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She could hardly believe the urgency in his loving demand. It seemed like a dream when Maya had more than half expected him to reject her all over again after he heard about the baby. She was gratified that he had at last told her why he had let her walk away. Not because he didn’t want her…but because he was afraid if he properly committed to a relationship he might end up hurting her physically, just like his father had done to his mother. She could understand how having a fear like that must have haunted him.
The weeks without him had been some of the most despairing Maya had ever spent. All she’d been able to do was think about him, remembering with longing how passionately they had made love and aching down to the very marrow in her bones to see him again. Her yearning had been multiplied when she’d found out she was carrying his child. Now he had asked her to marry him, and there really was only one answer she could give him.
‘I love you, Blaise…I’m not a bit afraid that you would ever hurt me or our child, and of course I’ll marry you.’
‘Wait here.’
‘Why?’
She watched in vague alarm as he swiftly left the room. Seconds later she heard the front door open. With her heart helplessly knocking against her ribs, Maya waited anxiously for his return. When he came, he was carrying something square, carefully wrapped in brown paper. He placed it into her hands. The rain had dampened his hair again, and she longed to thread her fingers through the thick gold strands and bring his face down to hers for a long, lingering kiss. Stifling the urge, she stared at the package he’d given her.
‘Open it. It’s for you,’ he urged softly. ‘Think of it as an early wedding present.’
Carefully tearing some of the paper packaging away, Maya gasped when she saw what it was…her portrait. Confused as well as elated, she caught her lip between her teeth to stop her emotion from overwhelming her. ‘You bought the portrait…to give to me?’
‘I knew something had happened when I saw it was up for sale. You would never have sold it unless there was some absolutely compelling reason.’ Relieving her of the picture, Blaise laid it against the couch and came straight back to her. ‘There’s only one place where that portrait belongs, and that’s with you, sweetheart.’
Reaching out, Maya put her hands against his chest, her expression wide-eyed and shocked.
‘But you paid a fortune for it, Blaise! So much money that just the thought of it makes my head spin!’
‘If I’d spent ten thousand times that amount it wouldn’t be as valuable as you are to me, my darling.’
‘I don’t know what to say…I’m so overwhelmed that I think I’m going to—’
Blaise’s lips covered hers, his tongue slipping hotly into her mouth. He pressed her body close into his even as the tears in her eyes spilled over onto her cheeks. Crying and kissing him at the same time, Maya knew her heart was so full she could hardly comprehend so much joy was possible. Her legs went weak as a newborn lamb’s as his deepening kiss and hungrily searching hands on her body made her melt and yearn and ache to hold him closer, without the barrier of clothing.
As if reading her mind, he suddenly scooped an arm behind her back and lifted her up into his arms, his extraordinary eyes hazy with longing, his well-cut lips quirking in a teasing, provocative grin that made Maya dissolve inside even more.
‘As much as I love them, and earn my living by them, I think the time for words has definitely passed, don’t you? Where’s the bedroom, my darling wife-to-be?’
