Storm Force
Page 15
‘You don’t know what you’re saying …’
‘Sweetheart, I do. I love you, Maggie, and I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. Let me try at least to make you care about me. I know your career means a hell of a lot to you, and you’re not interested in marriage—heaven knows you’ve told me so often enough—but you could combine the two. Other women do it.’
He stood up, kicking the chair away. ‘When I saw you walking away from me that day, it was like tearing my heart out. But I had to let you go. I couldn’t go on sharing that room night after night, suffering the tortures of the damned, and not have you.’
‘But you turned me down.’ The words were difficult to say. ‘I—asked you—and you …’
‘Because I wanted you too much. I knew if I took you, it had to be for life. Marriage or nothing. I didn’t think you wanted that.’ He gestured impatiently. ‘All you ever talked about was breaking off our engagement—never seeing me again. I couldn’t face the thought of having you at last—and losing you.’
He sighed. ‘And you kept pushing me at Kylie too.’ He gave her an accusing glare. ‘You seemed to want me to have an affair with her.’
‘You didn’t seem to mind. You spent enough time with her.’
‘I was a guest in her house, for goodness’ sake. And she’s attractive and amusing—when she’s not being a dragon lady.’ He whistled appreciatively. ‘If she and Gloria Ebelstein ever fall out, it’ll be the clash of the Titans all over again. I thought if I hung round her, you might get jealous. But it didn’t happen. I couldn’t get near you. Every night when I came back to the room, I used to stand and look at you, pretending to be asleep, and I’d ask myself, “What would she do if I kissed her—took her in my arms?”.’ He grimaced. ‘Then I’d remember that I’d given you my word I wouldn’t start anything, and I’d get into my own bed, and pretend to be asleep too.’
She said in a low voice, ‘I—pushed you away, because I felt the same as you—that it had to be all or nothing. I’ve loved you—wanted to give myself to you—almost from the first, I think, but I was terrified of being a one-night stand—one of a crowd. I dared not take the risk.’
He looked at her gravely, ‘Even when you thought I was a rapist?’
‘I didn’t think that for very long.’ Maggie bent her head. ‘After all, you supplied me with plenty of evidence about your self-control, from that first night onwards.’
‘I was such a bastard to you.’ His mouth twisted. ‘To be honest, my love, I didn’t know what to make of you. You were the first woman I’d met in years who made it clear she’d rather stamp all over my feet than throw herself at them. So I—over-reacted.
‘But after I pulled you out of that car, everything changed. I was determined to make you trust me, although I wasn’t sure why.’ He shuddered. ‘I even mended your bloody roof for you—the first time I’d been more than a few feet off the ground in a long time.’
‘You’re really frightened of heights?’ Maggie shook her head. ‘I—I thought you were kidding me.’
‘No.’ His mouth tightened. ‘During the pilot for McGuire, the guy doing my stunts was an old friend. I’d actually got him the job. He had a bad fall, and ended up paralysed. He died a year ago.’ He gave her a level glance. ‘You’re not the only one to have nightmares, lady.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. Going up on that roof was good for me. It was something I needed to face.’ He smiled at her, and touched her cheek with his fingertip. ‘When you turned to me after your own nightmare, I thought I’d cracked it. That I’d got you to trust me at last. I wanted so badly to hold you, and kiss away everything that had ever hurt or frightened you.
‘Then the Press found us, and it all went wrong. I thought I’d lost you, and I was nearly desperate. I started to hope again when you told me about your stepfather at the villa. I told myself you wouldn’t have confided in me like that, if you hadn’t cared for me a little. But afterwards, I was out in the cold again.’
She flushed. ‘I wasn’t very cold—that last afternoon.’
‘No,’ he said gently. ‘You were everything I’d dreamed you’d be, my darling. But being able to arouse you sexually is only part of it. Getting you to love me, live with me, fight with me, have my children and grow old with me is something else again.’ He took both her hands in his. ‘But nothing less will do. Marry me, Maggie. Be my wife.’
‘Yes,’ she said wonderingly. She looked into his eyes, her face transfigured. ‘Oh, darling, yes.’
He looked at her for a long moment, then pulled her into his arms, kissing her deeply, hungrily.
When she could breathe, and speak, she said, ‘Jay—I used the spare room again tonight, because I couldn’t face the loneliness of the big bed without you. If I—make the running a second time, will you turn me down again?’
He smiled into her hair. ‘Try me.’
She looked up at him shyly. ‘Darling—I want you so much. Sleep with me, please.’
He laughed, and lifted her off her feet into his arms, holding her against his heart.
‘I thought you’d never ask,’ he said. And carried her up the stairs into the friendly darkness.
ISBN: 978-1-474-05529-1
STORM FORCE
© 2016 Sara Craven
Published in Great Britain 2016
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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