And perhaps that was something she should believe, because standing there, as the gap between them grew larger and larger, the hole in her heart began to expand, not close. The vast ache she couldn’t escape grew to a proportion she never thought possible and she did the only thing she could to survive.
She ran. “Simon!”
His footsteps faltered in the doorway to his rooms, and he turned with the slightest glimmer of hope in his eyes. She didn’t give it time to grow before she launched herself into his arms, not stopping until she was wrapped in his embrace, kissing him with all the love she possessed. He met her with a fervor she had not experienced before. It was magical, heart-healing, and glorious in its innocence, a passion grown of love never experienced by either.
Simon stumbled backward into the room and began laughing as he closed the door.
“What is so funny?”
“‘Doubt the stars are fire; Doubt the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.’”
She began untying his rumpled cravat. “Are we exchanging Shakespeare’s quotes of love now?”
“Only if you feel them as deeply as I,” he responded as he began unbuttoning his jacket and waistcoat.
“Will this be a habit of ours going forward?” She pushed his jacket and waistcoat from his shoulders as one, and he pulled them off the rest of the way.
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?”
She looked up at the gloriously hopeful look in his eyes as he wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Yes, for‘my love is deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, both, are infinite.’”
He kissed her then, his lips sealing hers with a promise of tomorrow and every day thereafter. It was nothing like the kiss William had bestowed on her when she agreed to run offto Gretna Green with him. This was more real, more earth shattering, more everything. Themoreshe’d never found before Simon.
“If only Romeo and Juliet were old enough to understand not to give up on the love they shared, they would have lived long lives of joy and happiness.” He whispered against her lips.
“You do know they were fictional?”
“Damn, I was hoping to make Romeo jealous.”
“Then let us make all the other Romeos of the world jealous.”
“With pleasure.”
She pulled at the hem of his shirt, lifting it over his head as he bent to assist her. She gazed at the muscles she had admired a few moments before through his clothing, and it was as if she was seeing him for the first time. She splayed her hand against his ribcage, tracing the lines of his muscled core with a reverence of touching a piece of art. The etching in the paper didn’t do his beauty justice. “You’ve changed since I used to bathe you.”
“I had to do something while trapped in that bed. I found sitting up and then laying down over and over exercised my stomach muscles. Then Charlie brought me the two brass footstools from the library, and I began repetitively lifting them to exercise my arms and my good leg.”
“I wondered why they were here. I understand how you used them with your arms, but how did you use those on your leg?”
He grinned that boyish grin she loved when he spoke to the children about any mischievous stories he told from his childhood. “I told my housekeeper I would buy her the best lady’s stockings available if she would allow me to have two pairs of hers for my use. I thought she was going to expire on the spot, and I had to rush to assure her my need was for my recovery. It was Charlie who explained how he was going to help me tie the stools to my leg to improve my strength. I’m not sure shecompletely believed the explanation until she came in two days later while Charlie was helping me do the lifts.”
She smiled at his tenacity but also recognized his concerted effort to distract her from where they were now seated on his bed.
“Are you certain, Caillen, because as badly as I want to make love to you, we can wait. I will wait until the end of time for you, as long as I know you are mine. I have dreamt of this since the night we met.”
“Yet you ignored me unless you were tormenting me. I didn’t understand you. I had always found you attractive, but you aggravated me so.”
He began pulling the pins from her hair, watching each curl fall with an intensity she had never seen in him. “My methods were those of a teenage boy too immature to express his desire and pursue you properly. I had never wanted to win a woman’s hand in marriage before. You were my first and, I suppose I reverted to boyish behavior.”
“You mean you’ve put them behind you now?”
“I will always want to play with you, whether we are in bed or making love by the lake at my country estate.”
She laughed in breathless outrage. “Your family is there!”
“I plan to kick them out from time to time, especially while I’m on my honeymoon.”
“We couldn’t.” Oh, but she rather liked the idea of being at Langley Castle with just him.
