Then he put his arms round her and pulled her close against him and his lips found hers.
To Ivana his kiss was a miracle that swept away her fears and her apprehensions and she felt as if suddenly she had been carried into the blazing glory of the sun.
She had never been kissed before and the Marquis’s lips gave her an ecstatic feeling which made her respond to him with a joy and a rapture that seemed to invade her whole body like the waves of the sea.
She did not know it was possible to feel anything so wonderful, so perfect and, as she pressed herself closer and still closer to the Marquis, she was sure that she must be dreaming.
Yet he filled the whole world and there was nothing else but the wonder of his lips and the security of his arms.
‘I am safe! I am safe!’ she thought, ‘and I need never be – afraid again.’
Then the Marquis was kissing her demandingly, passionately, until she was unable to breathe or even think because of the sensations he aroused in her.
The Marquis raised his head.
“My darling, my sweet,” he said a little unsteadily. “I can hardly believe it true, but I believe I am the first man who has ever kissed you.”
“The – only one and I did not – know a kiss could be so – wonderful!”
“Tell me what I make you feel,” he asked masterfully.
“I – love – you. I have loved you – ever since I first – saw you – but I did not know it was – love, until I came here to Heathcliffe.”
“Then what did you feel?”
“I dreaded the – moment when I had to – leave and perhaps never – see you again.”
“That is something which will never happen,” the Marquis asserted. “You are mine, Ivana, mine completely and absolutely and we will be together always by day – and by night.”
He said the last words slowly and watched the colour flare into her cheeks. Then he pulled her close against him again.
“My darling, innocent little love,” he said. “How could anyone believe for a moment that you are a married woman when you blush like that?”
“I felt sure you – believed me,” Ivana stammered, “even though you asked such – embarrassing questions about – my husband.”
“The only husband you are going to have is me,” the Marquis declared, “and let me say that now you have my engagement ring on your finger I shall not allow Anthony to go on flirting with you in that outrageous manner!”
He saw the question in her eyes and added,
“I have been jealous, crazily jealous of my best friend, very apprehensive lest you fell in love with him and there would be nothing I could do about it.”
“It was you – always – you,” Ivana said with a little throb in her voice.
She turned her face against his shoulder, but the Marquis put his fingers under her chin and looked down into her eyes.
“How can I have been so lucky as to have found you?” he asked.
He would have kissed her, but Ivana whispered,
“I was afraid – terribly afraid that you would change your mind – and would want – after all to marry – the beautiful Lady Rose.”
“That I have never wanted to do,” the Marquis said positively, “and, my darling, in case you are worrying about her, I promise you that there will be no more Roses or women of her sort in my life. I know now that what I was seeking, undoubtedly in all the wrong places, was you.”
“I will try to be – everything you want me to be,” Ivana said humbly, “and do exactly what you – wish.”
The Marquis laughed.
“I very much doubt it,” he said, “and I think because you are so original and have so much personality, my lovely one, you will intrigue, delight and even mystify me, however many years we are together.”
He put his lips against the softness of her cheek before he said,
“How could I have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would marry a highwayman?”
His arms tightened as he added,
“You looked very elegant in your breeches, but they are something you will never wear again for any man to see, except myself.”
“You sound as if I – shocked you.”
“I was shocked that I should be held up by a woman, but I am much more shocked now I know that it was someone adorable and very alluring who is to be my wife.”
Ivana gave a little sigh of sheer happiness. Then she said,
“It is not really – right for you to marry – anyone like me. Supposing you are – disappointed when you see me among your – friends and are able to compare me with great beauties who – I am sure – love you as I do?”
There was a deep tenderness in the Marquis’s eyes as he looked down at Ivana’s worried blue ones before he answered,
“I think the love that you and I have for each other, my precious one, is very different from the love that is talked about so lightly in the fashionable world.”
“The love I have for you,” she said very softly, “is sacred and part of God. I love you until you fill the whole world and the sky! The only thing I want and pray for is that I shall make you – happy.”
The Marquis held her so tightly that she could hardly breathe.
“This is the love I have been looking for,” he said, “and this is the love I thought I should never find.”
He kissed both her dimples before he added,
“I am the most fortunate man in the world and just as you want to make me happy, my sweet darling, I want to give you the sun, the moon and the stars and a love that is greater than any woman has ever received before.”
“How can you say such – wonderful things to me?” Ivana asked. “First you frightened me – then when I loved you, I thought you were so far out of – reach that apart from the fact that we were – involved together in a – pretend marriage I would never be really close to you, like – this.”
“You will be closer still,” the Marquis affirmed, “but I think we should get properly married first.”
He smiled very tenderly, as he saw Ivana blush again. Then he said,
“I will send Markham to Canterbury for a Special Licence. Then, my sweetheart, we will be married very quietly early in the morning in the village Church with only Anthony as a witness. Will that please you?”
“I think – because it is so – marvellous,” Ivana mumbled, “I am going to – cry.”
“You did not cry when you were threatened with a knife,” the Marquis said. “You did not cry when I told you that you might be hanged. If you cry now, I shall feel I have failed to give you the happiness that you have given me.”
Ivana blinked the tears away from her eyes.
She looked so lovely as she did so that the Marquis moved his lips first over the softness of her cheeks, then lower to the rounded column of her neck.
Ivana felt a strange thrill run through her body like quicksilver and her lips parted.
“Please – please – ” she whispered.
The Marquis raised her head.
“Do you not like my kissing you like that, my darling?”
“I like it – but it – makes me – feel so excited – and – wild!”
He smiled.
“That is how I want you to feel – I have so much to teach you, my dearest heart.”
She moved a little closer to him.
“Teach me – please teach me.”
He looked down at her with a tenderness that no woman had ever seen before.
“I worship you,” he said softly.
“And I love – you – I adore – you!” Ivana said with a touch of passion that made the Marquis seek her lips.
He kissed her until the room seemed to spin dizzily around them both and once again Ivana felt that he carried her into the blazing light of the sun and they were one with the burning glory of it.
Then the Marquis set her lips free and it was as if she broke under the very strain of it, Ivana made an incoherent little murmur and hid her face agai
nst his shoulder.
She was conscious as she did so that his heart was beating as violently as hers and she thrilled to know that she could arouse and excite him.
Because he was human as well as divine, it made her feel even closer to him than she was already.
“You are so – magnificent!” she exclaimed.
“And you are so soft and sweet as well as beautiful that I have no words to tell you how much I want to kiss you from the top of your head to the soles of your little feet.”
He spoke with a deep passionate note in his voice and Ivana whispered,
“You – make me feel – shy.”
“I adore you when you look shy,” the Marquis replied. “I had forgotten there were women in the world who could blush and your shyness, my precious one, thrills me in a way nothing has ever done before.”
His lips moved across her forehead before he said,
“Look at me.”
She raised her head and his eyes searched her face before he said hoarsely,
“I want you – I want you now, this moment and for all eternity.”
The words seemed to come from the very depths of his being and then, as if he tried to speak more calmly, he said,
“I suppose I should really be taking you to task, my lovely one, for stealing from me one more of my possessions.”
“Stealing?” Ivana questioned.
“You have stolen my heart. It is something that I thought was safe from the most determined and experienced of robbers and now I have lost it. It is in your keeping for all time!”
“I will never – let it go,” Ivana cried, “I shall love it – cherish it – adore it and, as long as I can keep it, I want nothing else in the – whole world.”
The last words were swept away by the Marquis’s lips.
Then, as he kissed her fiercely, demandingly, possessively, Ivana knew they had found that which all people seek, the perfect love that can never, in fact, be stolen, but only given by God.
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
Ola and the Sea Wolf
The Castle made for Love
A Heart is Stolen
The Love Pirate
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
A Heart is Stolen
Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
This edition © 2013
Copyright Cartland Promotions 1980
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