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  He looked at the two items she was still holding in her hand. “Are you going to hang on to those indefinitely or open them?”

  She looked down at the two gifts. Multicolored lights from the Christmas tree were splaying themselves across the silver foil. It looked as if she were holding fire in her hands. “I thought I’d hold on to them for a while. Savor the fact that you brought me something.”

  Impatience added color to his profile. “Oh, for God’s sake, open the damn things.”

  “Said in the true spirit of Christmas,” she laughed. Giving in, she began to undo the foil around the flat gift with her thumbnail.

  “No.” He stopped her. “I said to open that one first.” Ryan nodded at the box.

  “Okay.” Tucking the other gift under her arm, she unwrapped the square box instead.

  And found a black velvet box beneath the foil.

  Her mouth grew dry as she stared at the gift. If anyone but Ryan had given it to her, she would have immediately guessed that there was a ring inside the box. But it was from Ryan, which meant that it was probably anything but a ring.

  “Are you planning on trying to guess its weight?” he prodded.

  “No.” Elisha ran her tongue along her lips. It didn’t help. Everything was bone dry. There wasn’t enough moisture to form a dewdrop.

  She held her breath. And flipped open the box.

  The heart-shaped diamond caught the light coming in through the front window and changed it into a rainbow before chasing it back out onto the far wall.

  She was holding a rainbow in her hand.

  More than that, she was holding a promise.

  Incredulous, she raised her eyes to his face. For possibly the first time in her life, she found herself completely and utterly speechless, unable to form a single word.

  “Now open the other one,” he prompted.

  Like someone moving in a dream, Elisha did as he instructed. Her brain felt like a vast wasteland, unable to form or retain a single thought. Ripping open the second gift, she almost succeeded in ripping what was inside, as well. It was an index card.

  And written on it was a single sentence. A single question: “Will you marry me?”

  “Why…” She almost choked, her throat was so dry. Starting again, she raised her eyes to his. “Why did you write this down?”

  Dammit, he couldn’t read her expression. She looked shell-shocked. Was that a good thing? Or was she looking for a way to say no? Hell, he’d come this far, he had to press on. “Because I’m a better writer than a talker. And I figured you liked editing things.” As if to underscore that, he handed her a pen.

  There was an earthquake going on inside of her. Or at least what she would have imagined one to feel like. Everything within her body was shaking.

  Willing the tremor out of her hand, Elisha took the pen and wrote something on the side of the index card.

  Taking a deep breath, she gave it back to him.

  Ryan realized he’d stopped breathing altogether. Stopped breathing until he read what she’d written. “‘Yes.’”

  He grinned as he drew air back into his lungs. He’d been in the throes of agony, sweating bullets from the moment he’d walked into the small Forty-seventh Street jewelry store. The place was run by Jacob Wolfe, a man whose life he’d once saved. Jacob sold him the best diamond he had, then proceeded to create a unique setting for it in under twelve hours.

  It was a masterpiece. But it would have been nothing if she’d turned him down.

  The next moment, Ryan found himself surrounded by Andrea and Beth. Surrounded, he knew, by the kind of love that had eluded him all of his life. And he was getting it on the family plan. In the depths of his soul, he had to admit that he rather liked that.

  Taking the ring out of the box, he slipped it onto Elisha’s finger. The fit was perfect, as he knew it would be.

  Elisha’s head threatened to begin spinning again. If she listened really, really hard, she could swear she heard the sound of a white charger’s hoofbeats as the horse galloped up to her house, delivering the prince to her doorstep.

  The sound was probably just her own heart, gone into triple time.

  “Are you sure you mean this?”

  His eyes met hers. She had her answer before it even left his lips. “Max, I never say anything I don’t mean.”

  Her mouth curved. “Technically, you haven’t actually ‘said’ anything yet.”

  Fully aware that women liked to hear the words, Ryan took a deep breath and forced them from his lips, one at a time like parachuted commandos, ready for action, evacuating an airplane. “Will you marry me?”

  “Because?” she coaxed.

  “Because?” he echoed, confused.

  “Because you love me?” she supplied.

  He gave a half shrug, wanting to hide at least some of his feelings until a later time. “Yeah, that.”

  She didn’t let it die. He might have known she wouldn’t. The woman was as stubborn as a mule. He supposed that was part of what he liked about her.

  “Ryan, I can’t edit this for you. You have to tell me why you’re proposing.”

  He snorted. “Because if I kidnapped you and hid you in a cave, someone would come after me.”

  He wasn’t fooling her. “And why would you kidnap me?” she persisted.

  Cornered, he gave her her due. And exposed a little more of himself than he ever had. “Because I like being part of all this.”

  “If you liked it so much, why did you originally say no to Christmas dinner?”

  “I said no to all of it because…” Oh, the hell with it, he might as well tell her everything. Wives were supposed to be privy to their husbands’ feelings. “Because I thought wanting it made me weak.”

  “Love makes you strong, Ryan,” she contradicted.

  Restraint only went so far before it became counterproductive. And he wanted to leave himself open to experiencing things he’d been denied.

  Ryan took her into his arms, toying with a strand of her hair. “And you’d know this firsthand?”

  “I do now.” She slipped her arms around his neck. Her engagement ring flashed as it caught more light. “Because right now, I could wrestle an alligator.” She grinned, her eyes shining as she looked up at him. “But I’d settle for an ex-commando.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Settle?”

  His intimidating days were over, she thought. And he knew it. “I mean that in the best possible sense of the word.”

  Ryan shook his head and laughed. “You really are something else.”

  She tucked her body just a tad closer to his, aware that her nieces were taking this all in and almost cheering on the sidelines. As far as new lives went, this one was shaping up beautifully. “And you have an entire lifetime to find out exactly what that is.”

  Be sure to read Marie Ferrarella’s next book

  from Silhouette Special Edition,

  HER SPECIAL CHARM, available December 2005.

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Faith-inspired chic lit from Steeple Hill Café

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  DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS by Leslie Kelly, Harlequin Blaze

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  MS. LONGSHOT by Sylvie Kurtz, Silhouette Bomshell The It Girls miniseries

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  BEFORE SUNRISE by Diana Palmer, HQN (contemporary romance)

  DARK SKY by Carla Neggers, MIRA (romantic suspense)

  50 HARBOR STREET by Debbie Macomber, MIRA (women’s fiction)

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  LOVING FEELINGS by Gail Gaymer Martin, Steeple Hill Love Inspired

  FOR THE TWINS’ SAKE by Jillian Hart, Steeple Hill Love Inspired

  NOTE OF PERIL by Hannah Alexander, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense

  UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS by Elizabeth White, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense

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  THERE’S ALWAYS PLAN B by Susan Mallery, Harlequin Next

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  CUTTING THROUGH by Joan Hohl, Harlequin Next

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  STARTING FROM SCRATCH by Marie Ferrarella, Harlequin Next

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  ONCE A THIEF by Michele Hauf, Silhouette Bombshell

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  DEVIL’S BARGAIN by Rachel Caine, Silhouette Bombshell

  THE GOLDEN GIRL by Erica Orloff, Silhouette Bombshell The It Girls miniseries

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  WITH OR WITHOUT YOU by Carole Matthews, Red Dress Ink

  KILLER SUMMER by Lynda Curnyn, Red Dress Ink

  DO THEY WEAR HIGH HEELS IN HEAVEN? By Erica Orloff, Red Dress Ink

  THE NIGHT I GOT LUCKY by Laura Caldwell, Red Dress Ink

  SCENES FROM A HOLIDAY by Laurie Graff, Caren Lissner, Melanie Murray, Red Dress Ink

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  THE DESTINED QUEEN by Deborah Hale, LUNA

  URBAN SHAMAN by C.E. Murphy, LUNA

  POISON STUDY by Maria V. Snyder, LUNA

  IN STONE’S CLASP by Christie Golden, LUNA

  WINTER MOON by Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, C.E. Murphy, LUNA