Kissed by Moonlight, page 16
It struck him at the same time. “I know. It’s hopeless,” he said harshly. “I’ve worked harder on this project than on anything I’ve ever done in my life. I can’t let it go now. But I can’t let you go either. I want you both. If it’s down to a choice” – he shrugged – “there’s no contest, because I’ve got to have you.”
Had she heard right? For a moment, flinching at the savagery of his tone, she couldn’t believe that such a humble admission could have come from this haughty mouth. Words such as those should be spoken in humility, not tossed out in arrogance. Did it matter? All that mattered was that he had spoken them and he wasn’t going to send her away.
“Why can’t you have both? I’ve changed, David, you must believe me. I mean to help now, not hinder. I’ve spoken impulsively, before I’ve understood. I’ve behaved like a woolly-minded contrary little girl and I don’t know how you’ve stood me.”
“No tricks? You’re on the level?” Although his tone was still skeptical and searching, she knew he was more than half way to believing her.
“I’m speaking the truth, David. I’ve been so wrong about you.”
“Thank heaven,” he said, swallowing deeply. “It seems I could have been wrong about you too.”
His arms reached out for her and bound her to him in a fierce hug of silent homage. Her own throat was doing a lot of churning as she too gave prayerful thanks. It was going to be all right. David wasn’t going to send her away, now or ever. After the way she had behaved, it was more than she deserved.
“Tears?” he said, tilting her chin.
“It’s seemed so long and it’s been so awful. I thought I was never going to get through to you. I feel so ashamed of how I was before. I set out to be as unreasonable as I could possibly be.”
“Now don’t go taking all the blame. I don’t have a lot to be proud of myself. Going back to our wedding – that wasn’t half the wedding you deserved. You even had to pick out your own wedding bouquet.”
“I did it on impulse and then regretted it when I saw you were laughing at me.”
He looked at her for a long moment. There was a fight going on behind his eyes. The decision to speak up was reached after deep self-searching, and the reluctance in his voice showed he was not certain he was doing the right thing. “I’ve a feeling I shouldn’t be telling you this – it leaves me wide open – but I assure you I wasn’t laughing at you.”
“No?”
“Want proof?” She didn’t know what he could mean and watched closely as he extracted a piece of tissue paper from his wallet. Unfolding it for her inspection, he said, “That’s pretty substantial evidence, wouldn’t you say?”
She was looking at a pressed wild rose – the dog rose she’d picked for his buttonhole that she thought he’d thrown away in scorn. He’d kept it and all this time he had been carrying it close to his heart. It certainly proved he hadn’t been laughing at her, but that was a secondary consideration in the light of a possible new disclosure.
“You’ve got it,” he said, as he read the bewildered wonder on her face. “You know it all now, don’t you? You know the other reason, besides my desire to make love to you, why I married you – if I’m truthful, the only reason I married you.”
Her voice was anxious. It would be too painful if she’d tricked herself into believing something that wasn’t true simply because she wanted to believe it so much. “You said that if ever there came a time when you felt inclined to tell me, it would be unnecessary because it would mean that I knew. I think I know, but I can’t be sure.”
And then, overwhelmed at how close they had come to ruining it all, she said, “Oh, David, if you had sent me home, I think I would have died. And, anyway, it wouldn’t have been home, because home is where you are.”
“The same goes for me,” he said gruffly. “We’ve both suffered, it seems.”
“I’m still suffering. Tell me, David. Say it, please,” she begged, running her hand down the hard lines of his face, sensing the softening of his expression with her fingertips as well as seeing it with her eyes.
“You stubborn, adorable woman, I love you. I seem to have loved you forever.”
Was it possible, she wondered, to die of happiness? “There’s something else I must ask you, and I promise never to mention it again. You and Justine ... was there really nothing going on between you?”
“Geoff leaves her on her own too much. She can be good company. And I suppose I felt sorry for her for having Geoff for a husband. Does that answer your question?”
“Not altogether. You haven’t said ... that is ... did you fancy her?”
“Come on, now,” he mocked in the old dreaded way. “A man gets lonely and Justine’s an attractive woman.”
Her heart dropped and then he relented. “I’ve sacrificed everything for Chimera. Do you think I’d put it all in jeopardy by having an affair with Justine Hyland of all people? Use your common sense. Despite the fact that she and her husband go their separate ways in many things, she’s still in the enemy camp. Convinced?” His voice dropped in bitter self-derision. “Justine, or any woman for that matter, would have had a hard time getting you out of my blood. I was telling the truth when I said I always knew that one day I’d come back for you. I never completely lost touch with what you were doing, thanks to my father. His letters always contained some piece of information about you. You didn’t know I was keeping tabs on you, did you?”
“I’d no idea. Good thing I behaved myself.” The words were impish, but the tone of her voice, low and husky, was still wondrously giving thanks.
“Mm.” His eyebrow lifted. “You know as well as I do that my father would never have written anything to your discredit. I must invite him to come and visit us, as soon as I can bring myself to share you. He’s always thought a lot of you. In his eyes, marrying you was my biggest triumph to date.”
“Only in his eyes?” she couldn’t resist asking.
“No, in mine as well. I’ve admitted so much – I might as well tell you everything. The things I’m striving for – all I’ve achieved – success would be hollow if you weren’t by my side to share it with me. These past ten days I’ve been suffering the tortures of the damned. Finally bringing you here to your house – you must know it was built with you in mind – being on our own, wanting you with a driven, desperate hunger, and unable to touch you without making you hate me more than I thought you already did. I thought I would go crazy. It got to the point where I couldn’t trust myself to be alone with you for another moment. The last time I touched you I was so rough with you, and I was sorry straight away. I vowed it would never happen again. But the strain of not touching you got worse each day, and I knew that I had to get back to the hotel before I did something really regrettable, something you couldn’t possibly forgive. I’m not taking too much for granted, am I, in thinking you’ve forgiven me for the other?”
“Of course not. It was nothing. I’m not letting you go back to the hotel on your own now. I’m coming with you,” she said fiercely.
“The situation’s changed. We’re not going, not yet anyway. It will be back to the grindstone soon enough.” His eyes searched her face as if for confirmation. “No problem there – now that you’re with me.” The fact that he was still not one hundred percent certain of her twisted her heart. All the time she had been accusing him of treating her so badly, what had she been doing to him?
“Oh, David, I love you so. I’m with you all the way.”
“That will make all the difference. I’ll be able to work twice as hard now that I know it’s for both of us.” His hands went to her waist; hers lifted and wound around his neck where finger linked with finger to form a ring.
The sparkle came back to his eye to delight and torment her. “That little piece of seduction is what started it all. You did that, and I wanted to make love to you. Nothing’s changed in that respect, except that perhaps the urge is even greater now. Ten days wasted out of fourteen.” His groan turned into a growl of pleasure that flicked her senses into urgent response. “That’s fourteen days of loving to cram into the four days we’ve got left.”
His mouth lowered to hers. Without breaking the kiss – a kiss so deep and draining it was almost a fulfillment in itself – he lifted her up against his chest and carried her into the bedroom. He set her on the big bed where, together at last, they gave themselves over to the loving enjoyment of each other that they had so long been denied. He took his time, divesting her of each article of clothing with maddening slowness, refusing to let her respond in kind as his eyes and hands and lips took their fill of her. When she could wait no longer she wove her hands into the crisp thickness of his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. Her hands roved over his muscular body, seeking to give him the same pleasure he had brought her and removing all barriers to her full enjoyment of him.
With a groan of pleasure he gathered her tightly into his arms and, as the shadows lengthened in the room, told her without words what it meant to him to have her as his wife.
Epilogue
It was evening, Petrina’s favorite time of day because David would soon be with her. The installation of a telephone might have stolen that feeling of total isolation they had once known, but this vital link had enabled them to make their home in her beloved Serpent’s Tail Bay.
At first, David had often worked late into the evening, too, but the pressure had eased considerably since beating the time clause and she could count on his returning home at a reasonable time. The day he bought Geoffrey Hyland out of the contract had been memorable. She had let him wallow in his well-earned moment of triumph and then she had smugly informed him that they had a little something else to celebrate as well.
She hadn’t thought it possible for anyone to know this much happiness. She would never take it for granted. Each day she took pride and joy in counting her blessings. Top of her list was having David for a husband; second, that their first child was on the way; and third came Chimera’s continued prosperity, secure in David’s capable and caring hands. When she looked around and saw all the good he was doing, she wondered how she could have been against him for so long.
Her attitude toward the future was realistic. She knew that when David had done all he could here, his brilliant brain would want to sharpen itself on a new challenge, which might take them away from Chimera. She would be sorry because she loved this sun-kissed island. But she loved David more. She could never envisage a time when they would stay away for good. Chimera had too strong a hold on their emotions not to bring them back, no matter how far or how many times David’s work took them away. Chimera would always be here; built on a rock, it would remain forever as something solid in their lives to come back to.
Her ears alerted her to the sound of David’s car. She was on her feet and running to meet him. Moments later she was where she most wanted to be – in his arms.
Dorothy Vernon, Kissed by Moonlight
