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‘But Lila has her miracle—and her miracle is not just her escape from the prison of her wheelchair. It is Armand. As mine …’ her voice wavered ‘… as mine is you.’
She kissed his hand again, and folded it to her, then reached to kiss his mouth.
Love was in her lips.
Her gaze.
And happiness such as she could not believe was in her heart, and in her soul.
He cupped her cheek and smiled at her.
‘I would marry you this minute, this hour, this very day. I love you so much, mignonne. But let us give your sister and my brother their celebration together—we will not steal their thunder. We will dance at their wedding, and they—’ he smiled again ‘—they will dance at ours. But I c
annot wait until then, mon amour, to make you mine again.’
He nodded down towards the base of the gardens. ‘My stepfather keeps a launch at the villa’s private mooring, just below. We do not need to put in an appearance again here for quite a few hours. So I was thinking—’
Lissa looked at him.
‘It’s a fast launch,’ said Xavier. ‘It would get us back in time for the party tonight.’
‘Back from where?’
But she knew. Knew exactly where Xavier wanted to take her. And where she longed to go.
He drew her to her feet. His eyes were glinting suddenly, and just as suddenly her knees were as weak as jelly.
‘Where we found our happiness,’ he told her. ‘And where,’ he said, ‘we’ll have our honeymoon.’ He frowned momently. ‘Are you content with such a simple destination? My villa on the Île Ste Marie? Or do you want to go somewhere else?’
She shook her head. ‘I only want you,’ she said. ‘Wherever in the world you are.’
‘And I you. All my life.’
He pressed a kiss upon her mouth to seal their vow, and then, with mutual, unspoken haste, they headed down to the sea, and to their life and their love together.
WILLINGLY BEDDED,
FORCIBLY WEDDED
MELANIE MILBURNE
About the Author
MELANIE MILBURNE says: “One of the greatest joys of being a writer is the process of falling in love with the characters and then watching as they fall in love with each other. I am an absolutely hopeless romantic. I fell in love with my husband on our second date, and we even had a secret engagement, so you see it must have been destined for me to be a Harlequin Mills and Boon author! The other great joy of being a romance writer is hearing from readers. You can hear all about the other things I do when I’m not writing, and even drop me a line, at: www.melaniemilburne.com.au.”
To Jan Heyward-Casey
There can be no more beautiful person working in
the beauty industry than you.
Thank you for all of your support—you wax my
worries away both literally and figuratively!
Love you heaps!
CHAPTER ONE
