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‘So you turned to Stephen instead.’
She blushed. ‘He was…comfortable. I thought that was what I wanted.’
‘And what do you want now?’
With love. She made the final leap of trust. ‘You.’
Joy made his eyes very blue. ‘I was ready for you,’ he told her quietly. ‘I’ve been ready now for a long, long time, Kalera. Much longer than you imagine. I knew you felt you had betrayed Harry by asking me to make love to you, but I didn’t feel guilty. I loved it. And, hell, I figured Harry owed me that much…’
‘Owed you for what? I thought Harry was your friend.’
‘Harry was my friend because he felt sorry for me.’
She was stunned. ‘Sorry for you?’
He smoothed her hair gently back from her forehead. ‘He knew that you loved him and he felt sorry for me because he knew how I felt about you. Don’t ask me how, since you never had a clue, but he did. But he didn’t come the heavy husband or warn me off—oh, no, not Harry. After that party of yours when you and I danced on the balcony he rang to offer me a round of golf, even though he knew I didn’t play. He knew I’d accept, you see—he knew I’d be curious about Kalera’s husband.
‘I wanted him to be an insensitive bastard who didn’t deserve you, but he wasn’t, he was a bloody nice guy. He was utterly secure in who he was. It didn’t matter to him that I was better educated, richer, brighter and better-looking than he was—he knew he had the one supreme advantage that I could never top: you loved him. So he made a friend of me when most men would have shunned me as a potential enemy.
‘And do you know what else he did?’ His voice softened with awe. ‘He trusted me. He trusted me not to do what he knew I wanted with my whole heart and soul to do…seduce his wife and take her away from him for ever. I wanted you to love me, not him, to wear my ring with the pride that you wore his, to have my babies…’
‘Oh, Duncan—’ Her throat thickened with love.
‘I loved him for that, Kalera,’ he said proudly. ‘For giving me back the honour that Stephen stole from me. And I loved him because you found him worthy of love…because what you love I love.’
‘You obviously love yourself very much, then,’ she teased tenderly, knowing now that there was emotional security to be found even in loving a turbulent man of extremes. ‘But then I always knew you were a dreadful egotist!’
‘I was beginning to think I’d never hear you admit you loved me,’ he gloated, running his hands over her slender body, and arousing her all over again. ‘I hope I’m not going to wake up to find this is just another dream…’
‘But it is,’ she told him. ‘You’re my for ever dream, and I’ll never stop believing in you…and in us…’
