by Betty Brooks
up at random and putting them down again. "Thorne?" she demanded, unable to take the silence
any longer, "What is wrong with you?"
He turned, the lamplight catching the shine of his d ark hair above wide shoulders. "Nothing is wrong with me, Rainey. Not anything that you could fix."
Her stomach muscles tightened. She had to know if her suspicions were true. "Are you jealous of Robert? Is that why you struck him?"
He moved behind her and she felt the warmth of his body against her, felt his breath, warm and moist on her ear.
His fingers lightly touched a wispy curl, tucking it behind her ear, and she stiffened involuntarily. "Rainey . . ." he sighed heavily. "You don't know how hard I've tried to stay away from you but it's impossible. I can't." His arms slid around her waist and pulled her closely against his large frame. "Stay here with me, Rainey. Don 't go."
She froze against his body. Stay with him.
The words sang in her heart. Stay with him. If he only knew how much she wanted to. She wanted to turn and throw her arms around his neck, but something held her back. She asked cautiously, "What do you mean?"
"Do I have to spell it out?" he rasped, and the words seemed forced from him. "I want you to come live with
me. I want you to marry me."
Marry him! Had she heard right? Were her ears playing tricks on her? The words echoed, reverberating in her mind. Slowly she turned around, taking a deep controlling breath, looking into his shadowed eyes. "Why, Thorne?" she whispered, forcing the words from between stiff lips.
He looked down at her for several long seconds, a pulse beating wildly in his jaw. "Hell! Isn't it obvious?" he ground out. "Do I have to say the words?"
Rainey stood there in the circle of his arms, her eyes as wide and unblinking as a startled fawn's as she waited for his answer.
"Because I love you, Rainey," he said, his voice suddenly like dark velvet. His face was taut with barely concealed emotion as his gaze held hers.
"You love me?" Her body began to tremble violently as her mind struggled to accept what she had heard.
"Yes," he grated, waiting for her reaction. His silvery eyes held a vulnerability that she had never expected to see there.
"Don't say that if you don't mean it, Thorne," she whispered, still unconvinced. Could she really believe him, or was this just his way of trying to get her to stay with him?
"Of course I mean it," he said harshly, his eyes never leaving her face. "I've been fighting this thing from the first moment I saw you. You were so young then. Only a child. But I told myself that I could wait. That I'd wait forever if it took that long." He kissed her ear. "Don't you know how much I care for you, Rainey? Couldn't you guess? You're in my bloodstream, under my skin. Without you, I think I'd even stop breathing. I know I'd go on loving you even if I never saw you again."
Rainey listened to him, her whole attention focused on what he was saying, forced into believing it by the desperation revealed in his voice. She had never known Thorne to speak so seriously.
"I fell in love with a young girl," he continued. "I felt so foolish. I didn't know what hit me. There you stood, your hair so wild and tangled, and there I was, struck like a ton of bricks. I made myself responsible for you that day, Rainey. Not because of any ideals, but because I knew even then that my future lay with you."
Rainey could hardly believe what she was hearing. She held her breath, fearful she would wake up and discover that she had only been dreaming.
Thorne watched her emotions play across her face, then he looked away from her, clenching his hands as though he were on the point of violence. "I was even jealous of Robert! What a laugh! A man like that," he grated. "I heard he was engaged to another woman, but when I saw you together, then I thought . . .well, you know what I thought." His mouth twisted in self derision. "You've got me tied up in knots, Rainey. I hurt, and it's a pain that's hard to bear. It never stops." His gaze moved back to her face. He watched silently for a moment, then said, "Are you going to put me out
of my misery, Rainey?"
"Could I really do that?”
"Yes. You could. If you wanted to. Stay with me, Rainey. Let me love you. Give me a chance to make you love me."
"But I already do," she whispered softly in his ear. "Didn't you know that?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" he groaned, pulling her roughly against him. He cupped her face in his hands and bent to kiss her gently, reverently, on the lips. "I love you, Rainey," he whispered huskily. "You'll never know just how much I love you, but I'll take my whole lifetime to prove it to you."
Rainey returned his kisses, feverishly, unreservedly. "A lifetime suits me just fine," she told him.
Laughing, he swooped her into his arms and headed for the bedroom door. Pausing just inside the room, he hesitated with a foot lifted to kick the door shut, then as if changing his mind, he laid her gently on the bed and returned to close the door softly. At her puzzled look, he explained, "I don't want to take any chances that the door slamming would bring you to your senses.''
She laughed, rejoicing in his love as she pulled his head down to meet hers.
The End
I want to thank my family for all the support they’ve given me while working to change my books over into Kindle form. Especially, my daughters.