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“You need a man who’ll protect that soft heart of yours from those who’d take advantage of it, someone who’ll give you the courage and self-confidence to see how truly amazing you are. You need a man to take control in the bedroom, and to step in when needed outside of it, to ensure that you don’t get hurt. I can be that man for you. I know I can. If you’ll give me a chance.”
“Oh Duncan, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m not Fiona. And you said it yourself, she’s the love of your life.”
“No, you’re not Fiona,” he told her. “You never will be—and listen carefully—I don’t want you to be. Fiona wasn’t the love of my life. She was the love of my youth, of the man I was. You are the love of my adulthood, of the man I’ve become. I thought my heart had been buried along with her, but I was wrong. It was still in there, being put back together, piece by piece, each day that you were patient with me. I know who you are, and I want you exactly the way you are.” He smiled ruefully. “Although, if you could stop lying to me, that would be greatly appreciated.”
Her eyes welled up and a tear slid down her cheek.
“Now you know how I feel. The question is”—Duncan took a deep breath—“can you love me back?”
***
There was only one answer to that question. Duncan captured her heart the moment she’d held him on the driveway on that cold spring night. She wasn’t a woman to second-guess people when they told her things, and she saw the truth in his eyes as he lay his feelings before her. If he could take a chance on having his heart broken again, then she could take a chance on him.
“Yes.” Donna got up onto her knees, clasped Duncan’s shocked face, and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “Yes,” she said again. “I’ve loved you since that night on the drive. Maybe even before that.”
He clasped her hips and frowned. “Are you sure? There’s no taking it back mind. So make sure you’re certain.”
“I have never been more certain of anything in my life.”
He let out a little growl, clasped the back of her head, and slammed his mouth over hers. The kiss was untamed, much like the man.
When he broke away, it left them both panting. “So,” he said, “there’ll be no more talk of you leaving me?”
“No.” She kissed him again.
It took a little longer for him to stop this kiss and she moaned her complaint when he did. “No’ so fast. You’re still in trouble.”
“You’re kidding, right? Don’t we have better things to do than talk about the past?”
“Nice try, Angel,” he said.
She looked over his shoulder at the crowd of hand-drawn characters filling her bedroom. Duncan loves me, she told them in wonder.
I can’t believe you didn’t see it coming, Hermione said. I’ve known for years.
Gandalf the White nodded. Any fool could see it in the man.
I’m glad I don’t have to kill him, Katniss said. I might kill a lot of people, but I don’t actually enjoy it.
If you’re really good, Master might give you your freedom, Dobby said.
Oh, I plan to be really, really good, Donna told the house-elf. But probably not in the way Dobby meant.
Eww! Hermione snapped. Do you mind? We’re PG-rated characters!
Well done, darling, Harry Potter’s mother said. I knew it would all work out.
We need cake! Molly beamed at her before running off. I’ll get one started, she called over her shoulder.
“Donna? Are you listening to me?” Duncan said.
She looked into his handsome face and smiled. “No, I was telling my imaginary friends that you’d
come to your senses.”
His smile was a thing of beauty. “Aye, I might have at that, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still have to deal with the ball situation, and the lying, and the talent you’ve been hiding, and the fact you roped your sisters and the cook into conning me, and—”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Donna demanded, then blushed at her audacity.
