Arielle heard him say it. How could she not? Yet there seemed to be something wrong with her hearing. There was a drumming in her head, in her ears, drowning out everything.
‘A…a wedding present?’ She said it as if no such thing could ever exist.
Her eyes were locked on his and in his gaze she saw something that made her weak. He lifted his hand, as if to reach to her. His voice was low and urgent.
‘Arielle, you told me that I was the only thing you wanted more thanMas Delfine. I feel the same about you.’ He took a ragged breath before continuing. ‘Except that, there is nothing else, absolutely nothing else, that can possibly compete with me wanting you.’ He took a breath, another ragged one. ‘Loving you.’
His eyes bored into hers. ‘Because that is what it is. What I now know it to be. I couldn’t see it at the time. I needed the hell I’ve been in since you left me in Paris to show me that! To show me that wanting you, loving you, is all I could ever want. For all my life. Wanting you as the heart of my heart, the love of my life, as my wife. If you will have me?’
Tears, slow and misting, were welling in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. He reached forwards with his hand and brushed them away with the tips of his fingers.
‘Is that a yes?’ he asked, his voice quizzical.
How could he ask? How could he evenask? Her tears flowed faster and she heard him mutter an oath. Saw him, through her now hopelessly blurred vision, get to his feet, hunker down beside her and catch her hand, holding it fast. She squeezed ittight, as if she would never let it go, for she never would now. She cried for quite a while. He remained hunkered down beside her, saying nothing, just holding her hand as tightly as she was holding his. So much was going through her mind. So, so much.
She had never dared to admit it, to face that she had fallen in love with him, that to have lost him as she had was unbearable. But now, Lycos was hers. Hers for ever. And she was his for ever.
And themas,her belovedMas Delfine, was no longer his, but nor was it hers, either. Because it was going to be what would bring her more joy than anything in the world, except for Lycos. Except for loving Lycos and being loved by Lycos.
It will be ours.
Theirs for ever. As they were to each other.
Her tears were drying and her heart was singing—singing and soaring. She had gone there that evening to tell Lycos she had no claim on themas. That she could not accept his offer, whatever the reasons he gave and however generous he wanted to be.
She had gone with the expectation that seeing him again would be agony and the knowledge that she had to walk away again from him.
But now, I never shall. Never!
Lycos drew her to her feet. Helplessly, she let him. The world was still a blur, her body suddenly weak. He let slip her hand, but only to slide his arm around her waist and draw her against his side.
‘I’ve got a room here,MmeDimistrios-to-be,’ he informed her. In his voice was the husk she was so familiar with. She looked up at him, into his night-dark eyes.
He brushed her lips lightly, so lightly with his that her body trembled with it.
‘So, though the hour is early, shall we retire?’
She gave a sigh of bliss, of happiness, of wonder and of love.
‘Oh, yes,’ she breathed. ‘Oh, yes.’
Her body was silk and satin, her mouth velvet and her caresses like a living flame to rouse him to all that he longed for. With his lips and the tips of his fingers, he paid homage to her. From the tender lobes of her ears, down the slender column of her throat, to the sweet mounds of her breasts with their coral peaks straining at his touch and down the valley between. Down, down, to the deeper valley as her thighs slackened and he sought, and found, all that gave delight. To her. To him.
And as their bodies fused and flamed, and as they both cried out, he knew with every fibre of his body, every beat of his hectic heart, every breath and every blaze of all that filled him, that here was his heart’s desire. His heart’s fulfilment.
She lay in his arms, the woman he knew he loved, could never live without and now never needed to. Her tears were wet again on his naked torso and he cradled her to him. As close as they could be. As if they were one body, with a single beating heart.
‘Is this love?’ she whispered. ‘Is this really, really love?’
He grazed her lips with his.
‘Oh, yes,’ he said with a smile on his lips and in his voice, and a look of love in his eyes. ‘Oh, yes.’
She gave a sigh of heart’s content. And so did he.
And sleep, the sleep of love’s sweet promise, took them both.
Epilogue
