“I can’t have you catching your death, Oliver. I’d never forgive myself.”
We smile at each other, and I want to open my heart to him, but I can’t think where to start. “I hope I didn’t offend you the other day, at the Bellamy.”
He goes very still, his eyes growing wider and wider behind the mask. “You…knew it was me?”
“Of course I knew it was you. You think I don’t know the voice of the man I love?”
His mouth drops open.
If not for all of the stoic expectations drilled into me during my formative years, my own mouth would have dropped open as well. The words fell out of me without thought, but I have no intention of taking them back.
“The man you…love?”
“I wish I’d confessed my feelings sooner, before all our misunderstandings. I meant to tell you, that last night you were here, but…”
“But we were interrupted by my work?” He’s smiling at me.
“We were,” I acknowledge. “Still—I should have been honest about it at the time. I’d already made a decision that I would move here. Stay here in Los Angeles. If…if you’d allow me to.”
“Allowyou to?” His laugh is disbelieving. “You, of all people, don’t need permission to do what you want, Elliot.”
“That’s not true,” I tell him softly. “In everything that I want to do to you…for you…with you…I will verymuchneed your permission.”
He shivers again, but not from the cold this time, I think. He sways toward me. “Are you saying…”
“I’m saying that if you’ll have me, Oliver, I’m yours. I’ll move heaven and earth to make things work between us.If,” I reiterate, “you feel the same.”
He gives a strange little hiccup, half-giggle, half-sob, and then he throws his arms around my neck. I clutch him close, my heart a staccato rhythm, the blood singing in my veins as he whispers into my ear, “I love you too, Elliot.”
I hold him like that for a long time, cradling him as close as I can without crushing him completely, until he gives a little wriggle and I let him go. My jacket has fallen off his shoulders, but I couldn’t care less, because as I watch, he reaches up to pull off the red silk mask.
I saw this lovely face at the Bellamy, of course, but it wasn’t the same. Here and now, he’s finally showing me his real self, unadorned.
He’s finally letting me into his reality.
I turn him toward the light coming from the house, cupping his face in my hands, greedily drinking in the sight of him.
Those warm brown eyes sparkle with amber lights, echoing the colors of the season. His nose is straight and narrow, a delicate point between two full, dark brows. His plump-lipped mouth, an obsession for me these long weeks, perfectly balances out his features, and as I gaze at it now, it turns up into a smile.
“I hope you like what you see,” he says.
“Iadoreyou,” I tell him, and then lean down to kiss him.
“Wait,” he says, just before my lips land on his. “What did you mean before, about offending me? At the Bellamy?”
Ialmostcomplain about him pulling out of the kiss, but then I remind myself that—from now on—I will be able to kiss him very regularly. “For playingyoursong, dear heart, in front of all those Philistines. I know there are things you like to keep private—keep separate—and when I’d finished playing, you were gone. I assumed…well, I assumed you were angry that I’d shared it with others.”
He runs his hands into my hair, grasps it softly and pulls me close so that my forehead rests against his. “No, Elliot. I left because if I’d stayed another second, I would have thrown myself at your damn feet under that piano.”
Ihaveto kiss him after that, for a very long time indeed, until he’s breathless and shaking in my arms. “Let’s go back in,” I murmur against his neck. “You’re cold.”
“I’m not cold, my lord. The total opposite, actually. I’mhot.”
“Ah. Then perhaps we should leave the revelers, and have our own private dance?”
“Yes, my lord,” he whispers. “Please. Let’s dance.”
CHAPTER35
