Sofie drew in a ragged breath, her lips trembling as tears started to her eyes. ‘I know. And you are mine. I love you.’ Suddenly they were the easiest three words to say.
His smile broadened and he laughed huskily. ‘You chose the strangest place to tell me. I want to kiss you, but I think we’re about to be rescued ourselves,’ he added, and in the distance they could hear the sound of sirens heading their way.
It turned out that a passing motorist had witnessed the incident and had telephoned the police and rescue services. There were a lot of questions and explanations over the following few hours but, at the end of it, Lucas and Sofie were allowed to go home. Lucas had phoned ahead to tell his grandmother that they were both all right, which was all Tom needed to know. He was waiting outside for them when Lucas finally drove them home in Eleanor’s car.
‘Mummy! Daddy! Did you hear the police cars?’ he shouted excitedly, and Lucas swept him up into his arms.
‘We sure did,’ he responded, tickling him until he was giggling. ‘There was an accident along the road,’ he added, exchanging a knowing look with Sofie over their son’s head.
‘Did the man find his dog?’ Tom persisted, and Sofie reached up to brush hair out of his eyes.
‘The dog was OK, darling. Everything is OK now,’ she told him, and hoped that it was, for she knew she still had a lot of explaining to do. Which was why she turned to Eleanor. ‘Would you mind looking after Tom again? I want to talk to Lucas.’
‘Not at all. We have great plans for a new race track. Come along, Tom. Let’s see if we can’t make it super-duper.’ She held out her hand to him and when Lucas set him down he went off happily with the old lady.
‘So,’ Lucas said, when they were alone, ‘where do you want to start?’
Sofie drew in a deep breath. ‘Let’s walk this way,’ she suggested, and they slowly began to walk down through the garden. After a while they found a seat in a sheltered spot and sat down on it, whilst Sofie tried to get her thoughts in order.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about this man…Gary?’ Lucas asked after a while, and she shook her head sadly.
‘Gary Benson. I said nothing because I thought he had gone. He’d been stalking me since I met him in college, and would come and go. I’d not seen him until he turned up in one of our wedding photos.’
‘Ah,’ Lucas said softly. ‘Yes, I remember.’
Sofie quickly told him about Gary turning up at the house the same day, and how she had sent him off. ‘He was angrier than I’d ever seen him but, when I saw nothing more of him, I thought he had finally taken the hint.’ She paused and took a deep breath. ‘Then, whilst you were away, the photos arrived.’
Lucas sat up straighter, turning in his seat so he could watch her. ‘The photos of me with another woman?’
She nodded. ‘I had no idea Gary had sent them. I thought it was just someone at your office who had a grudge against you,’ she explained, meeting his eyes and seeing the concern there. ‘I didn’t want to believe it.’
‘So why did you? I take it the photos were the reason you ran away. Why didn’t you ask me, caro?’ He was mystified, and she could sense his hurt.
‘Oh, but I did. I rang you. It was night where you were, and this woman answered. She had to get you out of bed, and she spoke to you as if she knew you very well. Intimately well. That was when I knew I had to go. I couldn’t stay with a man who cheated on me, however much I loved him!’
Lucas looked thunderstruck and she could see the cogs working as memories were retrieved. ‘That was you on the phone? We thought it was a prank call.’
Her heart contracted, even after all this time. ‘We?’
‘Laura was with me that night. She’s my cousin’s wife. They couldn’t make it to the wedding but, when they heard I was in the city, they came to see me. I put them up for the night, in the suite I had booked. They had the bedroom and I had the couch. Laura heard the phone but I didn’t. That was who you heard, caro, and if you had stayed on the line I would have told you so.’
Sofie went hot and cold as it dawned on her that she had abandoned Lucas and their marriage for nothing. ‘Oh, God! I’m so sorry. I thought…I really thought…But I should have known better. I loved you. I should have clung on to that.’
Lucas moved closer, putting his arm around her shoulder, though she resisted. Not that she didn’t want him to hold her, she just couldn’t imagine how he could after what she had said. ‘Why didn’t you?’ he asked seconds later, and she sighed.
‘Because I felt betrayed. It goes back a long way with me, Lucas. I thought Gary was a nice man, but he turned out to be a sick individual. It destroyed my trust in men. I kept thinking they would turn out to be like him. Until I met you. You made me start trusting again, but it wasn’t easy. I was still strengthening the walls when the photos came along, and they knocked them down. They made me believe you had done what I always expected you would—betray me and break my trust. I couldn’t live with that again, Lucas, even though I loved you. How could I ever have trusted you again?’
A long sigh of understanding left him as he drew her closer, holding her tight. ‘Now I understand. What can I say? I went out with many women before I met you, but none since then. Who that woman was, and how Benson got hold of the photos, I have no idea.’
Sofie groaned. ‘And I should never have trusted those photos over you!’ she bewailed her own insecurity, which made Lucas smile gently.
‘You couldn’t help yourself, caro. Anyone can see that. Trust is fragile, especially when you love someone. When our happiness depends on someone else, we are all treading on thin ground. But we can change that, amore.’
She looked up at him then, wondering what he meant. ‘How?’
‘By believing in what we feel for each other. I make you a promise, here and now, that I will never knowingly betray your trust in me. I love you. I may have lost sight of it for a while, but the truth is that I always have and always will love you, amore.’ He spoke with such a depth and wealth of emotion that it made her heart swell.
Her smile was watery. ‘I never stopped loving you, Lucas. I was just so afraid of being betrayed again. I want to trust you.’
‘You can. Forget the past. You were made to believe lies, but without that you would have kept on trusting me. If your love is strong enough, the trust will come back. Only believe in us, caro.’
Sofie flung her arms around his neck. ‘It is. I do. I just don’t know how you can forgive me for putting us through six years of misery.’
He laughed huskily. ‘How can I not, when I love you? Gary Benson is gone. He cannot make any more mischief. We’re free to live our lives the way we wish. Do you know what I want?’
She shook her head, smiling at last, knowing the dark cloud had gone from their lives. ‘No.’
‘I want to live the rest of my life loving you,’ he told her, all the pent-up emotion he felt making his voice thick and husky.
‘And Tom,’ she said, equally huskily, and he laughed.
‘And Tom, and all his brothers and sisters.’
Sofie blinked. ‘How many were you planning on?’
Now he grinned that wolfish grin she loved so much. ‘Oh, a round figure. Four. Six, maybe. What do you think?’
She laughed, a happy sound that echoed across the garden.
‘I think I love you, Lucas Antonetti.’
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1795-3
THE MILLIONAIRE’S MARRIAGE REVENGE
First North American Publication 2008.
Copyright © 2007 by Amanda Browning.
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