Beth shrugged. It all seemed so stupid now. She didn’t care about Pete any more, or what he’d said. ‘She wanted to take him out and shoot him.’
He chuckled. ‘I knew there was something I liked about Marcie.’ He stilled again. ‘Tell me what he said, Beth.’
‘He said that his mother had had a long talk with him, told him about all the difficulties and how it wasn’t fair on him to expect him to have to look after me and a disabled child.’
‘And he listened to her?’
‘Yes. He dumped me just before Christmas, last year.’
Rage flared in his eyes and then died again. ‘Beth. You can’t think…Tell me you don’t think that what he did was anything other than cruel madness.’
She shrugged. ‘I am deaf, Matt. There’s no getting around that.’
‘So what? You don’t see that as a disability.’
‘No, but—’
‘If this Pete character did, then he’s the one that’s disabled. He’s disabled because he couldn’t see the richness of your culture, and all the other things that make you special. Any child is a blessing, but your children…Beth, your children would be like you. Talented. Beautiful. Compassionate.’ Matt stopped for breath. ‘I can give you the full list, but it may take a while.’
She was laughing through her tears. ‘Yes, but when it’s your own child…’
‘Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said, Beth? If my child was anything like you, I’d count myself blessed. The only thing that Pete did right was to leave, otherwise you’d be married to him now, and I wouldn’t have had a chance with you.’ He was almost pleading with her. Begging her to understand, to believe what he said.
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‘You mean you want a chance?’ Beth still couldn’t quite trust that she’d heard him right.
‘Yes. I don’t deserve one, but I’m going to ask anyway. You can send me away if you want to but, please, whatever you do, do it because of me. Not anyone else.’
Beth had pulled her hands away from his grasp and he sat back a little. She was going to send him away. If she did, it would kill him, but he’d go all the same. If his heart was going to shrivel and die, it was only right that it should be at her hands.
‘What happens if I ask you to stay?’ She was nervous, hesitant.
‘I tell you I love you. That I want us both to put the past behind us and start fighting for a different kind of future. If I’m lucky, then one day, I’ll win you round.’
She was worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth and suddenly she broke into a smile. ‘What about today?’ She looked at her watch and then her gaze slid back up to his face, half shy, half coquettish. ‘You have a couple of hours. That should be enough.’
Almost before the words were out of her mouth, he was on his feet, catching his shin on the coffee table as he went. An empty mug smashed unheeded on the bare floorboards, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her up.
She almost knocked him off his feet in her eagerness to be close to him. Matt crushed her in his arms, a soft, sweet-smelling confection of everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Holding back from kissing her as long as he could, just to enjoy the moment, he felt her hands on the back of his neck, dragging him towards her. She only had time to whisper his name once before he silenced her, pressing his mouth onto hers like a drowning man, cleaving to his only source of air.
He gave her everything. His strength, his passion and all his weakness and doubt. And she took all he had to give, meeting his need for her and responding with an intensity that left him dizzy with longing. There was only one thing that he wanted, and that was the woman that he had in his arms. The closer the better. For as long as humanly possible Her kisses were everything, but they couldn’t fully slake his need for her. All of the nights he had spent alone, before and after Mariska’s death, had never seemed lonely. But this one would surely kill him if he couldn’t share it with Beth. ‘Please, Beth. Will you let me stay?’
‘Yes.’
He kissed her again. ‘I want to…’ He couldn’t find the words and so he let actions speak for him, finding the top button of her blouse and tugging at it gently.
‘Tell me.’
He wasn’t sure how clearly she would hear him if he whispered in her ear so he cradled her face in his hands, facing her. Whispering was overrated. It was so much more sensual to have her look into his face and to see the emotions in hers as he told her exactly what he wanted.
A shiver of delight shook her body, and she pressed into him, her fingers straining at the threads of his shirt. The urge to get rid of everything that separated them was overwhelming and he pulled at her blouse, sending buttons skittering across the floor. She gasped, and tried to drag the shirt from his back, giving a little huff of impatience when it wouldn’t come.
‘Wait. You can do that soon enough.’ He picked her up, trying to stop his own limbs from shaking as much as hers were, and carried her upstairs.
Beth woke early, wrapped in the warmth of his body with the regular rise and fall of his chest against hers. Even the air seemed to shimmer with echoes of everything they’d done together last night. Carefully she disentangled herself from his arms, shivering at the cool touch of the sheets at the edge of the bed, and pulled on a warm dressing gown.
She felt rather than heard him stir behind her. Turning, she saw his lips move.