"Stroking her hair, he swallowed and spoke, but his voice was shattered. "I love you," he said, telling her what she had told him that terrible day in his study. "I never stopped loving you." She raised her face to his, and her answer made his chest ache. "I know." "How did you know, sweetheart?" he asked, trying to smile. "Because," she said, "I wanted it so badly to be true, and you've always given me everything I wanted. I couldn't believe you wouldn't do it, just one more time. Just once more." She moved slightly and Ian checked her, tightening his arms. "Stay still, darling," he whispered tenderly, and seeing her confusion, he told her, "because our child is being conceived." Her eyes searched his. "Why do you think so?" "Because," he said, slowly smoothing her hair off her cheek, "I want it so badly to be true, and always given me everything I wanted." A lump of emotion swelled in Ian's chest as she pressed closer against him, cradled in his arms, not moving. She was willing it to be true; he knew it as surely as he knew that, somehow, it was."