Phoebe jerked to a halt and her heart began to bang around so wildly she feared it might leap out of her chest. ‘You were going to come back?’ Was it too much to hope that he’d been planning to return for her? ‘Why?’ she said shakily.
‘I came here to escape. It hasn’t worked.’
He stopped in front of her and Phoebe began to tremble. ‘Escape from what?’
‘The way I feel about you.’
‘How do you feel about me?’ she breathed, and time seemed to stand still as if aware of how much hung on his answer.
He searched her features and brushed a clump of hair from her face. ‘I love you. So I don’t just want an affair. I want everything.’
For a moment Phoebe went dizzy and then her chest filled with such happiness that she didn’t think she’d be able to contain it. Without warning tears sprang up from nowhere and began to spill down her cheeks.
‘Why are you crying?’ he murmured, gently wiping them away with his thumbs. ‘Is the fact that I love you really that appalling?’
‘It’s not appalling at all.’ She sniffed, giving him a watery smile. ‘It’s the loveliest thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘That’s better.’
‘You really love me?’
‘I do.’
‘Even like this?’ She pointed to her red-nosed, puffy-eyed, bedraggled self.
Alex laughed softly. ‘Any way you come. I should have told you I loved you the last time I saw you.’ The laughter faded from his eyes. ‘I just want you, Phoebe. All of you. For ever.’
Phoebe closed the gap between them and ran her hands up his chest to hold his face. ‘You have me. Everything I have, everything I am, it’s yours. I love you too. So much. When I think about you… Out there…’
She shook and Alex wrapped her in his arms. ‘Don’t think,’ he said, capturing her mouth in a sizzling kiss filled with love and promise. His heart beat in time with hers, and as she felt a smile spread throughout her body Phoebe wondered what she’d done to deserve this much happiness.
‘You’re still thinking,’ he said, lifting his head a fraction and arching an eyebrow.
‘I am. Want to know what about?’ she murmured as the familiar beat of desire began to unfurl inside her.
‘What?’
Phoebe wound her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. ‘I’m thinking we should get out of these wet things.’