The kiss was long. Tender. The flickers of a new hunger were cut off when he broke the contact.
‘I had fantasies too,’ he told her. ‘Because it was the only way I was ever going to be able to touch you. I couldn’t come between you and Tom and it wasn’t hard to sacrifice what I wanted. For him.’
‘You loved him,’ Sophie said. She knew it was as simple as that because Luc had a strength that had been honed in a tough upbringing.
‘I loved you, too,’ Luc said slowly. ‘And Hannah. Enough to marry her.’ His breath came out in a sigh. ‘I would have been a good husband.’
Sophie knew that was true. He would have been totally loyal and devoted. Hurting Hannah would have meant hurting Tom as well and he’d probably made the vow not to do that many years earlier, even if he hadn’t realised it.
But he’d had fantasies about her?
The tingle in her belly ignited into something much more intense.
‘Tell me,’ she said, her voice almost inaudible. ‘What did you do to me in those fantasies you had?’
She could feel his lips curving against hers as he kissed her again. ‘Are you going to tell me about the ones you had?’
Sophie could feel herself blushing. ‘No…’
‘Then neither am I.’ Luc lifted his head. His smile had faded and she’d never seen him look quite like this. ‘You might just have to find out for yourself. Bit by bit. It might take a long time,’ he added.
Sophie was the one smiling now. That was fine by her. She didn’t mind how long it took.
That it had begun was more than enough for now.
18
Itwaspossible to fly.
Without any wings.
Other people might not be able to see you flying but Sophie knew her feet weren’t quite touching the ground.
Oh, she couldfeelthe ground – the cobbles in the streets outside and the slightly uneven edges to the terracotta tiles on her floors as she went about her business over the next couple of weeks, preparing for Marry Me in Provence’s last wedding of the season – but it felt as if there was something magic beneath her feet.
Some kind of a magic carpet that made her feel like she was flying.
Sophie knew exactly what it was, of course.
Love…
She was in love with Luc Moreau.
She always had been, even if she had never admitted that truth to anyone – including herself – despite how violently her world had been rocked in that heartbeat when she’d seen her feelings mirrored in Luc’s eyes the first time his bare skin had ever touched hers.
How ironic was it that she had succeeded in pretending that moment had never happened in order to protect the future she’d believed was safe enough to guarantee happiness, only to discover the depths of howunhappy it was possible to be? To have even the ability to feel that kind of love snuffed out by the weight of grief at having lost everything that mattered the most in her life?
But now… it wasreal.
And it felt right.
So perfect, Sophie could imagine that Tom would genuinely want this for her. He would want his best friend – his brother from another mother – to be doing what he could no longer do himself.
To love Sophie.
To protect her.
To take her hand and walk into a new future with her.
