‘Honestly?’
‘Honestly,’ he said, his heart thumping in his chest.
‘I want to be with you but I’ve never wanted to get married,’ Candy admitted. ‘I just don’t want the big white wedding that my parents would insist on. I don’t want to be standing there in a fluffy white dress pregnant with twins...’
‘And you’d have to say your name out loud in a packed church,’ he pointed out. ‘And I’m a divorced heathen...’ Then he smiled. ‘We’re in Hawaii, Candy. We can be married tomorrow, if that’s what you want. I know it will upset your parents but I think they will be pleased as well.’
She started to smile.
‘Is that a yes?’ he checked. ‘I’m starting to get worried here.’
‘It’s a very big yes,’ she said. ‘But won’t your parents be disappointed to miss it?’ Candy asked. After all, he was their only child.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘and I’ll be tempted to point out that they missed most of my milestone events growing up, but I shan’t do that, of course. They’ll soon get over it, especially when they hear about the twins.’
They were back at the villa, all their lists checked and sorted. She loved their honesty, how they just spoke and worked it all out. ‘We dealt with that very maturely.’ Candy grinned in delight as she congratulated them.
‘Oh, I can assure you that I don’t feel very mature today,’ Steele said. ‘In fact, I want to do something very immature.’
He handed her the phone with a text from Annie, asking him if he’d had a think about her suggestion.
‘This came through when I landed,’ Steele explained. ‘Can I?’
‘Go on.’ She smiled and watched as he started to type out a text.
There’s nothing to think about or discuss. I am in Hawaii with Candy and we’re about to get married. She’s pregnant with twins, which means that she’s very moody and volatile at the moment, so it’s probably better that you don’t text again. Regards, Steele.
He hit ‘send’ and with that he let go of the past and moved into the glorious future.
‘You lied to me, though,’ she said as they stepped into the villa and he took her in his arms.
‘Never.’
‘Yes, you did,’ Candy said, and wrapped her hands around his neck. ‘You said that the money you gave me had been lying around for five years, but it was only printed two years ago.’
Steele merely smiled at being caught. ‘That’s because I didn’t want you worrying about taking food from your babies’ mouths as you looked at that fantastic, sexy sarong.’ He stroked her thick nipples through the fabric, and then he ran a tender hand over her stomach and his hand told her how sexy the changes were to him.
His kiss told her that too.
Her fabulous sarong dropped to the floor and Steele undressed with rapid ease.
The only thing missing from her perfect holiday had been her perfect man and now here he was, making love to her.
The doubts, the hesitation about whether or not he should intrude on her time here, were put to rest as he entered her. She wrapped herself around him, moved her body with his and held nothing back.
‘I love you so much,’ Candy said as she started to come.
No question, no hesitation, they both knew how precious the love they had was. Steele felt the roundness of her stomach press into his and he wanted to say he loved her back but she dragged him in so deep that all he could do was moan.
‘I love you too,’ he said afterwards as they lay there.
‘You’ve still got red toenails.’ She smiled as she looked at his feet next to hers.
‘I was too embarrassed to buy nail-varnish remover,’ he said. ‘We’ll need it if we’re getting married on the beach.’
‘Or not.’
‘Oh, no.’ Steele shook his head. ‘We’re getting it filmed for our families and a photo for Macey. I don’t want everyone wondering if I’m secretly wearing your underwear.’
‘Are we going to live in Kent?’ Candy asked.
‘We are,’ Steele said. ‘My offer’s been accepted for that house. I wanted to ask you to marry me there,’ he said. ‘My plan was to do that when we looked through the house, except you chose not to come in.’