Promise Me Love (Harlequin Treasury 1990's)

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘I’m sure you didn’t come all this way to discuss the décor so would you mind telling me what you want?’ She closed the door to lessen the heavy beat of the music that was starting to make her head ache, glaring coldly at him across the room. ‘I thought we said all there was to say earlier on.’

  ‘Do you think so? Well, that’s mistake number one, my girl. We never even got started on what should have been said, but I have every intention of rectifying that now!’ He reached out and caught her arms to pull her to him, his eyes glittering into her startled, disbelieving face for one long moment before he bent and took her mouth in a searing kiss.

  Beth just had a chance to draw a shuddering breath, then she was lost as the magic that only David could create enfolded her.

  Time after time his mouth moved over hers, seeking a response she was powerless to refuse. When she opened her mouth to let his tongue slide inside and tangle with hers in a rhythm of sweet, hot intimacy, she felt a shudder ripple through him, echoing the one which raced through her. Her heart went wild, pounding the blood along her veins, filling her with fire, with need, with the purely primitive desire to kiss him back and make him realise how she felt about him at last.

  Slowly, almost reluctantly, he broke off the kiss, his lips skimming over her cheek before he cupped it gently with his hand and tilted her face so that he could look straight into her eyes. ‘I love you, Beth. I should have told you that before, but I’ve fought against the idea for so long now that I was afraid to admit it even then.’

  ‘You love me?’ There was incredulity in the question and he smiled with a tenderness that made her ache.

  ‘Yes. I’ve tried so hard to convince myself that I didn’t, but tonight, after you left, I knew there was no way I could continue fooling myself any longer. I love you, Beth, more than I thought it possible to love any woman.’

  ‘Even...’ She hesitated, afraid to ask the question, but he understood at once.

  ‘Even Maggie.’ His voice was soft and deep, his eyes filled with warmth as he drew her close and held her tightly against him. ‘I love you, Beth. You, no one else, and all I want is to hear if you can ever love me back.’

  She laughed shakily, letting herself sink into the warm strength of his arms. ‘I do love you, David. Surely you must know that?’

  He laughed deeply, a very masculine triumph in the sound. ‘I had an idea that you might!’

  ‘Why, you...!’ Beth drew back, her eyes glittering with a mixture of annoyance and pure joy, but he silenced her with a quick, fiercely possessive kiss that left her reeling. Taking her by the hand, he led her across to the bed and drew her down, sliding his arm around her waist to hold her close as though he couldn’t bear to be apart from her.

  ‘You love me, Beth, and I love you. That’s all that matters. What’s happened before will be painful to discuss, but cling to that fact and it won’t hurt as much.’

  Beth pressed against him, taking his hand between hers to twine her fingers around his in a trusting gesture. ‘I will.’

  ‘I have never really explained why I wanted to marry you so much and that’s where the real problem lies. I don’t think I fully understood it myself until tonight, after you’d left and I realised what I was losing by letting you go.

  ‘When I saw you that first day in the restaurant I just wanted to help you. There was something heartbreakingly defenceless about the way you were sitting there with your world crumbling around you. Then I found out that you were pregnant and it felt like a repeat of the past.’ He paused to stare into her face. ‘Maggie and I were never lovers. I want to make sure that you believe that.’

  ‘I do.’ She ran a hand lovingly down his lean cheek, enjoying the fact that she had the right to touch him now.

  He captured her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm before closing her fingers over the tingling spot where his lips had touched. ‘Do too much of that and I’ll never finish explaining and that would be a shame. We need to have everything clear between us, Beth.’

  ‘I know. I’ll try not to interrupt you again.’

  ‘You disturb me just by being here, but...’ He smiled ruefully, tucking her closer against him as he continued. ‘Maggie and I were friends from the moment she married my brother, but Matthew could never accept that. Perhaps he half suspected how I felt about her before I really understood it myself, but there was never anything between us. Then one day Maggie was taken ill and came to my flat. I put her into my bed to rest and Matthew found her there.’ His face was bleak and Beth shivered at the pain he still felt at the memory. ‘Naturally, I suppose, he thought the worst, refused to listen to what we said. It ended up with them getting divorced, leaving Maggie pregnant with Matthew’s child. He had no knowledge of it, of course; she refused to tell him about the baby. They were bleak days for her and I tried my hardest to help her. Learning that you were in virtually the same position seemed to reopen the past, Beth. It was as if fate was giving me a second test to see if I could help.’

  ‘So I was really a substitute for Maggie?’ She tried to keep the ache out of her voice, but knew she’d failed when he swore softly and pulled her close.

  ‘No! You were never a substitute! You reminded me of the situation she’d been in, but that was all. You are totally different from her.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ She smoothed a hand over her hair, her eyes faintly sad. ‘I sometimes feel that I am just a pale shadow of her.’

  ‘A shadow?’ He stared at her in surprise. ‘You and Maggie are nothing at all alike, Beth. Oh, you both have red hair, but yours is more gold than red, soft and so pretty.’ He smoothed a hand over her hair, twining the silky curls around his fingers. ‘I’ve dreamt night after night about how you looked that morning lying in bed with your hair spread across the pillows like spun gold. It’s made me ache on more than one sleepless night, I can tell you.’

  The throbbing note of desire in his voice made her tremble and she lifted her face, wanting him to kiss her, but he barely brushed her lips with his in a fleeting caress which was more temptation than satisfaction. ‘If I start kissing you now then I won’t be able to stop, Beth, and we have to talk this through.’

  Beth sighed, snuggling against him deliberately, smiling as she felt the immediate tension in his body. ‘Anyone ever tell you that you’re no fun, David Kane?’

  ‘Frequently, but I’ll have to put up with it for now. Later is when I shall try my hardest to disprove it.’

  It was her turn to shudder then, her turn to feel the hot, tight spiral of desire, and she saw him smile as he acknowledged it. ‘I wanted to help you, Beth, not because you were a reminder of what had gone on, but because you so very obviously needed it. Later, when I asked you to marry me, I told myself that it was because I finally wanted to end the feud with Matthew, wanted to have a home and family of my own, but it was all lies. I was falling in love with you even then, but I was afraid to face up to it when you obviously wouldn’t have wanted to hear that. Not only were you pregnant, Beth, but you were still in love with the baby’s father.’

  ‘No, that’s not true. I stopped loving Andrew way before then. It took me a long time to realise it, but in the end I knew it was so. But I still don’t understand how marrying me could help heal the rift between you and Matthew.’

  ‘Because it would remove the last fear from his mind. I was almost sure that he believed that there had been nothing between Maggie and me, but if I had a wife and eventually a child then he would be convinced. I wanted to wipe the slate clean, then start again and build a fresh life with you, if you were agreeable. But then the baby died.’ He broke off, his face filled with sadness, then continued slowly. ‘After that happened I told myself that you still needed me to help you, but it was just an excuse so that I didn’t have to let you go!’

  Beth smiled gently, curling her fingers into his. ‘I did wonder that day you saw me in the hospital. There was an expression on your face that...’ She broke off and blushed.

  He touch
ed her cheek gently. ‘I was falling in love with you, Beth, and fighting it every inch of the way, terrified of making a fool of myself. But I want you to understand that I never once intended to use you or our marriage as some sort of a cover-up. Frankly, by that stage I was well and truly over Maggie!’

  Her eyes shone with joy and she kissed him quickly on the corner of the mouth. ‘I know that now. I’ve had time to think it all through and I realise that you would never do such a thing. You aren’t the sort of a man to do something so underhand.’

  ‘I’m no saint, Beth. Don’t try to build me into something I’m not.’

  ‘Maybe not, but neither are you a sinner. It might be an unfashionable description in today’s world, but you are an honourable man, David, and I love you all the more because of it.’

  ‘Do you? Are you sure that you really love me?’ His eyes darkened with uncertainty for a moment, so unlike his usual arrogant assurance that her heart melted.

  ‘Quite sure. I’ve been in love with you for a long time now, but, like you, was fighting the idea because I was afraid of getting hurt again.’ She leant forwards, letting herself rest against him as she skimmed a line of kisses down his cheek then let her lips rest tantalisingly at the very corner of his. ‘Want me to show you how much I love you, David Kane?’

  ‘What an offer!’ He started to draw her to him, intent written all over his face, then grimaced as the music pounding through the ceiling increased by a few decibels. ‘What an unholy racket! There’s no way that I intend to take you up on that offer to the accompaniment of that!’ He stood up and pulled her to her feet, kissing her hard. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Out? Where?’ Dazed by the kiss, which had left her aching for more, Beth held back as he tried to lead her to the door.

  ‘Back home...our home, that is.’ He slid his hand slowly up the length of her arm under the loose sleeve of the robe. ‘I want you in my bed, Beth, your body under mine while I stroke every delectable inch of your beautiful flesh, trace every delicious curve. I want to make you mine in every way that implies, and I’ll be damned if I intend to do it to the accompaniment of a heavy-metal band!’

  Beth laughed, seeing the tension in his face, the need he couldn’t hide, which only mirrored hers. She wanted that too, so much, but it was delicious to savour the moment when they would make love for the first time by delaying it just a while longer. ‘But I’m not dressed to go out, David. You’ll have to give me a few minutes to put something on.’

  His eyes swept over her in open appreciation and she felt herself tingle at the warmth of the look. ‘From where I’m standing you look overdressed for what I have in mind!’ He let his hands slip down to hers, linking his fingers gently with hers. ‘You aren’t afraid, are you, Beth?’

  She shook her head, her eyes brimming with love at his consideration. ‘I could never be afraid of you. I love you too much. I was just teasing you, David. I...I want to make love with you just as much.’

  Desire flashed hotly in his eyes and he pulled her closer, letting her feel the need in him to make her his. ‘My God, Beth, you don’t know how I’ve longed to hear you say that! I want to take care of you, cherish you, have you with me for all time.’ He stared into her face. ‘I want to give you a child to help make up for the one you lost.’

  She smiled tenderly at him, loving him more than ever for letting her see how vulnerable he was. ‘I want all that too. So much. But do you want to know one thing I want most of all?’

  ‘What?’ His lips feathered a kiss against her temples, stirring the soft curls and making her shiver with sweet anticipation.

  ‘To hear you promise that you will always love me.’

  ‘That is the easiest thing in the world to do.’ He drew back slightly, his face very grave. ‘I, David, promise that I shall always love you, Beth. How does that sound?’

  ‘Marvellous,’ she murmured, lifting her mouth up to his. ‘Absolutely marvellous.’

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-8510-1

  Promise Me Love

  Copyright © 1993 by Jennifer Taylor

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