by Penny Jordan
It was over quickly and fiercely, leaving them both breathing heavily.
‘That shouldn’t have happened.’ Falcon’s voice was terse.
‘I’m glad that it did—because I wanted it to happen,’ Annie told him defiantly.
Falcon made a small restless movement, pulling away from her. ‘That is because sex is a newly discovered pleasure for you. That is all.’
His casual dismissal of what they had just shared pushed her into saying fiercely, ‘No, it isn’t. What happened wasn’t because I’m like some kind of suddenly sex-crazed teenager. It was because I love you and I wanted to show you that love. Because I wanted to create for myself another memory of sharing the intimacy of lovemaking with you to have for the future. I know you don’t want my love, Falcon, and…’
Annie took a deep breath. She had come to a very important decision. ‘And you don’t have to marry me. Because…because what you’ve shown me and taught me has given me the strength to be the woman you told me I could be. I’m not frightened of Colin any more, and I’m not going to burden you with the responsibility of me or Ollie. Loving someone means wanting the best for them, and wanting their happiness above your own. You’ve given me freedom from my past. I want to give you freedom to meet someone and fall in love with them….’
‘I already have.’
The pain was so intense that after the blow had fallen she thought she was going to pass out from the agony of it.
‘You’ve met someone you’ve fallen in love with?’ Her lips felt slightly numb, unable to form the words properly.
Because they didn’t want to do so. Because she didn’t want to confront what speaking them meant.
‘Yes. And I love her more deeply and passionately than I ever imagined it was possible to love anyone.’
‘That makes you even more admirable for offering to marry me.’
It was the truth, after all—even if saying the words nearly choked her.
‘Offering to marry you doesn’t make me admirable at all, Annie. It makes me selfish and weak, and subject to all the flaws I was so ready to criticise in your stepbrother. What was my offer of marriage other than an attempt to control your life and take away your freedom?’
‘You wanted to protect me.’
‘I wanted to keep you for myself. I wanted to bind you to me and keep you with me.’
Annie could feel her heart starting to race again.
Falcon had moved closer to her.
‘I wanted all the things with you that a man wants with the woman he loves. But I was acquiring them—and you—through dishonesty. I thought myself so noble and dutiful, but the reality is that I was no such thing.’
‘You were wonderful,’ Annie told him passionately. ‘You are wonderful. Oh, Falcon, do you mean it? Do you really love me?’
‘You are stealing my question to you,’ he answered softly, and she could see in his eyes the light and the love that were glowing there. ‘But I am the first man—your first man. I don’t want you to mistake…’
‘Lust for love? Annie supplied for him, shaking her head as she told him, ‘I’m twenty-four, Falcon—not sixteen. I could have broken out of my Colin-imposed cage of fear a long time ago if I’d really wanted to. But I didn’t want to. Not until I met you. That first time we met in the hotel foyer, the minute you touched me, I knew that something inside me had changed.’
‘It was the same for me,’ Falcon admitted. He had taken hold of her hand, and his fingers were now entwined lovingly with hers. ‘Although I didn’t recognise what I felt for you at first as love. Had I done so, I would never…’
‘Have become my sexual teacher and healer?’ Annie suggested.
‘That is what I should say—but I cannot do so since I have no idea if it is true. Where you are concerned I have no control over my feelings.’
‘You certainly seemed to be able to control them earlier,’ Annie pointed out.
‘That wasn’t control, it was desperation. I knew that once I touched you I wouldn’t be able to stop. You are far too good a pupil—irresistible, in fact.’
He was reaching for her, and Annie happily snuggled closer to him.
‘Mmm…’ she encouraged him. ‘How irresistible, exactly?’
EPILOGUE
‘YOU May kiss the bride.’
Annie’s face was alight with joy and love as Falcon raised the traditional lace veil which was a family heirloom back off her face and kissed her reverently.
The church was filled with Leopardi family and friends, all come to witness and celebrate their marriage—arranged so hastily, Falcon had put it about, because of the precarious state of the old Prince’s health.
Annie smiled a secret smile of private happiness. She might not as yet have the same bloomingly pregnant figure as the wives of Falcon’s two brothers, but her and Falcon’s baby was already growing inside her—had, she was sure, been conceived that very first time they had made love.
‘I love you,’ Falcon whispered to her.
‘I love you too,’ she whispered back.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3425-7
THE SICILIAN’S BABY BARGAIN
First North American Publication 2009.
Copyright © 2009 by Penny Jordan.
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