The First Proposal - Chasity Bowlin Page 0,1
for more years than I care to even consider. But I don’t regret it because I have a son whom I adore. But given just what my experience with marriage has been and given the freedom that I now enjoy… it would take a great love to induce me to forfeit either.”
“A great love!” Algernon scoffed. “What nonsense are you speaking of? We are both far too sensible for such a thing!”
Her lips quirked upward in a wry smile. “And that, my dear sweet man, is why we should not marry… ever. Two perfectly sensible people may together make excellent lovers and excellent friends. Often, they can manage to be both at once. But a marriage, especially in the case of a second marriage, should only ever be for love. And we do not have a great love, Algernon. Do we?”
“I care very deeply for you,” he said, somewhat defensively.
Aurora smiled. “You don’t have to spare my feelings. I’m not in love with you either. But as you say, I do care deeply for you. I want you to be happy. And I think that you want what your sister has.”
“I do not begrudge Olivia her happiness,” he stated flatly. Even then, he was retrieving his discarded trousers and stepping into them. Nothing about the day had gone as planned.
“It is possible to be envious of her happiness and the extraordinary love she and her husband share without begrudging it for either of them. We could marry, Algernon, and we could likely be content… We certainly get on well enough. You’re a good man. A smart investor. You are charming and wealthy. Connected in society. Obviously, given that I’ve been in your bed for the last two years, I find your skill as a lover to be exemplary. But don’t we deserve more than just contentment? Don’t we deserve a grand passion?”
“I don’t know that I would recognize such a thing,” he replied, utterly dismayed by the very wrong turn his off the cuff marriage proposal had taken.
Her expression became rather wistful as she spoke, hinting that perhaps she had not been as satisfied with their arrangement as either of them had thought. “I imagine it will take your breath away… that the moment your eyes connect with that person’s, you will be unable to speak or think. Your heart will race. Your blood will rush through your veins and you will be filled with this incredible sense of rightness, of knowing that this is the person you are meant to be with.”
His eyebrows arched upward, his expression growing accusatory. “You’re a bloody romantic!”
A small laugh escaped Aurora. “Perhaps I am and perhaps all I needed was your very sensible, pragmatic suggestion of marriage to make me realize it.”
“It was a proposal!” he protested as he sank down onto the bed once more.
Aurora laughed harder. “It most certainly was not a proposal. You’d never have suggested it if you thought there was a ghost of a chance I’d agree!”
He was man enough to admit she was right, to himself at any rate. He’d never say so to her. His pride might be stinging a bit, but there was also a strange feeling of relief as well. Still, he was a bit deflated. But only a bit. “I’ve never been rejected before.”
"It’s not a rejection. You had a terrible idea, and after the many pitfalls of it were pointed out to you, you have reconsidered. Haven’t you?”
“Yes, damn it,” he admitted. “It would be so easy if we could just fall hopelessly in love like two young fools, wouldn’t it?”
“But we’re not young fools. We’re old. Contrary. A bit set in our ways… it will take something truly remarkable to stir such feelings in either of us. A stroke of fate, as it were. And to that end, I think this must be our last day together.”
“Why the devil would you say that?” Algernon demanded. The notion of celibacy was appalling to him at his age. “I’m not married to anyone yet.”
“No. And if we continue this, you never will be,” she said. “You are the very best of men, and so long as you are in my bed, you have too much honor to be trying to work your way into someone else’s. You, in matters of the heart and matters of desire, are as single minded as you are in business. So, I’m setting you free that you might find the person you are meant to be with. I