“So I will just tell you I love you. I love you, Bram. I want everyone to see it, and I want you to know . . . you’re a part of this place now. No matter where duty takes you, Spindle Cove will always be here for you. And so will I.” He put both arms around her, pulling her flush against his chest. “You beautiful, brazen thing.” Then he went silent, just holding her gaze for what seemed like eons. Nerves multiplied in her stomach with every passing second. She swallowed hard. “Don’t you have anything else to say?”“ ‘Hallelujah’ springs to mind. Beyond that . . .” He brushed a caress down her cheek. “Does this mean that if I proposed marriage to you right now, you might not make that twisty, unhappy face?” “Try me and see.”

“I love you, Jonathan," she whispered.A long arm snaked around her, and he pulled her against his side."I know," he said. "I just wanted to be sure you knew it, too.”

“I know I just met you, Susan,” Ravyn whispered against her ear. “But I think I love you.”She froze her hand on the latch as a wave of anger went through her. Instead of warming her, those words went over her like ice. Looking at him over her shoulder, she glared at him. “You think? You think you love me? You don’t know?”His face baffled, he scowled at her. “Why are you so angry? I’m trying to die here… for you. Nobly.”“Then you should have just dropped dead and not opened your mouth to piss me of. You think? Think? What is that?”

“You don’t know?” he whispered harshly. “You truly don’t know that you mean everything to me?”Hardly daring to believe her ears, Mia pushed at his chest to put a little distance between them so she could look up at his face. “I do?”“Of course, you do.” His gaze burned into her with an intensity she had never seen before. “How could you doubt it?”“Are . . . are you saying you love me?” she asked tremulously, afraid to even voice such a possibility. What if he said no? What if she’d misunderstood him, and he would now laugh at her silliness? Her chest tightened in anxious anticipation.“Mia, I love you more than life itself,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “If anything happened to you . . . If you were gone, I would not want to go on living. Do you understand me?”

“- What is it about you?” he repeated. “How does touching you calm me down and excite me at the same time? What is it you want from me? You never ask. Sometimes I wonder, is this a trick?” His eyes on hers, he backed her slowly toward the bed. “Just a way to pull me in? But it’s not. You’re not built that way.”- “Why would I want anything I had to trick out of you?”- “You don’t.” He lifted her, held, then laid her on the bed. “So you pull me in. And I end up being the one who’s lost.”She framed his face with her hands. “I’ll find you.”

“Hey I basically agree with you. I believe in what I can see, touch, eat, drink and spend. Everything else is bull."April nodded. "You are so right, Christopher. I mean,you are so forceful and all that, you just get me hot. You really do, and we're going to die anyway, so just take me now." She scooted towards Christopher and lowered her voice to a husky whisper. "You think I'm kidding but I'm not. I want you here and now."She was just convincing enough that Christopher made a sort of move to put his arm around her. She pushed away, laughing slyly."Ah, so you just believe in what you can see, huh? Looks to me like you were ready to believe in a miracle.”