“You didn’t have to tell me.” She reached a hand for his. “I’m glad you did. It can’t have been easy for you, raising a baby by yourself.”

There was nothing but understanding in her eyes now. Every taut muscle in his body relaxed as if she’d stroked them. He knew now, with utter certainty, that she was what he’d been waiting for. “No, not easy, but always a pleasure.” His fingers tightened on hers. “Share it with me, Lenore.”

Her thoughts froze. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I want you here, with me, with Sarah. I want you here with the other children we’ll have together.” He looked down at the ring he’d put on her hand. When his eyes came back to hers, she felt them reach inside her. “Marry me.”

Marry? She could only stare at him blankly while the panic quietly built and built. “You don’t—you don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I do,” he corrected, holding her hand more firmly when she tried to draw it away. “I’ve asked only one other woman, and that out of obligation. I’m asking you because you’re the first and only woman I’ve ever loved. I want to share your life. I want you to share mine.”

Panic steadily turned into fear. He was asking her to change everything she’d aimed for. To risk everything. “Our lives are too far apart,” she managed. “I have to go back. I have my job.”

“A job you know you weren’t made for.” Urgency slipped into his voice as he took her shoulders. “You know you were made to write about the images you have in your head, not about other people’s social lives and tomorrow’s trends.”

“It’s what I know!” Trembling, she jerked away from him. “It’s what I’ve been working for.”

“To prove a point. Damn it, Lenore, do something for yourself. For yourself.”

“It is for myself,” she said desperately. You love him, a voice shouted inside her. Why are you pushing away what you need, what you want? Lee shook her head, as if to block the voice out. Love wasn’t enough, needs weren’t enough. She knew that. She had to remember it. “You’re asking me to give it all up, every hard inch I’ve climbed in five years. I have a life in L.A., I know who I am, where I’m going. I can’t live here and risk—”

“Finding out who you really are?” he finished. He wouldn’t allow despair. He barely controlled anger. “If it was only myself, I’d go anywhere you liked, live anywhere that suited you, even if I knew it was a mistake. But there’s Sarah. I can’t take her away from the only home she’s ever known.”