‘I thought you didn’t do your own work.’
‘I hadn’t done.’ She shook her head. ‘Ever since David. But then I met you.’
She could admit that now—that her inspiration, which had disappeared in Paris, hadn’t risen again in Montéz because she’d been in a new and exciting part of the world but because being with the man she loved had been stimulating in every way there was. And constantly surprising, she thought, as seeds of hope dared to take root in her mind.
He nodded and looked up at it. ‘I mean it when I say it’s brilliant. When I look at it, it’s like I can actually feel the passion you felt when you painted it.’
Cally blushed. ‘There’s probably a reason for that’.
Leon shook his head. ‘No, I don’t just mean that. It’s like it’s alive with your excitement for the strokes themselves, the colours, the sheer joy of painting.’
Cally drew in a sharp breath and felt the most acutely powerful tears she had ever known prick behind her eyes. He hadn’t laughed or tossed it out to sea, wasn’t suggesting that her love of painting buried an ulterior motive, nor had he once even implied that a girl like her should never harbour dreams about becoming an artist. He’d framed it, treasured it and hung it in a gallery beside the paintings which had fired her love of art in the first place. ‘Thank you,’ she said suddenly, her emotions threatening to overwhelm her. ‘For understanding what it means to me. I thought—’
‘That I’d always presume your career was just something to fill your time until you married? I know,’ he said flinchingly. ‘You’d think that with everything you endured in order to work on the Rénards I ought to have realised earlier.’
Cally drew in a very deep breath, and for a moment it felt like the world had stopped spinning. All this time she’d been convinced that he saw no need to let her in because he had no desire to understand her And all the while he had understood her better than anyone she had ever met. She stared at him in utter amazement. ‘It wasn’t as hard to endure as you might think,’ she whispered.
Leon didn’t seem to hear her. ‘I should have brought you here earlier,’ he said hopelessly. ‘There are a lot of things I should have done earlier. But this I had planned to tell you at our wedding. I was just waiting for Jen to let me know whether she could make the date I’d fixed for the grand opening.’
Cally stared at him, dumbfounded by this new information. ‘Jen?’ Her sister Jen?
‘I’ve invited her to cover the story. I’d planned to invite Kaliq and Tamara too,’ he continued with immense effort. ‘Maybe it isn’t the only thing I should think about revealing to the public.’
As she looked up into his face, lined as it was with anguish, full of strength, that was the moment when she knew that everything was going to be OK. Because she suddenly understood that he hadn’t just chosen to keep his guard up when he was around her, but that ever since childhood he had been forced to keep the truth a secret from everyone. But he was trying to change, and it was because of her.
‘That’s fantastic,’ she whispered, her heartbeat beginning to pound in her ears.
Leon shrugged, his whole pose listless. ‘I know that displaying the paintings can’t undo all the wrong I’ve done you, but I just I need you to understand that you have shaped the way I feel about everything. There were a hundred practical reasons that I held responsible for my proposal to you, but the truth is that I would have dismissed them all if you hadn’t changed the way I feel about marriage altogether. That month we spent here together—it was the best of my life.’
He took a deep breath. ‘I know I can’t ask that of you now, but, if you meant it when you said that you loved me, then please let me learn how to love you properly, how to love our son properly.’
Cally felt a warm glow begin to flow through her, like a diver catching sight of the mast of a sunken ship he had given up hope of ever finding. For those were the words which confirmed that unearthing the rest of Leon’s heart was going to be the easy part. ‘Something tells me that now you’ve set your mind to it you’re going to be a fast learner.’ She smiled.
Leon looked at her in awe, feeling the tension in his shoulders begin to seep away, wondering if he dared let it. ‘I don’t care how long it takes.’
Cally squeezed his hand and fleetingly she thought she saw him blink back a tear. It was a gesture which confirmed that he understood how close they had both come to losing something so precious, that he was happy to take things slowly, and above all that she could trust him. With it, she was struck by the most phenomenal moment of fulfilment she had ever known.
Well, emotionally speaking, Cally thought with a grin, as she ran her eyes over his impossibly handsome face and athletic body, as drop-dead gorgeous today as he had been that night in London and every night since.
‘As long as it takes,’ she repeated thoughtfully. ‘But, you know, you have taught me the benefits of acting impulsively, giving in to what feels right.’ Her eyes gleamed wickedly.
Leon took a cautious step towards her, his tone husky. ‘What are you saying, ma belle?’
‘The church is booked for four days from now, is it not?’
He looked at her in amazement and shook his head in joyous disbelief. ‘You mean you want to go ahead with the wedding, just as we planned?’
Cally beamed, thinking how far he had come, how far they had both come. ‘Unless you think that is a little too rash?’
Leon shook his head commandingly and pulled her close. ‘Non, mon amour par la mer,’ he whispered. ‘I think that would make me the happiest man alive.’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Sabrina Philips 2009
E-ISBN: 978-1-4089-1302-4
Prince of Montez, Pregnant Mistress Page 16
