AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘This,’ he said.
His kiss was soft. As soft as velvet. His lips caressed hers and she could feel her limbs dissolve, feel her heart leap. Her mouth opened to his, her arms wound around him, clinging and clinging and clinging to his strong, hard body.
Oh, dear God, it was bliss—bliss to have him kiss her again. Leon—her own Leon—the way he had before—the way he was doing now.
He tore his mouth away, his fingertips pressing into her skull, holding her, gazing down at her. His eyes were lambent.
‘This is the truth, Flavia! This is what you could never deny—and this is what absolves you! Just as the fact that you did what you did not for yourself but out of love and care for your grandmother! You couldn’t hide the truth about this—what there is between us—whatever the foul machinations of your father, whatever your sense of guilt about yourself! When you left me, and when your father had fed me his poison about you, it gutted me to think that the time we’d had together had been based on nothing more than an attempt to use my desire for you for your own venal ends! I saw you then as what I’d feared you were when I first met you—a pampered, idle female who was happy to live off her father’s wealth. On Santera I thought I’d got that completely wrong—because you truly seemed happy in such a simple place, happy only to be with me! Then afterwards I thought that was the lie—and it gutted me! Gutted me because I’d thought—’
His voice choked suddenly, and Flavia could feel her arms tightening around him instinctively, protectively.
‘I’d thought you were feeling about me what I had come to feel about you.’ His gaze, dark and glowing, poured into her. ‘But that time on Santera was true—wasn’t it? Wasn’t it? That was the true time between us—away from your father’s machinations, away from your concerns about your grandmother—just you and me together. Happy. Blissful.’ He used the word she’d used fondly, smilingly.
Lovingly.
That was what she could see in his face now. Impossible to deny—impossible to hide.
As impossible for him to hide it as it was for her …
‘I made such a mess of things,’ she whispered.
He shook his head. ‘It was an impossible situation.’ He took a
heaving breath. ‘I only wish that you had told me on Santera about what your father was truly like, about how you were the carer for your grandmother, about the way he was holding that debt over your head—I just wish you had told me all that.’
‘I didn’t dare to. I was scared you might be so angry you would call off the deal with my father, and then in revenge at my spoiling things for him he’d foreclose on that debt anyway! And my grandmother would still have lost Harford! So I didn’t dare tell you—I didn’t dare!’ She took a shaking breath. ‘And I didn’t want to tell you—didn’t want you looking at me knowing I’d let my father pimp me out to you.’
He shook her—gently but angrily. ‘You did it for your grandmother! Did you think I would condemn you for that?’
‘I was scared you might! And I didn’t want to lose what we had because … because I knew it couldn’t last. I knew I had to go back to my grandmother, that I wasn’t free to have a relationship with you. So I … I just blotted it all out, blanked it all out.’
He kissed her softly. ‘Never again. You understand me, Flavia?’ he said admonishingly. ‘From this moment on you trust me—you trust me with everything! I can’t go through again what I’ve been through—wanting you from the first moment I saw you, being endlessly rebuffed by you, then you bolting from me and leaving London the way you did, having to tread on eggshells to win you, and then—dear God—losing you again after Santera and all the hell that came afterwards. Missing you, mistrusting you, accusing you and hurting like hell every moment of that time!
‘And then the bombshell of the title deeds of your home landing on my desk! Telling me, once I’d found out from your solicitors, not just about the ruinous debt your father held over you, but about how you’d been your grandmother’s devoted carer and how recently she’d died—all that slamming into me like punches to my gut. I’d been totally, totally wrong about you, about my accusations! I set off to try and find you after you’d yet again disappeared off the map! Hell, Flavia—nothing but hell! Right up till today,’ he said feelingly, ‘when I phoned this place and finally tracked you down!’
He kissed her again. Devouringly, possessively. Wrapping her in a bear hug that enveloped her completely.
‘And now I’ve got you!’ he said. ‘And I am never, never letting you go again! So get your things and tell your boss you’re leaving. Tell her to hire as many agency staff as she needs to cover for you and send me the bill! Because I am taking you away with me right now.’
He straightened, holding her elbows, looking down at her. Then, abruptly, he frowned.
‘You’re crying,’ he said. His frown deepened. ‘Why are you crying?’
His answer was a convulsive sob, and Flavia threw herself into his arms again. He held her as she cried, weeping out the tears inside her, weeping out all the guilt that had racked her for so, so long. Held her and soothed her, his strong, protective palms smoothing down her back, his lips brushing her eyelids. When all the tears were shed he kissed her again gently, so gently.
‘All done?’ he asked, his eyes as soft as his voice.
She nodded. All she was capable of doing.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’
He led her towards the door, taking her hand. She would go with him to the ends of the earth now, and never leave him again.
Gratitude, wonder—love—filled her like light pouring through a window.
‘Where to?’ she asked, gazing lovingly up at him.
He smiled down at her. ‘Where do you think?’ He paused to kiss her nose. ‘I’ve recently become the extremely satisfied owner of an exceptionally beautifully country house.’ He paused again, this time to brush her lips with his. ‘I think you’ll like it,’ he said. ‘It’s a place filled with love—a place where a beautiful, brave girl once lived. She did the wrong thing for the right reason and then found it was the right thing after all. And as her reward—’ he smiled ‘—she got to live there happily ever after …’
