Breathing heavy, Nicholas wiped the bloodfrom his mouth. He cleared his head and tipped his toe against thebig man’s body. “He’ll be out for a while. I’ll have my men tiethem up and take them back to London for questioning.”
Nicholas folded his arms in front of him.“Alexandra, you have some questions to answer. Why did you leaveme?”
Head down, she refused to look at him. “Whatare you doing here, Nicholas? Here…with me…and then you saved mylife.”
Her voice came in tearful breaks and hewanted to take her in his arms, but he wanted to hear from her lipsthat she didn’t want him. Pain like a white-hot bolt of agonyripped through him with the possibility.
“Those two thugs, probably sent by LadySutherland…you could have been killed, Alexandra.”
She looked at the unconscious men andclutched her throat. “How-how did you find me?”
Nicholas folded his arms in front of him,refusing to cross the divide. “Took me a month. You had nevermentioned where in southern England you lived, but I was willing totear apart the countryside to find you. Then I remembered you hadmentioned your father was in the Royal Navy, theHMSVictory.My father used his connections with the admiralty andtraced where Samuel’s pension was delivered. You have led me on afine chase and now, I want answers as to why you left me.”
“I am ill-suited for you, Nicholas. Londonis filled with beautiful ladies who would be eager to flirt with aduke.”
He let out a loud breath. “Not good enough.I was born to meet you, Alexandra.”
She drew a line in the gravel with her toe.“And then there is the fact of Lady Susannah Tomkins, your fiancéeand your upcoming wedding. She offers you everything.”
“Wrong. There is no Lady Susannah.”
“What? I saw her when we disembarked theship. I read the wedding announcement in theLondonChronicle.”
“That was all orchestrated by Susannah. Shewas overeager to strike-up the alignment with the existingengagement. I called the wedding off.”
“Oh?” She lifted her head.
They stood in silence for a while, half alifetime in the space between them.
“When you disappeared, I was as fresh andraw as meat being put on a hook. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat.I was so afraid I’d never find you.”
Tears came down her face. “You need someonewith a perfect pedigree and you need an heir. I cannot provideeither.”
He took a step toward her, wanted to wipeevery tear from her face. Like his father had said, Alexandra wascompletely self-sacrificing. She left because she didn’t feelworthy. She left him because she feltheneeded someonebetter for him. He shook his head. Never had he met a woman sonoble.
“It’s time to end this.” He took a stepcloser, felt her yearning. “You have to come half-way. It’s all inyour power. Take my hand. Do it. Come to me.”
With the roar of the ocean drumming below,she stared off over the horizon.
Nicholas caressed Alexandra’s arm and turnedher face to him, making her look in to his eyes to see the importof his words. “You see color. I see shades of gray and all thenegatives. I need you to see color and bring out all thepositives.”
“It won’t work, Nicholas. I don’t want you.And here you are when I was trying so hard to get over you.”
He pulled her into his crushing embrace.“Prove it.”
He slanted his mouth over hers, her lips,silky and moist. His entire body hummed as she melted into him. Fordays, he hungered for a taste of her, worried he’d never find heragain, afraid the whims of life would punish him.
“How I’ve missed you.” She moaned into hismouth, kissed him back, and he felt a potent mix of desires andlonging from her.
He dragged his mouth from hers and leanedhis forehead against hers. “Alexandra, your worth is beyond amillion treasures. As the sun and the moon rise and fall, we aremeant to be together, have endured insurmountable odds. We cannotstop it. I love you wholly and unconditionally and will never stoploving you. Promise me, you’ll never leave me again.”
“I promise, on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’ll keep on kissing me like thatfor the rest of our lives.”
Nicholas kissed her again, a long soulfulkiss, and then stopped. “Before I begin something on this bluff, weneed to stop.” With his arm tight around her, he escorted Alexandrato her cottage where they met an anxious Samuel. The ducal coachrambled to a stop with Nicholas’s men.
