Diamond Dust (29 page)

Only everything arrived at one. Servants lowered platters to the table and
poofed
away as if they owned magical vanishing spells.

Caroline lifted a cover, and the rich scent of a cheese sauce seduced her. “I like the casual style of the place.”

“To be honest, the only reason I gave you the gown for tonight was I desperately wanted to see you in it.” He scooped a serving of vegetables onto her plate, and she smiled. “Once dinner is over we have pyjamas we can trade into.”

Caroline laughed. “Flannel?”

Tyler didn’t skip a beat. “Of course. We live in the north, what do you expect?” He clicked his tongue as if scolding her.

He poured her wine and lifted his glass in a toast.

He paused for a long time, and Caroline laid a hand on his thigh. “You don’t have to have pretty words. We can toast to surviving my bright idea to have a casual get-together with the ladies.”

They clicked their goblets together.

“We more than survived. You made an incredible difference in a woman’s life. By offering the truth. Thank you for having confidence in me.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you for sharing your trust in me.”

Caroline took a sip of her wine, staring over the edge of the glass as he fixed his gaze on her. They were totally going to waste the food, she could sense it in her bones. Any moment he would sweep her up in his arms and they’d go satisfy a different kind of hunger.

Which,
okay
.

She lowered her wine glass and placed it carefully beside her plate before facing him.

His rapidly changing expressions were priceless. Lust, confusion, a moment of complete seriousness. “Tyler, is something wrong?”

He blinked then pulled himself together. “I’m trying to plan the best way to tell you something that will produce the least freaking out on your part.”

Hmm. “Freaking out is something I like to avoid,” Caroline warned, half-seriously.

“I know.” Tyler winked. “But there are good bits and bad bits to the conversation.”

“
More
than one thing.” He was as bad as Evan had been when in a say-nothing-while-talking-your-ear-off mood. Must be something to do with Alpha shifter blood. “How about you order the items from the least oh-my-
Gawd
to the most.”

Tyler nodded. “I’m in love with you.”

Caroline’s heart jolted hard enough she swore the pretty blue outfit over her chest leapt out a foot before returning to its regular position. She gasped for control. “That’s the thing on your list
least
likely to freak me out?”

He caught her hands in his. “It’s the most important thing there as well. I know it’s fast, I know—”

“Holy smoking gun, you ain’t kidding.”

“I did warn you.” Tyler made a face. “Okay, I even outdid my fellow bears this time in terms of falling hard and fast. But, Caroline”—he cupped her face in his hand—“you’re unique. That’s why my bear has been shoving me so hard since the first time we met. You understand shifters. You understand power…”

A moment of fear intruded, an icy finger of doubt. The
I love you
bit hadn’t been expected—she’d known something was growing between them. She’d felt it as well.

She
didn’t
want this to be about admiration for her prowess in shifter-power games.

Tyler didn’t let her get a chance to complain, though. He was out of his chair and on his feet, pacing beside the table. He twirled on her. “You understand love.”

What kind of statement was that? “I…think I do.”

He shook his head. “I saw you with your sister. I know what you did for her, to make sure she could achieve the goals she desired. You might have stepped over a few human boundaries, but you did it out of love. Sacrificial love.”

Her throat was tightening. “You’ve given this a lot of thought, for it being such a short time.”

“I’m just getting started. You’ve done things for the Takhini pack, to help them. Giving of your time, your money, your sanity—you’re on a first-name basis with the crew at the RCMP station after hauling the pack out of jail regularly, aren’t you?”

Okay, that one kind of made her smile. “They don’t mean any harm.”

Tyler was down on his knees beside her chair. “Caroline, I have to ask. Why the tears last night? When I asked you what you wanted, why did you cry?”

Oh God.

Caroline stopped. The urge to keep her real self hidden away was so well practiced, she didn’t know that she could do this. To make the conversation between them as honest and direct as it needed to be.

Then she remembered the bravery Amanda had shown. How could she do any less? Caroline gathered her courage and let it out.

“No one has asked me what I wanted for a very, very long time.” She couldn’t keep still anymore, instead allowing her fingers to trace his jaw, the corners of his ear. The fading marks from the fight. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I haven’t had good things happen in my life, but they’re mostly because I’ve taken. Ordered, demanded, cajoled, teased.”

Tyler nodded. He threaded his fingers through hers and kissed her knuckles, his touch soft and caring.

“Caroline, I love you. I love your bravery and what you know about kicking shifter butt. But I love
you
the most. The human who has been living in the shifter world. I’ve only met traces of her, little bursts. I’d like to spend a long time getting to know her better.” He grinned. “Although that sounds about like me talking about my bear in third person. Which really amuses him as well.”

Caroline couldn’t stop her burst of laughter. “No, I guess you’re right. There are kind of two of me in here.”

Tyler paused, his smile turning more serious. “I’ll ask you again, what do you want? Do you want me in your life? Do you need some time away from shifters altogether? I could fly you to a warm island resort where you can do nothing but take care of Caroline for a couple months. Anything. Whatever it is you really want, I’ll give it to you. I’ll make it happen.”

His voice dropped to a whisper, the words wrapping around her nerve endings and teasing. So many choices, so many options.

And yet…

“I want you to tell me what you want…for us,” she answered. Tyler’s eyes widened, but Caroline pushed on. “Because while getting away and hiding from the world sounds lovely, it’s also wrong.”

“It’s not wrong to want to be happy,” Tyler insisted.

“Oh, Tyler.” She shook her head. “I am happy even when I’m giving to others. Maybe…maybe more happy because I’m giving to others. I just wish I didn’t
always
have to be the strong one.”

He nodded. “I’d like you in my life. I’m a bear—so falling in love will only get stronger with time. So I could grab you a wedding dress and make it a big fancy do for all your pack to attend. And I’d give you a pretty house here in Whitehorse so you could live here when your sister is in town running her medical practice. And when Shelley is gone north, I’d take you to Yellowknife to my house. You could fall in love with my hometown. You could help me make my father smile.”

He pulled out a ring case and held it to her. “You could fall in love with me.”

Even as his words jolted her heart to a stop, the case brought her back to life. She’d known it was coming. Suspected it, really. There had been no ring with the jewelry he’d laid out for her to wear.

She cracked open the lid, and the light reflecting from the stone nearly blinded her. “Holy shit, Tyler.”

She stared at the ring. Glanced back up at him. He held up a finger, asking for a moment.

“Before you answer, I have to tell you the rest of the freak-out list.”

The list?
Now?
“You have weird timing, even for a bear.”

He sighed. “I know. Item number two. Conclave is over—all my friendly opponents have withdrawn and I’ve been promised enough support by the clans to defeat Ainsworth.”

Caroline couldn’t believe it. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? That’s wonderful.”

Wait.

She narrowed her gaze. “Why is this on the freak-out list?”

He cleared his throat. “They offered the leadership of conclave to Clan Harrison. Tyler and
Caroline
Harrison.”

Dead stop. “Well. That explains why you didn’t tell me earlier.”

Sorrow and frustration mixed on his face. “How did life get this complicated? I don’t want you to feel obligated to marry me to help the bears. But having you at my side would be the most incredible thing. They trust you. They look up to you.”

“And the women think I’m pretty awesome as well.” Now that the initial
arghhh
moment was past, Caroline saw the solution far more clearly than she’d expected. She poked him firmly. “Hey, they’re trying to blackmail me into an arranged marriage. It’s not the end of the world.”

“It’s not fair. I wanted you to make the decision based on your heart, not guilt or anything else.”

If the rush of emotions washing through her wasn’t love, she didn’t know what love was. “You’ve forgotten one thing, Tyler. You promised me I could make my own decision. That I could pick what I wanted, right?”

He nodded. “Exactly. I meant it, with all my heart. And that’s why I didn’t tell you at first, because I honestly and completely love you. I want you to want me as much as I want you. Although…if you don’t pick me? Fair warning, I plan to woo the hell out of you for the next ten years or so until you give in.”

“Nice. Stalker with warning label.”

“I promise not to sneak into your room and stare at you while you sleep.”

Caroline smiled, then she pressed the ring box back into his palm, folding his fingers over it. “Then, here’s my choice.”

His face fell. “What—?”

She thrust out her hand. “You have to put it on me. I’m not about to place my engagement ring on my own damn finger. Enough with the making me do everything, right?”

His hands were steady as he slipped the massive stone on. He stood her up and brought her close, fingers firm under her chin to lift her lips to his.

Caroline savoured the kiss. Soaked in his warmth. Passion blossomed in her core as he swayed them together, his body intimately close.

When he let her go for air, she caught him by the suit-jacket lapels and hung on tight. “I would be honoured to marry you, Tyler Harrison.”

All the bits and pieces of what she’d done over the years made her who she was. A human with more than a little shifter nature. Maybe that was why falling in love so quickly wasn’t impossible.

The shifter-savvy part also knew one more thing. The food would get very cool before they got around to it. She jerked his jacket off his shoulders and latched their mouths together.

Oh yeah.

He picked her up and carried her five paces down the length of the room to a section of the table that had no place settings or food. She was laid out on the surface, naked, faster than she thought possible. “You need to teach me that trick sometime.
Oh
…”

Tyler was between her legs and driving her mad with his tongue. She buried her fingers in his thick hair and enjoyed the ride, the speeding bullet arriving with little enough warning she knocked one of the flower arrangements over as her arms shot out.

One motion later, Tyler leaned over her, his muscular torso right there for her to enjoy mapping with her fingers while he guided his cock deep into her core. After that there wasn’t a lot of talking time. Lots of growls and groans, and eventually laughter as Tyler tipped the table over in his enthusiasm and they ended up on the floor, still entwined.

They rolled, Tyler protecting her and bringing her over him. They stared to their right at the upset platters and wine pooling on the carpet. “Well. That’s embarrassing.”

“You’ll have to get it professionally cleaned before the owners get home,” Caroline teased.

Tyler brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know. Would you really make me bring in a cleaner?”

What? “Say again?”

Tyler sat up, cradling her in his arms. He gestured around the room. “It’s yours, Caroline. If you want anything changed, we’ll renovate. But I figured if you didn’t say yes, I’d need a place in Whitehorse to woo you from. So I bought it.”

“In less than one freaking day you bought me a house? That should have been on the list.”

He smiled. “You do know I have a bit of money, right? You won’t hold it against me?”

There seemed to be less oxygen in the room than before. “Oh, I-I knew you had money, but I think I need to add a few zeroes to my mental math.”

“You can fly with me to Europe when I go. And the South American trips will be much more pleasurable with you along.”

Caroline’s head swam with excitement. And then, a flash of an idea. “I feel terrible I don’t have a ring for you to wear.”

“That’s fine, we’ll find one later,” Tyler assured her.

Caroline shook her head. “Nope, this is important to me. And since it’s got to be shifter safe, how about this?” She leaned over and snatched up the ribs that had fallen to the floor. Off the top of the bone she pulled the decorative silver ring.