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Laughing, Bryan pulled her more snugly into his arms, nuzzling her temple. “Why didn’t you ever take me there before?”
She opened her eyes to look somberly at him. “I didn’t think you would be interested. And I didn’t want to face memories of you at the last place in my life you hadn’t touched. I thought it would hurt too much when you were gone.”
He shook his head. “You had so little faith in me.”
“Can you blame me?”
“No,” he said with a sigh. “Jason helped me understand why you found it hard to trust me at first. You do believe me now that I never loved Chloe, don’t you? I only kissed her a couple of times, and I always had the unsettling feeling that I was kissing a cousin or a sister. It never would have gone any further, no matter what I thought at the time.”
“I know. I can’t blame you for wanting to love her, though. Chloe is very special.”
“Chloe is no more special than you are,” he said firmly. “I don’t know where you got a different idea, but it’s wrong.”
She smiled and kissed him. “Thank you. And I do believe you, by the way. I’m not jealous of you and Chloe. I know you never cared about her this way. You never pretended to love her. And you aren’t pretending to love me. You really do, heaven help you.”
He grinned and settled her comfortably on top of him. “I really do.”
She was already making some experimental moves—maybe she had a little energy left,
after all—when he spoke again. “Grace?”
Looking up from the nipple she’d been circling with her tongue, she asked distractedly, “Mmm?”
“Do you want to sing? Professionally, I mean, with a recording contract and everything. Because, if you do…”
“You would arrange it for me,” she finished, shaking her head. “I don’t want to sing professionally, Bryan. I’m a shopkeeper who likes to sing as an occasional sideline. Maybe I’ll sing more now that you’ve unmasked me, as it were, but I have no desire to tour or spend hours in a recording studio or anything like that—even if I were good enough to make it in that cutthroat business, which I doubt.”
He looked as though he would have argued that point, but she didn’t give him the chance.
“We’ll make our adventures together,” she assured him. “I think you’re going to find it as challenging to be married to me as I will to be Bryan Falcon’s wife. Because I’m not going to change who I am—I couldn’t change even if I wanted to. But I think we’re up to the test, don’t you?”
His hands moved eagerly on her, drawing her back down to him. “I am definitely up to it,” he assured her.
She smiled against his lips. Somehow, she thought that old familiar trapped feeling was gone for good now. Bryan’s love had freed her. Just as she had freed him from the baggage he had carried from his own past, the fears and insecurities he hadn’t realized he had when it came to love.
It was going to be a very interesting ride, she decided happily. And it was going to last a lifetime.
