‘I never stopped,’ Briony confessed, nuzzling his shoulder. ‘I told myself I had, but I was lying. When Marian told me what had really happened, and I knew that you had loved me, I could think only of that, I thought if I let you see how I felt, we could overcome the past, but I’d forgotten that you too would be bitter.…’
‘And so you gave yourself to me like a sea sacrifice,’ Kieron said gently, ‘and I tormented you, spurning your precious gift.…’ His lips brushed her ear. ‘Would the sea give me a second chance, do you suppose?’
In the darkness, Briony stared at him. ‘You mean.…’
‘I mean a re-enactment of the sea god’s gift, but this time, my darling, I promise you it will be properly received. Not now, but when you feel that you can trust yourself entirely to me, when you have truly forgiven me, we can wipe out the bitterness of the past and.…Where are you going?’ he demanded harshly as she slid off the bed.
She paused and smiled mischievously over her shoulder, pure Eve, and deliberately tantalising.
‘Where do you think?’ she said provocatively. ‘I suddenly have this strange desire to swim.’
The look in Kieron’s eyes as he reached for her assured her beyond any doubt how he felt about her, even before she heard his husky words of love.
‘For ever, and for always,’ he assured her shudderingly as he lifted her hands to kiss the soft palms in tender worship.
‘As I love you,’ Briony murmured unsteadily.
All at once she couldn’t wait to be on the beach, the same tide that drove the sea eternally against the shore rising slowly inside her. Her hands trembled in Kieron’s, the glow in her eyes lighting an answering fire in his, and with a sudden prescience she knew that tonight she would conceive the child which would be Nicky’s brother—or sister.
A faint smile curved her lips. A gift not from the gods, but from her husband—a gift of life; a gift of love.
* * * * *
More than a Convenient Marriage?
Dani Collins
CHAPTER ONE
GIDEON VOZARAS USED all his discipline to keep his foot light on the accelerator as he followed the rented car, forcing himself to maintain an unhurried pace along the narrow island road while he gripped the wheel in white-knuckled fists. When the other car parked outside the palatial gate of an estate, he pulled his own rental onto the shoulder a discreet distance back then stayed in his vehicle to see if the other driver noticed. As he cut the engine, the AC stopped. Heat enveloped him.
Welcome to hell.