‘Oh, Luc. You can’t blame yourself for any of this.’ He couldn’t cry, either, Stacey realised. Luc was a man of iron, who ran a global enterprise that kept thousands of people in work, with brothers and a sister to whom he’d devoted a great part of his life. He’d had no time to grieve, and so he bottled it up, and when the anger became too great, he worked it off with physical exercise—polo, sex—anything would do, but as yet he’d found nothing to wipe out that pain.
He sighed. ‘They just wanted a chance and I gave it to them. I killed them as surely as if I had been flying the plane.’
‘No, you didn’t,’ she cut in fiercely. ‘Their friend killed them and himself with his vanity. You’re not to blame, any more than the child I used to be was to blame for my father’s coldness towards me. My father suffered grief at the loss of my mother that he had no idea how to deal with. Don’t be the same as him. Don’t be like that with our child. Accept the pain and live with it, if you must, but promise me you’ll never visit your suffering on our child.’
‘Mysuffering?’ Luc murmured, frowning.
‘Yes. Your suffering, and the sooner you accept that and let me in, the sooner we can start to heal each other.’
There was silence for quite a time and then he said, ‘When did you become so wise?’
She gave him a crooked smile. ‘When I broke free of you and my brother?’
Luc laughed. He really laughed. Throwing back his head, he laughed until tears came to his eyes, and then she held him as he sobbed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
AWEEKLATERLuc asked her to marry him.
‘I can’t think of anyone who’d be a better mother,’ he mused as they lay in the bed they’d barely left for seven days. ‘I love you, Stacey Winner. I should have told you years ago, but we are where we are.’
‘And it’s not too late to make amends,’ she suggested.
‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ Luc agreed, turning his head lazily on the pillow so they could hold each other’s gaze.
‘I’d better marry you because I love you, and I can’t think of anyone else who’d have you.’
‘Or who’d put up with you,’ he countered, smiling against her mouth.
‘I just worry that there are dozens of women in the world better suited to your sophisticated life.’
‘So change my life,’ Luc insisted. ‘Keep your job. Work. I’ll never stop you. Whatever you want to do is fine by me, because that’s who you are, the person I fell in love with, and I love you without reservation. I don’t want a puppet I can bend to my will. I love the challenge of you being you, in case you hadn’t noticed?’
‘I might have done,’ Stacey admitted with a grin as they paused the conversation for a kiss…several kisses, as it turned out.
More kisses later, Luc added, ‘I love complex, vibrant, capable you, and the last thing I want is to change you. That would be defeating the object, don’t you think? Having rediscovered the only woman I could ever love as completely as I love you, I’ve realised there’s more to life than work and money, and that this is the man I want to be…the man I am with you.’
‘Marry me,’ she whispered. ‘I love you so much.’
‘I will,’ Luc promised solemnly.
‘When?’
‘Now! Today!’ he enthused, shooting up in bed.
‘Special licence?’ she suggested.
‘You’re the expert,’ he said with a burst of sheer happiness.
‘But I doubt it can be today. As soon as possible?’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Luc confirmed, drawing her back into his arms.
‘You want to get married right away because of the baby,’ Stacey reasoned out loud.
They still had a way to go, Luc realised. Stacey had set him free, and now it was his turn to heal her, and if that took the rest of his life it was fine by him. ‘Because of you,’ he stated firmly. ‘I can’t let you get away a second time.’
‘Really?’ Her eyes widened on the most important question she’d ever ask.
