by Flora Kidd
'Didn't it ever occur to you that I love you because you are like that? Because you're so very different from any other woman I've known well? Because you're generous and kind and fairly good-humoured?' Turning on to his side, he held her closely to him. 'I love you, I want you,' he whispered thickly. 'For me the two go together. I can't separate them. I can only make love to you because I love only you. Do you get the message?'
'I think so. Oh, Alun, what a good thing you came back today! I might have done something else very silly if you hadn't.'
'Such as?' he demanded, his voice soft and sibilant with menace.
'I ... I'll tell you another time,' stammered Jessica, hastily backing away from telling him she had been close to submitting to Chris Pollet's lovemaking. 'It wasn't very important,' she added, sensing that he wasn't satisfied with her answer. 'Not as important as the way I feel about you.' She arched her body to the touch of his hands. 'Alun, please say you'll always come back to me, when you've been away?'
'I'll always come back to you, that is if you'll have me,' he vowed, sounding rather humble for him.
'I'll have you. I'll always have you. I want you to be a part of my life always,' she vowed in her turn. 'I want to have your children and no one else's. I want to create a home for us and them, for you to come back to.'
'And that's what I want too, my golden girl, my shining gift,' he whispered. 'Always have wanted and always will.'
And as the last mists that had shrouded their love for each other, hiding their real feelings from each other, lifted and floated away, their love blazed up, a pure white flame consuming all doubts and inhibitions and lighting the way to the complete fulfilment of all their desires.