateful for someone trying to steal my vehicle, because if not for that, I’d still be lost in a world so bleak and hopeless that nothing would have ever been able to break through the darkness and fill my heart and soul with sunshine. Except you, angel girl.
“Only you brought the most beautiful, hope-filled light to permanently erase the dark stains I thought had become permanent scars in places I never allowed anyone to see. You made me whole again, and because of you, I can look back on my past with a sense of peace and forgiveness instead of the overwhelming pain and sorrow that had dug so deeply into my memories that I didn’t think they’d ever let go or that I’d ever be free of them.”
He gathered her tightly in his arms, holding her left hand up so the ring caught the light in a blinding myriad of sparkles.
“You truly are an angel. My angel. And there’s not a single shadow or shameful and painful memory, or constant torment forced on me by guilt, that could ever survive the shining, golden, pure light that radiates from an angel only as beautiful as you.”
EPILOGUE