'A special licence! You want to—to marry me?'
'Oh no, I don't believe it? You're not going to find an objection even to that, are you?' The words were despairing but the warm, tender, loving expression in his eyes wasn't. It wrapped around her heart, warming it, releasing all the restraints she had put upon it so that it opened up, so that all the love she had so sternly repressed brimmed over into her bloodstream and shone from her eyes.
'Oh no,' she assured him, half crying, 'I'm not going to object. If you love me only half as much as I love you…'
With a growl he swept her into a rib-crushing embrace but she made not a squeak of protest, her own arms coiling fiercely round his neck as she pressed against him, wanting only to meld her flesh with his so that they were one.
'Now will you phone Seth Dewis and tell him you won't be on that plane, after all?' he said as he lowered her to the ground.
'As a matter of fact…' Her smile flickered up at him with a hint of mischief. 'I hadn't actually told him to expect me. I thought I'd stay for a while in New York to see if I liked it before I contacted him.'
'So you hadn't given up on me.' His hand cupped her cheek and for a few moments his eyes held a terrible anguish. 'When I think how nearly I lost you! Just another few hours…'
She covered his hand with hers, nuzzling into his palm. 'Perhaps having so nearly lost each other will make what we have now ever more precious.'
'Oh God, I do love you, Sorrel!; he said in a shaken voice, and beneath her hand she felt his tremble. 'I want to give you the world, snatch down the moon for you.'
'There's nothing I want, only you… your love,' she said, then blushing, 'And your children. That was my worst moment, when I knew I wasn't pregnant. I'd hoped I was, you see.'
There was tenderness and understanding as he looked down into her upraised face. 'You can have all the children you want. Our very own family. And a house. We'll keep on my apartment with Peter to look after it for when we have to be in London, but we'll look for a house in the country, somewhere that family of ours can grow, big enough so their grandparents can come and visit, too.'
Sorrel didn't even have to close her eyes to picture it in her imagination. Oh yes, he understood her all right, the craving that was the legacy of her lonely, unwanted childhood.
'But for the present,' Luc went on smiling, 'there's only one question to decide, and that's where you stay for the next few days until we can arrange that wedding. My mother would be delighted to look after you, but your father might expect to have first call. Then again, you could come home with me.'
All three alternatives had their own separate appeal, but Sorrel was in no doubt which she preferred. 'Would your mother be very shocked if I stayed with you?' she asked shyly.
His delighted grin told her the whole world could be shocked and he wouldn't care. 'Let's collect your luggage and go, then.'
As soon as they opened Sorrel's front door, Tammy and Charlie popped out of theirs opposite. 'Listening for screams?' Luc asked sardonically. With one suitcase in his hand and the other clamped beneath his elbow, his free arm curved Sorrel against him. 'As you can see, she's still in one piece and now I'm taking her home.' He grinned at their startled expression. 'My grateful thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. You'll be getting an invitation to the wedding just as soon as we've fixed the date.'
'Wedding!' Tammy squealed. Sorrel found herself being hugged exuberantly while Luc had to drop the suitcases as a grinning Charlie pumped his hand. 'I don't know what went wrong between you two, but I always did tell you he loved you, now didn't I?' Tammy demanded.
'Indeed you did.' Sorrel hugged her back. She was going to miss these two very good friends, but parting from them now wasn't as traumatic as it would have been had she still been flying off to America tomorrow, for now she had a golden future to look forward to. Luc and his love, not fool's gold after all, but the pure, unadulterated real thing.
Luc picked up the bags again and held out his hand. 'Come on, my darling, let's go home.'
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Unnamed
This Man's Magic Page 18