From somewhere she managed to dredge up the necessary will-power.
‘I realise you are speaking out of some misguided sense of responsibility and…and duty, Dominic,’ she told him. ‘But—’
‘It wasn’t responsibility that made me want you in my bed the other night,’ Dominic interrupted her trenchantly. ‘And, forgive me if I’m being ungallant, I don’t think it was duty that kept you there either.’
‘That’s not fair,’ Annie gasped in outrage. ‘What happened then was…was…’
‘Was what?’ Dominic encouraged her softly. ‘Or shall I tell you what it was?’ When she made no answer he continued in a sexy whisper, ‘What happened then was what nature designed us to have happen, my Annie. What happened then was…’
She tensed as his voice dropped even lower.
‘I’ve never stopped loving you and I don’t think that you’ve ever stopped loving me. Consciously you may have forgotten me, pushed me to the back of your mind, but deep down inside you couldn’t forget…Deep down inside you, your love, like mine, couldn’t be extinguished. We owe it to the baby to give ourselves…our love…another chance, Annie.’
‘No.’ Immediately she shook her head in denial.
For a moment Dominic was silent, and then, just as she thought he was going to accept her denial of him and turn away, he cupped her face and said, so gently that it made her heart turn over inside her body, ‘Do you know what I think? I think that you’re afraid to…’
‘I’m not afraid of anything,’ Annie denied quickly. ‘I can manage by myself, Dominic. I don’t need…’
‘…me?’ he finished quietly for her. ‘Maybe you don’t, Annie. But this…’ He touched her tummy gently. ‘Our son or our daughter does. We both know what it’s like to grow up alone, isolated…feeling different…feeling unloved…’
‘My baby will be loved,’ Annie insisted stiffly. ‘I shall love it. You can’t make me stay here, Dominic. You can’t make me stay married to you.’
As he searched her face she instinctively turned away, trying to hide herself from him. He had been right when he accused her of being afraid—not that she would ever admit it to him. She was afraid…very afraid. How could she take the risk of believing him?
‘No, I can’t make you stay,’ he agreed heavily as he released her.
What had she expected? What had she wanted? For him to physically hold onto her?
Without looking at him she edged round the kitchen door and then fled into the hallway, where she had left her things.
‘I’ve never stopped loving you,’ he had said. But how could she believe him? How could she be sure he wasn’t just saying it to protect their child?
The door to Dominic’s study stood open. Impulsively she tiptoed inside. The room was empty, the curtains blowing in the breeze. A piece of paper had been blown down onto the floor. Automatically she bent to pick it up, and then froze as she replaced it on the desk. In the half-open drawer she could see a photograph frame. Carefully she picked it up, studying the five-year-old photograph. It was her and Dominic on their wedding day. She remembered how Dominic had insisted that they had the photo taken. Tears filled her eyes, her fingertips trembling as she pressed them against the cool glass.
She had been so happy that day, so filled with joy and love. Dominic had, in truth, been her perfect lover, her dream hero…her love…But he was five years older now, and a different person. They were both different people. Different outwardly, perhaps, but inside, their emotions…their love…
She could feel the pain turning and twisting inside her. But if she gave in to Dominic now how would she ever know if he really wanted her?
Quickly she replaced the photograph, and then closed the window before walking back into the hallway and picking up her bags.
Her keys in one hand and her bags in the other, she opened the front door and looked towards her car.
Dominic! What on earth…? She swallowed hard, and then blinked. Dominic was standing beside her car, a heavy bag at his feet.
‘If you won’t live with me, my Annie, then I’m just going to have to live with you,’ Dominic told her simply. ‘Where you go—I go. There isn’t any way there’s going to be another disappearing act.’
‘You can’t do this,’ Annie protested thickly. ‘You don’t want me…it’s just because of the baby…’
‘Really? Is that what you think?’ Dominic asked her politely, so politely and so calmly that Annie was taken off guard. He dropped his case and came striding towards her, saying softly, ‘Well, I’ll just have to prove to you how wrong you are, won’t I?’
She had left it too late to turn and run. ‘Dominic,’ she protested. ‘No. You mustn’t…your leg…’ But the remainder of her denial was lost against the softness of his shirt as he swept her up into his arms and strode through the house with her and up the stairs.
‘It was in this room, this bed, that we made love as only lovers can,’ he whispered softly to her as he laid her on it. ‘This bed where I showed you just how much I love you Annie. It was here, too, that you showed me your love—told me of it.’
‘That was five years ago,’ she protested sharply. ‘And…’
‘No. I don’t mean then,’ Dominic denied, smiling dangerously at her as he reminded her, ‘Our child was conceived in this bed…the night you told me I was your dream lover come true, the night you told me how much—’
‘No!’ Annie protested weakly, covering her ears, her face hot with self-consciousness.
‘Yes,’ Dominic insisted thickly as he took advantage of her occupied hands to cup her face and look down into her eyes. ‘Both of us have unhappy memories…fears and doubts. But what we really feel for one another…Give yourself to me now,’ he whispered to her, ‘and then tell me if you dare that you don’t love me…that you don’t feel my love for you, that you and I don’t have a future together.’
‘Please don’t do this,’ Annie begged painfully. ‘I don’t want…’
‘You don’t want what?’ Dominic asked her gently. ‘You don’t want this?’
She moaned beneath her breath as he kissed her and her resistance started to melt. She could feel the heat of her own desire licking through he
r veins, her flesh.
‘You don’t want me?’ Dominic pressed as his tongue twined with hers and her body arched tautly against him. ‘Or this…?’
He was nibbling at the vulnerable column of her throat, his hands stroking at her skin—her bare skin, Annie realised fatalistically as he skilfully swept away her clothes along with her inhibitions.
‘You’re a magician…a warlock…’ she told him resentfully, her voice as clouded with her emotions as her eyes, her body already heavily languorous with her love and longing.
‘I’m a man,’ Dominic corrected, adding possessively, ‘And you’re my woman, my Annie. My love, my only love…’
She heard him groan as she felt the hot satin of his bare body against her own, felt him shudder as his need convulsed him.
‘I love you so much,’ he told her. ‘Please, please love me in return. You’re my life, my love…my past, my present and my future, Annie. Without you…’
His mouth brushed her nipples, taut and tender now with her desire for him, and she cried out, unable to resist the temptation to move closer to him, to wrap her arms around him and hold him captive against her body…within her body…She felt the ecstatic ripple of pleasure flow through her as he entered her, so gently, and she knew he was deliberately holding himself back because of the baby…their baby…
When she started to cry he licked away her tears, holding her, comforting her, telling her that she was crying away her pain, and suddenly she knew that it was true. She could almost feel the tide of her emotions turning, the happiness and the love flowing back through her body. Dream lovers were all very well in their way, but this was reality, and the reality was…the reality was…
‘Mmm?’ Dominic encouraged as he realised she was trying to speak.
‘I love you,’ Annie sighed mundanely, but to Dominic the simple words were as powerful as the most passionate love prose that had ever been written.