“Okay,” I said.
“Everything made sense, then. You’d been supporting them, with some difficulty, I guess, given your estranged husband’s love for spending money.”
“That’s right,” I admitted, ashamed.
“I wanted to help them and to help you. They are two brave people who deserve it. And you were too proud to ask me.” His fingers smoothed my hair back from my face before his arm clasped my waist again. “You’re so afraid of being vulnerable. I understand that. I know why you find it difficult to trust. I thought my words haven’t been enough to persuade you…you’ve still held back. So there’s only one way I’m going to be able to make you trust me, and that is through my actions.”
“Okay,” I said softly.
“That money will give them the security they need. And it’ll allow you to make the best choices about your future, without having to worry. I had to pay it directly to them, because I knew if I offered it to you, you’d say no. And I didn’t want you to feel you were entering into another contract.” He gave a rueful grin. “This seemed like the best way. The money’s all theirs, by the way. The tax has already been set aside. I’ll ask my accountant to call your father and give him the necessary information.”
I was blindsided by surprise all over again. He’d thought of everything. This incredible gesture was one of pure generosity, done in a way to cause my parents no extra stress. Suddenly curious, remembering what he’d said about the castle, I asked him, “Was it your head that made the decision? Or your heart?”
Patrick smiled. “Head and heart together, in perfect agreement. This was more than wanting to help, Claire. It was a way of showing you how I feel—that I am in love with you.”
Well, at that, my legs refused to take me a step further. I turned to face him, wrapping my arms around him tightly as he continued.
“I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to make love to you every single night, and again in the morning. I want to be your partner, through the good and the bad. I’ve been crazy about you ever since that moment we met on the plane. If I’d had any sense at all, I’d have proposed to you right then. I let you go and it took me ten years to find you again…and I’m not going to give you up a second time. I can’t.”
Tears were streaming from my eyes at these words…tears of pure happiness.
“Claire. I want you to come and live with me,” he continued. “And when your mother’s better, and your parents have moved somewhere safer with a full-time nurse to help them, and when your divorce is finalized, I’m going to invite you away, to the most romantic location I can possibly think of, and I’m going to ask you to marry me.”
My head was whirling. Looking into Patrick’s hazel-green eyes, touched with fire, I finally summoned up the courage to speak what was in my heart.
“I’m in love with you too, Patrick,” I told him. I sniffed hard, spoiling the romantic moment, but he didn’t seem to notice and his eyes softened at my words. “I’m totally crazy about you; I always have been. If I’d had any sense, I would have gotten in touch with you after that plane ride. I wouldn’t have let all this time slip by and made other decisions that turned out to be wrong. Thank you for helping my parents, and thank you for giving me the freedom to choose what I want to do. And what I want, right now, is to be with you.”
“Thank you, Claire,” he whispered. “Thank you for opening your heart to me and letting me in. I love you.”
Sometimes, not often, I can glimpse what’s going to happen. It’s a strange ability. It happens randomly, but it’s never been wrong. It comes in pictures. And as we were walking back through the park, not caring that a light, spattering rain had begun to fall, I saw a picture in my mind.
Patrick and me, lying in each other’s arms in a room I’d never seen before, the morning sun shining through the large window, causing the diamond on my ring finger to reflect a pattern of light onto the white wall opposite. He looked older—by how much, I didn’t know, but at least ten years or maybe more, although time had been kind to him, etching the handsomeness deeper into his lean face.
This was my future I was seeing; our future.
We were together. And we were happy.
A Further Title ...
Published by Astor and Blue
Drowning
Sensuous but stifled New York City photographer Erin Mitchell thinks going to South Africa on assignment will be the perfect getaway. But when a flash flood washes away Erin’s vehicle and she is stranded at a luxury safari lodge, Erin’s romantic working vacation takes an interesting turn. She awakens from her near-drowning and meets her rescuer, Nicholas—hot and brilliant, successful and caring—not at all like her abusive husband. At Leopard Rock in the steamy South African heat, Erin faces the toughest choices of her life. Nicholas is ripped, he’s smart, and he’s “no strings attached.” To give in, or not to give in drowns Erin’s senses as she struggles with two impossible goals: ignore the exquisite physical charms of her host, and conceal every last detail whenever her controlling husband calls. On the other side, Nicholas faces impossible choices of his own, as the bon-vivant playboy may just possibly collide with feelings more powerful than lust. Erotic. Exotic. Wild. Drowning sizzles in the African heat as one woman is stretched to the breaking point by the strength of her vows and the intensity of her seething primal desires.
“The sexual chemistry bursts from every page...” — Publishers Weekly
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