She couldn’t imagine Dan acting that way. He had always put her first and centre stage. Her brothers too. But there had also been space for her to become her own person.
‘It did. I’ve never done drugs, but I guess it was like a high. And I was hooked. Like you said, I became obsessed. It was all I thought about.’
She stared at him. ‘I don’t remember you being like that when we met. I don’t remember talking about work at all.’
‘That’s because when I met you it was like being born again. Nothing before you mattered. I was completely smitten. I actually thought I was going mad because you were always in my head. I could always hear your voice, see your face.’
His eyes rested on her face, dark, steady, blinking.
‘Normally when I met a woman even before she opened her mouth, I knew who she was. But with you I felt like I was trying to catch a kite by the tail. You were this beautiful wild girl, riding bareback, and every moment I spent with you was a breath of mountain air.’
Delphi stared at him without blinking. Her heart felt as if it was on fire. For so many weeks she had pushed away those memories. Now, though, they broke through like a river bursting its banks.
‘I felt the same way. It was as if my whole life up till then had been lived in a gale. I was always fighting just to keep on my feet. And then you came along. It was like the wind dropped and I didn’t need to struggle any more, because you were there, and everything was so calm and quiet and safe.’
Omar lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it softly. ‘I’m so sorry I hurt you. It makes me ashamed, thinking about how I behaved when you’ve gone through so much. So much loss. So much pain. I’ve lost nothing. I had no right to feel like I did. To do what I did to you.’
‘You were lost. That’s not nothing.’
Around them, the noise of the creek was fading. The stevedores and the fishermen were just blurred figures, moving as if through water. The cacophony of language and dialects was a faint hum. It was just the two of them now.
His dark eyes rested on her face. ‘But then I found you, and I wanted to be everything to you. I wanted to be your everything. Only I knew you were holding things back. Dan told me to be patient. That you weren’t the kind of woman I could put reins on. But I didn’t listen. I just kept pushing and pushing you... Only then I pushed you too far and you left.’
She breathed out shakily. ‘After London, I just gave up. But I was wrong to leave. I should have stayed and told you how I was feeling. I should have told you that I needed you. That I loved you.’
His dark eyes reached into her, holding her still. ‘And what about now? What are your feelings now?’
Tears were running down her face. ‘They haven’t changed. I still love you.’
More even than she had before, because now she knew the real man she was loving.
‘And I love you.’
For a moment, neither of them could speak. Then Omar cleared his throat. ‘I want to kiss you so badly, only I’m not sure I could stop at kissing you, and I don’t want to end up breaking any public decency laws.’
The huskiness in his voice as much as his words made her pulse leap. ‘Maybe we should head back home.’
The corner of his mouth lifted, and his gaze, so full of love, reached inside her. As much a part of her as her love was a part of him.
‘There’s no maybe about it.’