“Wait.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “Just let me speak.”
Bossy Diplomat. She sent him a dry glance. “You do a lot of that.”
“Point taken,” he wryly conceded, his thumb absently brushing her bottom lip. “I’m going to show you that I can do something very, very good that doesn’t take any words at all. But first…” He grimaced even as Molly trembled in anticipation. She might be pissed at this male, but that didn’t keep her body from craving him again and again, and with a vigor that was downright indecent. “I have a confession.”
“I’m listening,” she said.
He studied her upturned face for a long, tender moment, almost as if he were memorizing how the moonlight played over her features.
“I’ve devoted my life to my career, always convinced that I could never be a good mate or father if I was thousands of miles away.” Regret was threaded through his voice. “But the thought of actually losing you has made me look at myself and admit that I’ve been a coward.”
Molly felt her cat crouch inside her, warily curious to discover where this was going. “Coward?”
His hand slid to circle her neck, holding her gaze as his thumb pressed against her thundering pulse.
“I loved my parents, and more than that, I respected them, but I never truly felt like I had a home,” he confessed, unknowingly echoing the words his mother had shared earlier. “When I was small I used to think if I could just be good enough, or smart enough, or talented enough, my parents would want to be with me. Then, one day, I just stopped hoping.” He leaned down, pressing his lips against hers in a kiss that made her knees weak. “Until you.”
Her hands grabbed his upper arms, her heart melting at the thought of the lonely little boy who was afraid to wish for a true home.
“Oh.”
“It terrified the hell out of me to suddenly long for something I’d spent so many years denying I could have,” he continued, his hand compulsively stroking up and down her neck, as if he was hungry for the feel of her warm skin. “So I kept you at a distance, even when every single part of me was aching to draw you closer.”
A fragile, terrifying hope began to spread through Molly’s heart. “What do you want from me, Garrick?” she breathed.
His eyes glowed with the power of his cat, his enticing musk teasing at her senses.
“Everything,” he growled, sweeping his lips over her forehead. “Your heart.” He used his tongue to trace the shell of her ear. “Your soul.” He nipped her lower lip. “Your body.” He skimmed his lips down the curve of her neck. “Your future.” He lifted his head to study her with a wistful expression. “Be my mate, Molly.”
She tentatively reached up to touch the face that had haunted her dreams for years.
“You’re sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” he rasped.
“But your career—”
“Is just that,” he interrupted, wrapping his arms around her waist so he could haul her tight against his body. “A job. You are my life.”
She hesitated. She’d been disappointed so many times. Then, seeing the stark need that glowed in his honey eyes, she allowed a slow smile to curve her lips.
It might have taken her walking out to bring him to his senses, or maybe a wish upon a Noël star, but she wasn’t about to allow happiness to slip through her fingers.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she went onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to his mouth.
“And you’re mine.” Another kiss. This one deeper…lingering. “All mine.”
He growled low in his throat. “As much as I’d like to stay and complete our mating, we don’t want to miss lighting our candles.” He gently took the candle and picture from her hands, threading their fingers as he pulled her toward the bank of the bayou. “Together.”
“Together,” she echoed, pure joy filling her heart as they stepped onto the barge that Garrick had thoughtfully decorated with sprigs of holly. Minutes later they began floating down the canal lined by trees already glowing with candlelight. “Joyeux Noël, Garrick,” she murmured softly.
He sent her a smile filled with the promise of a thousand tomorrows.
“Joyeux Noël, my sweet Molly.”