Australian Bachelors, Sassy Brides

by Margaret Way

  Even when she had discovered that deep down she loved him, had fallen in love all the more with him later?

  ‘You were crab whispering.’ He said it with what she would have sworn was admiration. ‘I could see how much the group enjoyed themselves.’

  ‘Yes, I took them through the caves. It might sound like a silly concept, but the guests love it.’ She forced herself to meet his gaze. ‘I love it.’ At least she did when she could concentrate on it. ‘Why are you here, Gideon? I heard from Mary just today. We spoke on the phone, so I know there’s nothing amiss there.’

  ‘I’ve talked with her recently, too. Mary and Mac sound very happy.’ Gideon took a step closer to her and cleared his throat. ‘I was wrong to doubt Mac and Mary’s love, Callie. It is enough to carry them through anything.’

  He searched her eyes as he spoke these words.

  Callie swallowed hard. ‘I’m happy for Mary and Mac—’

  ‘I am, too. But that’s not what I want to talk about.’ He threw out one hand, as though he didn’t know how to go on. The struggle inside him was obvious, and she wanted to help him through it. She just didn’t know how to do that.

  I would love him through it.

  I would love him through anything—just like Mary would love Mac through anything.

  ‘Gideon…’

  ‘Will you come for a walk on the beach with me, Callie?’

  He reached out his hand and Callie placed her hand in his. Her heart hurt so much—but how could she do anything but go with him?

  They walked until they came to all those glass containers. Here, the beach was sandy and flat. They stopped, and Gideon turned her to face him. He swallowed hard, and in the moonlight she thought she caught a nervous expression in his eyes.

  A moment later she figured she must have imagined it because she wanted it to be there.

  ‘You want to be released—you need better closure—maybe you don’t want me working in your employ? I could find another job.’

  Maybe if she said it for him they could get through this faster, and then she could get to the part where her heart started to heal and she got on with her life without thinking of him every moment of every day, longing for his arms around her every second of every endless night.

  ‘No. You’re perfect here.’ He gripped her hands, closed his eyes and inhaled. ‘That’s not what I want from you, Callie. It’s not why I’m here. I thought I’d be able to tell you—that it would be easy once I was face to face with you.’ Gideon’s hands squeezed hers and he seemed so intense.

  ‘You’re scaring me.’

  ‘That’s the last thing I want to do. Can I…can I hold you?’ He leaned forward, rested his chin on the top of her head. His lips stirred her hair, the lightest of kisses, and then he leaned back enough to look into her eyes once again. ‘Do you feel it, too? When we touch? This need that starts so deep inside and spreads?’

  Yes. She felt it. And in those few short seconds Callie went through so many emotions. Love, need, affection, hope, fear.

  Hope was the thing that scared her the most. Because hope was something she had kept to the parts of her life she could control.

  Even when she had loved Gideon years ago she hadn’t let herself hope he would love her back. Not really. Not enough to stick around and fight for that love.

  And she had walked away a second time, hadn’t she?

  Callie stared at this man she held in the depths of her heart, and she realised she had shown weakness by walking away like that. She should have stayed and fought for what she wanted—should have at least told him what was in her heart and what she needed from him.

  What was the worst that could have happened? He would have rejected her? Been there, let that happen—not once, but twice. Well, she had decided she would go to him, and now she had that chance.

  ‘Gideon, I want to tell you—’

  ‘Will you let me say something first, Callie?’ He squeezed her hands. ‘Let me say it by showing you, and then let me say it with words? I need to do both. For this. With you.’

  He stepped away, walked until he reached the first of those glass containers. He bent down and a lighter flared in the darkness. A candle came to life, and Callie realised it was inside a fluted glass cover.

  Soon there were more candles lit. He stood back and Callie read the message through eyes that wanted to blur: I love you.

  Her gaze flew to his while all her hopes and her heart leapt inside her.

  ‘I love you and I need you, Callie. When I knew your life might be in danger everything inside me locked up with concern for your safety. I put it down to an old protectiveness, similar to what I felt for you when you were younger, but it was far more than that. The threat to your life made me realise I don’t want to live without you. I want us to make this real.’

  Gideon stepped back along the beach towards Callie. God, she looked so beautiful in the moonlight, with the flicker of the candles’ glow bringing out the shine of her hair and casting shadows and light across her pale face.

  She looked beautiful and scared and confused, but her gaze came to his and she drew a shaky breath. ‘You…love me? How? How do you love me? As a friend? As the girl you inherited from my uncle?’

  ‘As a friend, as that girl.’ Yes, as both those things. But, oh, as so much more than that. Gideon’s voice deepened as he went on. ‘As the woman I held in my arms and loved and didn’t realise I was loving with my heart and my soul, not only my body.’

  He took her hands in his and prayed she would be able to accept what he wanted to give her.

  ‘As someone I can’t do without. I need you, Callie. I love you and need you with all my heart. I asked you to stay longer with me, but I hadn’t let myself admit just why I wanted that. I love you and need you way deep down inside myself, in places I didn’t know were capable of such feelings. I thought I only wanted a society wife—someone who would look good on my arm and fulfil my family’s expectations for the Deveraux heir.’

  He drew a slow breath.

  ‘Being with Dianna proved how hollow that kind of relationship is. All along, deep in my heart, I knew there could be so much more with you. When I held you and made love with you I fell in love with you. And now I know that I need you…to stay with me, to be with me, to let me love you. Not for a day or a week or a few times. For ever.’

  ‘I want to believe you, Gideon.’ Her words were low, cautious. Not fully believing.

  ‘Then believe.’ He glanced at the candles burning on the beach, spelling out his message to her. ‘Believe that message and believe me. I had to come back—to find you and tell you. I don’t…’ The words were hard to say, but they needed to be said. ‘I don’t expect you to love me the way I love you. What I hope is that you might love me a little, and trust in that love to grow over time.’

  Callie looked into Gideon’s eyes and acknowledged that she wanted and needed to trust him with her heart. To trust in the feelings he had found in himself for her. And she needed to trust the love she felt for him—trust enough to give it to him, nothing held back.

  ‘I don’t have to try to grow my love for you, Gid. It’s been there all these years, and it’s still there—strong and sure for you.’

  ‘Are you saying—?’

  ‘I’m saying yes.’ Oh, God. She was, wasn’t she? ‘I’m saying yes to staying. To loving and being loved by you for the rest of my life. Yes to everything you want with me.’

  ‘Then you’re marrying me. Soon.’

  Gideon reached for her, tugged her into his arms and wrapped them right around her. He held on so tightly his fingers dug into her back, and Callie realised hers were digging into his shoulders just as much.

  He kissed her so sweetly then, with such pent-up emotion, and it was the feeling in that kiss that pushed away any lingering doubt she might have had.

  ‘I’d made up my mind to come to you, to tell you how I felt and fight for the chance to be with you and be loved by you.’ She whispered the c
onfession into his neck, and then made herself draw back and look into his eyes, so he could see all her love in her expression. ‘I wanted to fight for you, Gid. For what we could have together. Fight instead of cut and run and not trust in the chance to be loved that way, to…to give love that way.’

  ‘Because you’ve been alone. You haven’t had family, except your uncle. When he died you were alone again, and I sent you away.’

  Callie laid her fingers over his lips and smiled with all that was in her heart and soul. ‘Yes, but in your way you’ve been just as alone. Mary was the closest you got to real family. Your parents are self-absorbed enough that I don’t think they really count, and Dianna…’

  ‘Didn’t love me any more than I loved her. But I am capable of love, Callie.’ He hesitated. ‘I just needed to take it to the right person. That person…is you.’

  ‘I’ll move to Melbourne to be with you.’ The words were an offering. She didn’t want to be apart from him.

  His fingers caught hers and squeezed. ‘I’m not taking you from here, Callie. I’ve realised how wrong that would be. We’ll make the island our base, and I’ll make changes to my workload to make it work. I can pick and choose what I do. I want—’

  ‘Yes?’ She searched his gaze and found all the love and hope and openness she could ever need to see shining there for her.

  ‘I want to be with you. I just…want you, Callie.’ He stroked her cheek with his fingers. ‘And maybe some babies with you one day.’

  Oh, yes. Babies and Gideon and a whole life ahead of them, doing whatever made them the happiest. Callie wanted that!

  ‘I guess we both had to come to a place where we could trust in how much we needed each other.’ She received his kiss and snuggled close to him as the sea breeze rustled over them. ‘It’s okay to need and want and…love.’

  Gideon dipped his head and kissed the tip of her nose, snuggled her closer still. ‘It’s more than okay.’ He looked into her eyes with a question and a promise and a great deal of love. ‘Do you think anyone would notice if we disappeared into the storm shelter until tomorrow? I really need to be alone with you.’

  ‘The storm shelter seems exactly the right place to go.’

  Because Callie had found her safe haven in Gideon and he had found his in her while they were there.

  And so that was where they went!

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-4468-3

  AUSTRALIAN BACHELORS, SASSY BRIDES

  First North American Publication 2009.

  Copyright © 2009 by Harlequin S.A.

  The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:

  THE WEALTHY AUSTRALIAN’S PROPOSAL

  Copyright © 2009 by Margaret Way Pty., Ltd.

  INHERITED BY THE BILLIONAIRE

  Copyright © 2009 by Jennifer Ann Ryan.

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