“What is this place?” she choked out, huddling near the cold fireplace.
“Laetitia’s great-grandfather built it.” He looked around with a twist of scorn on his lip. “I left my wife here with an incompetent nurse right after her accident. I hoped I would return from San Francisco and find she’d joined her mother in the afterlife. No such luck. My wife—” he spat out the word “—still lived.”
Lars picked up a piece of the wood stacked neatly by the fireplace. “This is who their family really is,” he said. “Jumped-up nobodies. Peasants who earned money with their hands. Like Novros.”
Rose sucked in her breath. Xerxes’s name hit her like a blow. If only…
“He came here last year, hot on my heels,” he said coldly. “He very nearly found Laetitia. I barely had time to pull her into the woods with the nurse to hide. After he left, I started leaving false trails around the world, hiring look-alikes to distract him.”
She thought of all the anguished energy that Xerxes had spent trying to find his sister. “How could you be so cruel?” she demanded.
He shrugged. “It was easier to keep him on a hopeless wild-goose chase than risk moving Laetitia away from here.” He added in a sullen voice, “I thought the car accident was fate finally rewarding me as I deserved. I never thought she would live for a whole year.”
Rose stared at him, her eyes wide, her hand covering her mouth as she whispered, “You’re truly a monster. You tried to kill your own wife!”
“No,” he bit out. “No one can say I tried to kill her. All I did was help fate. She should have died. I deserve her money more than she ever did. She married me. I earned it. I deserve it.” He looked at her. “Just as I deserve you.”
With an intake of breath at the hard hunger in his eyes, Rose took a step back.
Lars must have seen the fear in her expression, because he turned back to the fireplace in a posture of confidence. Leaning forward to open the flue, he placed a single log inside and lit a match. He pressed the flame up against the wood.
Without any tinder, the log wouldn’t light. All Lars succeeded in doing was burning his fingers as the flame burned down. As Rose watched, he lit four matches all to the same result, and with every failure his anger grew.
Finally, with a curse, he blew out the fifth match and tossed it to the floor. He glared at Rose, who was hiding her incredulous expression with her hands.
His scowl changed to a sensual, threatening smile.
“I’ll start the fire later,” he purred. “In the meantime—I’ll just warm myself with you.”
He lunged toward her. With a yelp, she tried to run away, but he was too fast for her. Grabbing her, he pushed her against the kitchen table.
She fought him with a scream. When she bit the hand he placed over her mouth, he roughly turned her over on her belly.
“This will only hurt at first,” he said, panting. “Then you will realize you love it.”
“No!” she screamed, thrashing.
“Stop fighting!” he yelled. Brutally, he grabbed her by her hair then banged her head against the hard wooden table. She went limp, dazed as she saw stars.
“Once you’re pregnant with my child,” he panted, “you will accept me as your husband.” Unzipping his fly, he started to lift up her dress. “You will—”
His voice ended with a choke as he dropped her.
Weakly, Rose turned around against the table and she saw a miracle: Xerxes had him by the throat.
“You like to hurt women you claim to love,” Xerxes said in cold, deadly fury. “You deserve to die.”
“No, please,” Lars cried. “No—”
Mercilessly, Xerxes punched him in the face, knocking him to the rough wooden floor. Lars dropped like a stone.
“Xerxes,” Rose whimpered.
With an intake of breath, Xerxes went to her, gathering her up tenderly in his arms.
“Rose, oh, Rose,” he breathed, holding her. “Oh, my darling. Did he hurt you? My God, tell me I was in time!”
“He didn’t hurt me. You came,” she whispered, touching his face in wonder. “Oh, Xerxes, somehow you came.”
“Rose, I have to tell you something. I…”
Lars got up behind them, then with a last shouted curse he stumbled for the door. Flinging it open, he ran out of the cabin, heading for the snowy forest.
Xerxes started to chase him, but Rose grabbed his hand.
“No, please,” she whispered. Her cold fingers curled around his. “Please stay with me.”
“Yes.” He instantly turned back to her. “You’re so cold,” he murmured in a worried voice. He pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his coat around her. “I have to get you warm.”
Rose looked up at him. Cold? She wasn’t cold any longer. Dawning joy was slowly thawing her heart from within. “You broke your promise,” she said in shock. “You came for me.”
“I came.” He drew back, looking down at her with troubled dark eyes. “Forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” She laughed even as tears streaked down her face. “For saving my life? All right. Just this time, I will.”
But his eyes were serious. “I always prided myself on keeping my word above all else. But today I realized honor means nothing without love. Without you.”
Xerxes gently stroked her face, tilting her chin upward.
“I love you, Rose,” he said in a low voice, searching her eyes intently. “Tell me it’s not too late. Tell me I have a chance to win you back. I love you. I love you so much.”
Her heart ached at the words she’d waited a lifetime to hear, from the man she’d waited a lifetime to find. The strong, honorable, noble man she could love for the rest of her life.
Reaching her hand up against his rough cheek, she felt warmth and joy overwhelming her heart. “I never stopped loving you,” she whispered. “I will love you forever.”
Looking down at her, his black eyes were suspiciously wet. “Marry me, Rose.”
In answer, she nodded as tears streaked her face.
He sucked in his breath. As he lowered his mouth to hers, he whispered, “You are my family. My wife. My love. You…you are my promise.”
Two months later, Rose stepped out of the white clapboard chapel into the spring sunshine, still gripping her new husband’s hand.
“It stopped raining,” Xerxes said in amazement, looking up at the fluffy clouds in the blue sky. “Is that the sun?”
Was he implying that his new home in northern California wasn’t exactly the sunniest place in the world? She grinned at him, her heart full of love. “I wouldn’t know. Every day seems sunny to me,” she said over the lump in her throat, “as long as I’m with you.”
His dark eyes caressed her. Lifting her left hand to his lips, he gently kissed her fingers, and her simple gold wedding ring.
Family and friends followed them outside, cheering and throwing flower petals as Rose and Xerxes headed for the car waiting to take them to the airport. They had no time to attend their own wedding reception; they barely had time for their honeymoon. Resting her hand on his arm, Rose looked at her incredibly handsome husband with a sigh of regret. “I’m