by Jane Corrie
`Play with you?' he replied savagely. 'What the hell do you think you were doing with me? Was it fair of you to walk into my life, turn it upside down, and calmly walk out again? No, I'm not playing. This is for real, and you'd better believe it. I want your answer now, and it had better be the right one this time,' he warned her harshly. don't fancy chasing you half across the world, but I will if there's no other way. You might just as well say yes, and be done with it,' he threatened.
Thea's whole being suddenly flooded with light. She knew now what Mrs Welling had meant when
she had said that it wasn't necessary for a man to actually say the words 'I love you'. There were other words that said the same thing, and she had just heard them. She threw herself into his arms and wrapped her arms around his lean waist, burying her head in his strong chest. 'I thought ' she swallowed, 'I thought you'd never ask me to marry you again. I was so unhappy,' her breath caught in a sob. 'I do love you, Marcus. I always have.'
`Tell me something I don't know,' Marcus replied gruffly, gently raising her head from his shoulder and making her look at him. 'I knew that, at least. What I couldn't figure out was what got into you. I thought you'd suddenly got scared of committing yourself for life, and that reminded me of a quarrel between my father and mother. I was supposed to be asleep, but how they expected me to sleep through that racket, and through all the other rows they had, is beyond me.' His lips gently teased the corners of her soft mouth. 'I remember my mother shouting that they should have been lovers, not man and wife—she said she felt she had a halter round her neck, and they oughtn't to have had a child, because now they were trapped together,' his lips now covered hers, and Thea was lost in the magical world of love.
There was so much she wanted to tell him, so much she could now understand, but for the moment it was enough to feel his arms around her and his hard demanding lips on hers, and when he gently put her away from him a short while later, she knew the reason for that too. 'Marcus, I want you to promise me something,' she said, not looking at him but out at the starlit night beyond.
`When ' she hesitated, and began again, a little
more firmly this time, for this was something that she wanted him to understand right from the start. `When it's over, when you feel ' she swallowed, `well, you know what I mean. I want to stay on here, that's if you can afford it,' she added hastily, `and I understand about your not wanting children. I didn't before, but I do now.' Her voice broke slightly, as she added, 'It will be enough for me to have you with me for as long as you want me.'
She heard his quick inward gasp and the next minute he had swept her into his arms again and was kissing her with a fierce intensity as if she had just said goodbye to him, and he couldn't bear to let her go. 'I don't want to hear you ever say anything like that again, do you hear?' he said savagely, his hold on her tightening to a suffocating clamp on her slight figure. 'Sure, I was fool enough once to think that I wouldn't hang on to you, as my mother thought my father had done, or to saddle you with a child, but we'll get this straight right from the start. I'm taking out a ninety-nine-year lease on you, honey, and I don't back losers. As for kids,' his lips roamed her creamy throat, 'one's not enough. I'm not having a child of mine knowing the loneliness I went through—besides,' he added autocratically, `they'll be my surety for our future, and there'll be no way out for you.'
Thea gave a contented sigh, and kissed his strong jawline. Her cup of happiness was full, but womanlike she couldn't resist asking about Sapphire, although by now she was sure that Moira had told the truth about his relationship with her. She pulled herself gently out of his arms and looked at him
searchingly. 'And Sapphire, Marcus? Was it you that sent her to the hotel?' she asked, her lovely eyes asking the question she really needed assurance on.
Marcus pulled her back into his arms again before he replied against her hair, 'I wondered when we were going to get around to that,' and there was a trace of amusement in his voice. 'I needed a reason to see you. I also needed to know if I'd been wrong about you. I was pretty sure I'd got you before—before you chucked that bombshell at me, that was.'
Thea's head jerked up at this. 'You tried to make me jealous of her!' she said indignantly, then instantly relented, for she felt sorry for Sapphire, and nestled against him again. 'I was jealous, Marcus,' she confessed softly. 'I hated you both.'
There was a low chuckle from Marcus at this. 'So I gathered,' he replied. 'That was obvious by the way you hared out of the job.'
`Think you'll be ready in a week?' Marcus asked her a short while later in a voice that was beginning to show a certain amount of strain, and when she replied softly that she was 'ready' now, he gave a groan. 'Don't tempt me, sweetheart. Why do you think I kept my distance from you all this time?' and he pushed her gently away from him. 'So, a week it is,' he said softly. 'I'm not risking waiting for all the trappings, you can have that later if you want. I'm getting a special licence and we'll be married from the hotel. A six-week honeymoon in the U.K. should be long enough for the decorators to get busy in here and have it ready for our return.'
`Blue and gold,' Thea murmured dreamily, as she drifted back into his arms again.
`Blue and what?' queried Marcus, determinedly holding her away from him again, and trying to get the gist of her thinking.
`I was just furnishing our lounge, darling,' she said, still in that dreamy voice. 'And green and gold for the dining-room. For the nursery, pink and gold—or blue and gold—a bit of both, I think was as far as Marcus allowed her to get before he gave another groan, and swept her back into his arms again.
