She ran a tongue over her dry lips. ‘You want to marry me?’

He gave a wry smile. ‘I never thought I’d have to say the words twice. There’s arrogance for you. Yes, I want to marry you. I want to marry you because there is no damn way I’m letting another man lay a finger on you. Last night I made you mine and I intend to keep you as mine. You let the wolf into your life and now there’s no escape.’

Swamped by a cloud of euphoria, Jenny smiled. It seemed too much like a fantasy to be real and she couldn’t quite let herself believe it.

Did real life really have endings like this?

‘You really want to marry me?’ She bit her lip and looked up at him. ‘I disrupted your bachelor lifestyle.’

‘Totally.’

‘I make you eat breakfast ‘

His eyes dropped to her mouth. ‘I love your breakfast.’

‘I hide your whisky.’

His blue eyes gleamed. ‘I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve discovered that there’s something I prefer to single malt.’

She blushed. ‘Alex…’

‘I wonder if eventually you’ll stop blushing,’ he mused, stroking her cheek with a gentle finger. ‘Maybe after fifty years with me you’ll have got used to my wolfish ways.’

Her eyes twinkled. ‘I haven’t said yes yet.’

He grinned, his mouth hovering a breath away from hers. ‘But you will.’

‘You’re very sure of yourself, Dr Westerling,’ she whispered, feeling her heart rate increase dramatically. ‘What if I say no?’

‘I don’t understand the word no,’ he groaned, leaning forward to claim her mouth in a gentle kiss. ‘I had a very limited education.’

‘I can’t believe you truly want the two of us.’

‘Well, I do. And I’ll do my best to be the very best father to Daisy. I know I’ve been pretty wild in the past, but you calm me down, Jen. I can learn the father stuff.’

She lifted a hand and touched his cheek. ‘I never had any doubts that you’d be a brilliant father. It was only ever you who believed that.’

‘Because I didn’t think I could commit to anyone,’ he said, ‘and I wasn’t willing to risk bringing children into a doomed relationship.’

‘And now?’ She gazed up at him. ‘Do you believe you’ll be a good father now?’

‘With you as the mother, definitely,’ he groaned, kissing her until the room started to spin. ‘If I step out of line, you’ll soon tell me. And now do you think you could put a chap out of his misery and give me an answer? Will you marry me or are you going to load up your basket of bread rolls and go back into the forest to search for Grandma?’

‘She lived in the cottage,’ Jenny reminded him, and his broad shoulders lifted in a shrug.

‘See? I’m really going to need your help to do the daddy stuff properly. So what do you say?’

‘Yes.’ What other answer could there possibly be but yes? ‘Very yes.’