"If you had said 'no'," his gaze flits briefly to Alec's ring finger. "I would have stayed however you'd let me."

But it wouldn't have been the same. It would have damaged the relationship, and Lark is too pragmatic to think that they would have survived in the long run. He had certainly never intended the offer of marriage to be an ultimatum (hell, it had honestly begun as a legal tactic and nothing romantic), but he can see now that it would have turned that way.