Something really good.
She really did need to get out and give them some time alone but still she hesitated.
‘It’s OK, Bells,’ Kate said. ‘I’m not mad at you. You honestly believe the best of people and most of the time it’s a very good trait to have. And, you know, you might have just done us all a favour.’
‘What?’ The word came out as a surprised squeak.
‘It sounds like they’re going to lock Kevin up and throw the key away this time and that’s going to keep us all safe. You brought things out into the open and that’s probably where they should have been all along. Secrets can be destructive.’
She looked up at Connor and smiled and Bella knew she was really, really in the way now.
‘I’m going,’ she announced. ‘I’m going to ring Mum and Dad and confess before they hear about it from anyone else. Especially the police. I’ll see you later.’
The ‘Crime Scene—Do Not Disturb’ tape had been torn off one side of the doorframe. Bella paused and looked over her shoulder to see Connor closing the door of Kate’s office. Then she saw his hands reach for the
venetian-blind control, shutting the office into a completely private space.
Bella’s lips twitched. This couldn’t be counted as meddling, could it?
She picked up the end of the red tape and stuck it back on the doorframe. The cleaners and anybody else would just have to wait a while.
* * *
Kate watched Connor close and lock the door of her office and close the blinds. Giving them privacy.
This was the furthest he’d been away from her since he’d barrelled into her with that rugby tackle that had probably saved her from getting half a broken bottle in her face.
The memory of how real the danger she’d been in had been seemed to be causing some kind of delayed reaction now that it was finally all over and everybody else had gone. Kate was trembling all over.
‘Oh, Katie...’ The tenderness in Connor’s voice undid her completely.
Kate took his outstretched hands and let him pull her to her feet and into his arms.
‘Hold me,’ she whispered. ‘Please... I want to feel safe.’
‘You are safe,’ Connor whispered back. ‘I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Kate.’
Safe. Yes, despite the trembling, Kate did still feel safe. Safer than she’d ever felt in her life because, for the first time, she wasn’t totally responsible for her own safety like she had been when she’d been keeping those dark secrets. Connor knew almost everything about her and...he loved her?
Kate had to pull back to look into his face and search for confirmation of those miraculous words.
And it was there. In the way he was looking at her. In the love she could see in his eyes. In the way his hands were holding her. Loosely now, so that his hands could stroke her body.
‘I should never have let you send me away the other night but I didn’t know what to say. Or do. I’m so sorry, Kate.’
She shook her head. He had nothing to be sorry for.
‘I didn’t want you to think I was trying to take control. To tell you what to do. I didn’t know what to do. I needed to think. To figure things out.’
He sounded so sincere. So...confident?
‘And did you? Figure things out?’
Connor nodded slowly. ‘I reckon. I wasn’t sure until I was standing outside the department and I saw Bella and I knew you were in danger and then I knew.’
‘Knew what?’
‘How much I love you.’
Kate’s vision misted. ‘I love you, too, Connor. You’re...amazing.’
A hint of a smile tugged at his lips. ‘It’s going to be all right, you know.’
‘What is?’
‘Us. Life. We both know what it’s like not to be loved. We’ve both been too scared to take the risk of loving someone in case it happened again, but it’s not going to happen again, Katie. Not ever. I can’t not love you, do you understand? Not ever.’
‘Oh...’ Kate breathed. ‘I understand.’ Of course she did. It was the way she felt about Connor. Her love for him was a part of every cell of her being. If it went away, she would cease to exist.
‘We’re perfect for each other,’ Connor whispered. ‘And that makes anything possible. Making love... Making a baby, even.’
The flutter of panic was muted but it was still there. Enough to make Kate’s body tense involuntarily.
‘You’re going too fast,’ she gasped.
‘I’m sorry.’ Connor pulled her close again and this time he was rocking her gently. The tension ebbed and a soft warmth stole through Kate.
‘I want you,’ Connor murmured just above her ear. ‘I want everything. I want to marry you, Katie.’ She felt his chest heave as he took a very deep breath. ‘That’s all I really need. Could you go that far?’
Kate had to swallow past the constriction in her throat. ‘Yes...’ she managed. ‘Oh...yes.’
The distance between them increased as though they both needed to see the face of the other. For a long, long moment they stared at each other, soaking in the wonder of the words that had just been spoken. The promise that had been made. The hope that the future suddenly held.
Connor’s face wasn’t quite clear, however. Were tears blurring her eyes? Kate reached under her glasses to wipe them away and felt them being lifted from her face.
‘You don’t need those right now,’ Connor told her. He put them down on the desk behind them and then turned back with a smile. ‘I’ve had a fantasy about doing this,’ he
told Kate.
‘What...taking off my glasses?’
‘Mmm. And this.’ Connor hands went to the end of the braid hanging over her shoulder and he pulled off the band holding it together. He used his fingers to tease out the bends until her hair was completely loose. Then he wound lengths of it around his hands until they reached the back of her head and Kate couldn’t move. He angled her head gently
and bent his own to meet her lips with his.
And Kate still felt safe.
Floating in safety.
Free.
Her hands were on the back of Connor’s head, urging him to deepen the kiss. Until he had to pull away.
‘If I don’t stop now, I won’t be able to,’ he warned.
‘I don’t want you to.’ Kate was breathless. Panting, almost. ‘I love you, Connor. I...I want you and I...don’t want to wait. Please...’
Connor’s eyes widened. He was genuinely shocked. ‘I’m sure there’s all sorts of rules about people carrying on like this in a hospital office space,’ he murmured.
‘I don’t care,’ Kate said. ‘This is my office. I make the rules.’
* * *
Good grief.
This was Kate Graham. Breaking rules. Wild and wanton, just like that fantasy of unleashing the librarian he’d had about her in what seemed like a lifetime ago.
This was completely the wrong time and the wrong place so why did it feel so right? So incredibly exciting all of a sudden?
Was it because Kate was free and this was her choice? The secrets of her locked up past had been thrown into the open and they hadn’t destroyed her. Instead, they seemed to have given her a new power.
Or was it because she felt safe with him? Safe enough to love him. Safe enough to agree to marry him. And she was safe. Connor had never felt so powerful. So confident that he could love and protect this woman for the rest of their lives.
And he was loving the way Kate was feverishly undoing his shirt buttons. The way she pressed her lips to the bare skin of his chest and then lifted her face for another kiss. Was he going to put the brakes on for the sake of rules made by people who couldn’t possibly understand the miracle of what was happening her
e?
Not likely.
He cradled Kate close as he reached under the flaps of her white coat with its missing buttons to unzip her skirt. This was going to be the best sex she’d ever had, he could guarantee it. It would undoubtedly be the best he’d ever had to because he’d never been in love with anyone like this before.
And maybe it was a bit frantic and a bit messy because they didn’t even take off all their clothes and it wasn’t very romantic, even, but the cry of a woman’s fulfilment had never sounded so sweet. His own had never been so heartfelt.
They could do romance later with candles and wine and soft sheets. They would do it later. Countless times, if he had any say in the matter. But nothing could beat this. A wild, triumphant leap into the future.
Their future.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459235663
Copyright © 2012 by Alison Roberts
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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