‘I’ve just been to Tom’s place,’ he drawled. ‘But there was no sign of him. His next door neighbour told me he was away, on his honeymoon!’
She finished unpacking and put her shopping basket away, not commenting. Randal’s grey eyes had a dangerous glitter.
‘I thought maybe you’d changed your mind and married him after all!’
‘No,’ she calmly answered, and his eyes flashed like lightning.
Moving with pantherish grace and speed, he caught hold of her, pushed her up against the wall, holding her there with his own body, forcing her to confront him.
‘Don’t try to be funny!’
‘I wasn’t. You asked if I’d married Tom, I said no; that’s all!’
‘I was out of my mind,’ Randal grated. Inches away, his face was white with rage. ‘I couldn’t be sure you wouldn’t do anything so stupid! I just don’t understand you. But I was terrified you might have done it just to get away from me.’
r />
Her heart crashed like a burning plane. She couldn’t breathe properly, couldn’t meet his probing, furious eyes.
‘You promised me you’d be at the hotel when Johnny and I got back from the riding stables,’ he accused. ‘But the minute we’d left you packed and went. They told me at Reception. Why? Why did you run away again? You said you liked Johnny, and I know you want me…’
‘No,’ she denied. ‘That’s the point. I don’t.’
‘Liar.’ He caught her face between his hands and kissed her hotly, sensuously, making her legs give way under her. ‘Do I have to show you all over again? I’ll make love to you in here, on the floor, if I have to. You want me. Admit it.’
‘That’s just sex,’ she huskily conceded.
‘Call it what you like. You want me. I can have you any time I feel like it.’
‘How dare you?’ she angrily broke out. ‘I’m not some bimbo you can just…’ She stopped, so insulted she couldn’t get another word out.
‘I didn’t say you were! You may call it sex, but we both know it’s love. That’s what we feel for each other. So why do you keep running away?’
She closed her eyes, a sob forming in her throat, salty tears welling behind her lids.
‘I can’t take the risk!’
‘What risk?’ he impatiently insisted.
‘Of getting hurt. Last time I nearly died of misery; it was months before I got over losing you. Now I’m afraid of…oh, of everything. How I feel, what might happen if I do marry you, getting hurt again if it doesn’t work out between us, the future—everything!’
He put his warm mouth on her wet eyes, kissed them gently, slid his mouth down her cheeks, whispering between kisses, ‘I didn’t realise you were such a coward. Pippa, darling, I love you and I want to be with you for ever. Do you want to be with me? And don’t lie this time. Tell the truth. Do you want to be with me for the rest of our lives?’
She made a wailing noise, keeping her eyes shut. ‘Don’t ask…’
His mouth touched hers gently. ‘I am asking. Tell me the truth. Do you love me? Do you want to be with me for ever?’
She drew breath, shuddering, then took the final terrifying leap into the truth. ‘Yes. Yes.’
He drew her even closer, held her, his mouth against her hair, rocking her as if she was a baby.
‘I love you. Say it too.’
‘Yes,’ she groaned. ‘I love you. I love you.’
And felt the fear and tension draining out of her body. She had been afraid of love all this time, afraid of giving herself, of getting hurt, afraid of life itself.
Now she wasn’t; she never would be again. She wound her arms around his neck and gave herself up to him, kissing him passionately, with unleashed desire.