I frowned, thinking about it.
“We were getting on so well at the flat…” He prompted.
I bit my lip. Still frowning.
He watched my face carefully. “You weren’t in love with Tyler then, not until months and months later…”
“When Kes left, you searched out Daisy and invited her to move in, without even asking me. Once that had happened, you and she were a done deal…” I pointed out.
“But if I hadn’t done that, and we’d got together at that point, would you have still fallen in love with Tyler anyway, and left me for him?” He ascertained.
I felt myself getting impatient. “It’s all a moot point. I don’t suppose I’d have ever even looked at him for a moment if I’d been with someone else, and he was a totally decent bloke, so it would never have occurred to him to pursue me if I wasn’t free…”
He looked devastated. “I don’t know what planet I’ve been on! As soon as you fell for Tyler I felt like I was dying inside. I knew I’d lost you and I knew it was too late. And I couldn’t do anything about it because I was with Daisy…
I got irritable. “‘What ifs’ can’t change the past, Quinn! You had me all to yourself in Maranello, and you still never made a move. I put out a welcome mat for you after the hostage thing, and you wiped your feet on it. The only thing that matters now is what you do from this moment on…”
For a moment he stayed very still and then he pulled me sharply to him and held my face in his hands and said, “Ok, you gorgeous, precious thing… Let me start the rest of our lives by telling you what I think of you. I love you, Eve, my beautiful, lovely, annoying, infuriating, maddening creature!” He started to kiss me, first gently, then more and more insistently, his hands holding me tight. He pinned me down on the bed and then pushed away and looked down at me. Then he let go of me and half sat up, sort of shook himself, then laughed and put a clenched hand to his stomach. “I go all funny inside when you look at me like that, Eve. Like a jolt goes through me and then I go all shivery and liquid,” he tried to interpret. His colour fluctuated in his face. “Oh, I’m not very good at explaining this, am I?” He ran his hand over my bare stomach under my top then pushed the material out of the way and began to kiss me all over, every centimetre of my front. “I love you so much,” he said fiercely. “I don’t want to ever lose you again my wonderful, clever, determined thing.” He looked really close at me, so I saw the tiny darker brown specks and streaks in his irises. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted,” he assured me. “Believe me, my precious one, that’s true.” He lifted me up and stripped my top off me and laid me back down and gazed almost worshipfully at me.
I lay very still, quartering his face with my eyes. And what I read there were his naked, raw emotions. And I thought, that’s all I’ve ever been waiting for, Quinn. For you to look at me like that, with that precise expression in your eyes. Not all competitive and defensive, deflecting everything with a humorous quip. Not selfishly demanding, or self-exculpatory, or needy, wanting constant affirmation and craving to see yourself reflected in my eyes. All I’ve ever wanted was for you to look at me with that potent mix of hunger, adoration, respect, acceptance, warmth, honesty and yes, love, in your eyes.
He looked into my eyes so long that I began to quiver with reaction. Then, finally, he bent forward and kissed me gently on the lips. I lifted my hands tentatively to the back of his head. And then he ran his hands gently over me until I felt like I was melting under his touch and nearly stopped breathing. Shit, I thought. Shit, I love him. How did that happen? How long have I loved him? Why could I never see him this clearly before? And in that precise moment, I let go, and a lifetime of resistance drained out of me, leaving me as vulnerable and naked as a new born. I found myself smiling up at him. And in that instant, as he realised that the breakthrough for which he’d been waiting for so long, had just taken place, he began to cry. And then I knew that I didn’t have to defend myself any longer – it was all going to be ok.
Books about Eve by Dominique Kyle
Not Quite Eden
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HMHSU9G
Paradise Postponed
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HUDOJKG
Thrills and Spills
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I496CPK
The Way Barred
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I52OCH6
Purgatory is a Place Too
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IBUR1MU
The Way Back
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WWFW2H8
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Thanks for following Eve and Quinn to the completion of their journey.
I already know what happens next, but I’m not sure if anyone else wants to. If you’re interested in me writing the last three books, or alternatively, if you’d rather I left the pair of them there, serenely happy, then either way, please let me know…
The Way Back (Not Quite Eden Book 6) Page 45
