by Rebecca Lang
‘It’s not entirely an act. I’m somewhat fed up with the role I’ve been in since we got back from Boston, and before that, to a certain extent.’
‘It was largely of your choosing,’ she said, raising her voice.
‘Why are you so upset?’
‘I’m upset because for me it’s not an act.’ Her voice broke and tears filled her eyes. ‘I really do love you. God help me, I tried not to.’
‘I know you do, Anna,’ he said wearily, dropping her arm. ‘You’re like an open book.’
‘Then why…?
‘Because I’ve had enough, I guess, of waiting for you to come to me. I want you, and I don’t know where I am with you. This was an opportunity to come out with it.’
‘You want to make love to me? So that’s it! It’s payment time, is it? You think that because I have a child that I’m easy?’
‘No! Very definitely not! I don’t think that.’
‘I want to go home.’ Anna turned away from him to lean against a wall, hiding her face, sobbing.
Silently Seth came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Then he put his head against the back of hers, so that his mouth was near her ear. ‘I love you,’ he said softly. ‘I love you, Anna Grey. Like you, I tried not to, but I do. I love you and I trust you. So, you see, I don’t just want to make love to you…but that, too. There’s been too much suppressed emotion between us, mainly because of Simon getting in the way. Now I want it to be about you and me, Anna. Me and you.’
She said nothing, but continued to cry softly. He kissed her ear.
‘I don’t believe you,’ she mumbled.
‘It’s true. I think I fell in love with you when you first came into my office with what seemed an unlikely scenario.’
‘I’m fed up with not being trusted by you.’
‘I just said I trusted you.’
‘And I was humiliated in front of that woman, with that story you came out with,’ she rushed on. ‘I didn’t know what to say, or how to act.’
‘I wasn’t lying,’ he said. ‘It was all true, all what I want.’
‘Laura said you Ruelles were like royalty. Well, I’m not a princess.’
‘What? That’s rubbish.’
‘I don’t think it is.’
‘If you say no to me, I’ll let you walk home,’ he teased.
‘You would, too,’ she said, glaring at him, slumping back against the wall. ‘My mother is expecting me home. She must be wondering where I am.’
‘I’ll call her and say you’re having supper with me.’
‘Exercising your charm?’
‘Mmm.’
‘What if I don’t want to be here with you?’
‘I would respect that,’ he said, drawing her into his arms, nuzzling her ear. ‘I think you do want me. Take your coat off. You must be hot with the central heating blasting away.’
Anna let out a sigh, tremulous with longing for him, which she was trying not to let him notice. ‘So I’m an open book,’ she said. ‘It’s a pity you weren’t a little more open.’
‘I’ve bared my soul now—in front of a third party, too,’ he said. ‘You could say I’ve burned my boats. I’m at your mercy.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ she said. ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘And I wish you would be a little more original.’
‘This is not an original situation,’ she said. ‘Smooth, glib, attractive man trying to get woman into bed. I’m at a disadvantage—you’re eight years older than I am, and much more experienced. Simon is the only partner I’ve had.’
He laughed, and she felt, in spite of herself, her own lips forming a smile.
‘I have a habit of becoming pregnant,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t call once a habit,’ he said. ‘I’ll make sure you don’t—not that I would mind.’ He lifted her face up and smoothed the hair away from her temples. ‘I would like it, in fact. I love you and I want to marry you.’
‘How can I believe you? You’re such a…such a dark stranger.’
‘I’m trying not to be. Tell me again that you love me. Look at me while you’re saying it.’
Disarmed, at least partially, Anna did as he asked. ‘I love you,’ she whispered, lifting her face up to his and staring him right in the eyes.
‘Say it again.’
She did.
‘Now say, “I will marry you, Seth.” Or you can call me darling, if you wish.’
‘I’m not going to say that because I still don’t believe you.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because, as you said, you’re messed up. So am I.’
‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Whether you stay with me will be up to you. If you do, afterwards you can agree to marry me…or not, as the case may be.’
‘You mean…sort of trying you out?’ she said.
‘If you want to put it that way,’ he said, laughing. ‘It’s more that afterwards you’ll know I love you.’
‘Oh…’ she said, expelling a breath on a sigh.
‘We’ll have a glass of chilled white wine, if you would like to, so that we can calm down, then I’ll drive you home if you don’t want to stay with me now. In a day or two I want to take you out to dinner and go down on bended knee to ask you to marry me. In the meantime, you can think about it. I think we’ve been friends for a long time…long enough.’
He unbuttoned her coat so that she could shrug out of it, then he sat her on a chair and pulled off her boots, much as she pulled off Finn’s snow boots, taking his time about it. That gesture alone melted her, but she wasn’t going to let him see it…not yet.
She sat on a sofa in the sitting room while he went to get the wine, which he uncorked in front of her, then took two long-stemmed glasses from a cupboard.
In turmoil she watched him while he poured and handed her a full glass. With his glass, he touched hers. ‘I think I should propose a toast,’ he said. ‘To us, love, and to our future together. To Finn and to our other children.’
‘Don’t take too much for granted,’ she said, giving him a sidelong glance that she tried to make furious.
Inside she was bubbling over with a tentative happiness that was threatening not to be tentative for very long. And she was beginning to be curious about what his bedroom looked like, as the rest of his house was in such superb taste—even if it had been created by an interior designer.
They sipped the wine. ‘This is very good,’ she said, nervous, wanting him so much but frightened to admit it. Simon was no longer between them. Now it really was just the two of them. If this was what she wanted, if he was the man she wanted, she had to have the courage to take him.
‘It’s from the Ruelle vineyards,’ he said. ‘It’s your turn now, Anna.’
Shyly, she touched his glass with hers so that it made a delicate tinkling sound, forced to follow his example. ‘To our love. To you, Seth, for all you have done for me and for coming into my life. To a dark stranger who from now on I hope will never be a stranger again.’
‘Not angry with me any more?’
‘Only a bit,’ she said. ‘I’ve made up my mind.’
‘What?’
‘I want to be with you, now and always,’ she said, quietly, seriously. ‘Will you always be with me?’
‘Yes. I promise to love you and cherish you for the rest of my life. As I said, you have my trust as well as my love.’ With that, he lifted one of her hands and placed a kiss on the palm, folded her fingers over it. ‘Hold my promise tight and remember it always.’
‘I will,’ she said.
They drank a toast to their future, and Seth took her hand. When their glasses were empty, Anna stood up and put out both of her hands to him.
ISBN-13: 9781460377635
© Rebecca Lang 2007
A FATHER FOR HER SON
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