“Rafe, that was under duress!”
“You promised.”
“You cheated to get your way.”
I grinned. “Get used to that, darling.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. I waited, knowing that I had to let Clara say what she needed to say in her own time. She looked away for a moment, then swallowed before her jaw set at a determined angle and she turned back to me.
“I love you too,” she said, her voice just as determined as the set of her jaw but still with that slight shaky quality. I smiled down at her.
“That’s my brave girl,” I praised, lowering my head to kiss her, softly at first then deeper. I flipped us back in a sudden movement so that Clara was straddling me, her hands braced against my chest as I hardened again underneath her. “Right, we’ve got about twenty minutes left for you to show me just how much you love me.”
Clara let out another laugh that I felt straight down to my soul. I would never get tired of that sound.
Then she showed me how much she loved me before we both left to pick up Ozzie.
And again after he went to bed that night.
Epilogue
You gave me colour back
Clara
“Wowsers, Clara!”Poppy cried as she rushed towards me across the room, abandoning her large circle of admirers. I smiled at her as she gathered both my hands in hers and started jumping on the spot. “You look incredible! I knew you’d go for the pink.”
We hadn’t gone dress shopping like normal people. No, standard shopping was not Poppy Sterling’s vibe at all. She invited me and Lily back to her house, where she had about a million dresses delivered for us to try on after we’d all drunk some champagne.
“This is better,” Poppy had told me. “I can’t get sloshed properly when I’m out and about anyway, but it’s safe here.”
For someone as effervescent and social as Poppy, she was incredibly cautious now. The press had taken advantage of her openness too many times before, and, given everything that had happened this year, she only ever drankin her own home with people she trusted, and even then very rarely.
The champagne had worked its magic. Before my second glass, I had only considered black or navy dresses, but after it started to kick in I gravitated way more towards colour. That was the thing now. I wasn’t afraid of colour anymore. My life before had been all about blending into the background, avoiding being noticed at all costs. But now that I felt safe, I was starting to think about what Iwantedto wear and not what I needed to in order to avoid being seen. And it turned out I liked colour. Hence the bright pink, floor-length, strapless dress I had on now.
Make-up I was still getting used to, but there was no other option than bright pink lipstick to go with the dress. To be honest, I left all of those decisions to the army of people Poppy had sent to my house earlier that day. When they’d finished with me, I barely recognised the woman looking back at me in the mirror. I’d actually teared up until the make-up artist scolded me for potentially ruining my smoky eyes.
“My brother is going to lose his shit when he sees you!” Poppy was still bouncing. She was a very bouncy human being. Tonight was another Sterling charity gala – the first one I had agreed to attend. I just hadn’t had the confidence before now, but Rafe had been patient with me. When I chickened out of the previous one, I’d asked him in a small voice if he was disappointed in me.
“I could never be disappointed in you, Clara,” he told me in a fierce voice. “Of course I want you there, but if you never want to come to one of these dog and pony shows, that’s okay. Not everyone has to love this shit like my sister does. My ex-wife lived for coming with me to these thingsand resented that there weren’t more opportunities to parade around on my arm in front of the paps – and look how that turned out. I love you, gala or no gala, it doesn’t matter.”
It wasn’t like I never went out with Rafe. After that day at his house, when I finally accepted that he loved me and agreed to stay, he’d ramped up the romance, much to Ozzie and my brother’s disgust.
“Ugh, Dad!” Ozzie had shouted at him when he’d kissed me in the kitchen after I agreed to go out on an official date with him. “You can’t kiss in front of me! I’m a child!”
“I’m actually still technically a child as well. And I agree with Ozzie. You’re basically scarring us both,” Zach had complained into his cup of tea, but there was a smile on his face that told another story.
To be honest, in Zach’s eyes, Rafe still could do no wrong. He’d settled into the Sterling house with surprising speed, and I knew he loved the sense of family we had here. The Sunday roasts with Rafe’s family, the interest everyone showed in Zach’s education, the unconditional support he received from Rafe. And, of course, his beloved dog Mungo, who slept in Zach’s bed every night, much to the earl’s horror:
“That’s a working breed, boy!” he’d tell my brother. “Needs to be out shooting.”
Zach got on well with the Sterlings, but he drew the line at hunting.
“Sometimes I think they’re more bloodthirsty than our family, Cla-Cla,” he’d confided in me one day. He wasn’t exactly wrong either.
“Get used to it, kid,” Rafe said as his arms closed around me and he kissed me again. “There’s way more where that’s coming from.”
So, I’d agreed to the date. I did tell him it was a little weird, seeing as I was already living with him, but he insisted that we weren’t going to miss any of the steps.
