‘We’d be grateful,’ he told her dryly, and she waved her fingers at them before disappearing.
The second she was gone Ginny, who had been stunned to hear him utter those words to her father, squared up to him.
‘You shouldn’t lie to Lucy. You couldn’t possibly mean what you said,’ she said sternly, and Roarke quirked an eyebrow at her.
‘Why not?’
Ginny really wasn’t in the mood for games. She just wanted him to get the bad news over with. ‘Because we both know you don’t…care about me.’
He smiled faintly. ‘We do? I don’t?’
Already agitated, she didn’t care for him pushing her buttons one by one. ‘Don’t mess with me. You know I’m just the woman you…’
‘Have great sex with?’ he offered helpfully, and his grey eyes glittered with amusement and something else she couldn’t put a name to.
Hot colour stained her cheeks at the blunt words, and she turned her back on him because emotional tears were stinging her eyes, making them sparkle like diamonds. ‘OK, have your fun. I know I deserve it. I’ve ruined everything with what I said last night. If you hadn’t made me so mad, it never would have popped out and surprised us both!’
‘I’m glad it did. It was what I was aiming for, after all,’ Roarke informed her matter-of-factly, and she spun round, her mouth dropping open.
‘What?’
‘I do love you, you know,’ Roarke told her simply. ‘I tried to tell you as much last night, but you hung up on me.’
Ginny searched his eyes, her heart lurching madly in her chest. She saw an earnestness there that seemed to suggest he meant it, but… ‘You can’t love me. You told me you don’t intend to love anyone!’ she exclaimed breathlessly.
‘I know I did, and up until a few days ago I fully believed I meant it. Then something happened to change my mind,’ he told her gently. ‘I had to get away to check it out. That was why I went to New York. I couldn’t tell you until I was certain, so I lied about the trip. My mind was so mixed up I forgot about Grandfather, though.’
Having spent a night of sheer misery, cursing her own foolishness, Ginny only slowly began to accept that the sky hadn’t fallen in after all. On the contrary, a miracle had happened.
Her heart began to swell with unexpected joy. ‘You really love me?’ she asked in a voice thick with emotion.
The laughter faded from his eyes, and he looked down at her intently. ‘I really do.’
Tears overflowed, but they were happy ones. It only took a step to bring her to him, and then she threw her arms about his neck and hugged him painfully close. ‘Oh, God, I thought I’d ruined everything!’ she exclaimed, and Roarke framed her head with his hands and looked down at her.
‘Instead your anger gave me hope. I nudged you into saying what I wanted to hear, but when I wanted to tell you how I felt, you cut me off. So I caught the first plane out in order to get to you and make it right. Have I made it right? Do you forgive me for deceiving you?’
Her smile was watery. ‘It couldn’t be righter. And of course I forgive you. How could I not, when I love you so much?’
‘Then come and kiss me. I need it like a thirsty man needs water,’ he growled.
It was a kiss like no other they had shared for, whilst passion hovered in the background, this kiss was a promise. A sealing of what they had just said in words. It transcended the physical, and yet left them with a sense of profound fulfilment.
‘So, what made you change your mind about love?’ Ginny asked some time later when Roarke had carried her to the sofa and stretched out on it with her in his arms.
‘Caroline,’ he replied, rubbing his cheek gently over her hair. ‘She thought we were in love. She thought it was obvious. So I asked myself the question. Did I love you? The reply stunned me. I did.’
Ginny settled her hand over his heart, feeling it beating strongly. ‘So why did you go to New York?’
‘Because I had to be sure. I went to the place where I was bound to run into any number of attractive available women. Do you know what I found out? I wasn’t interested in a single one of them. The highlight of my day was talking to you at night. It didn’t take more than forty-eight hours to make me certain I didn’t want anyone else.’
‘It only took me ten minutes,’ Ginny countered smugly.
‘After I’d winkled the truth out of you!’
‘That was a dastardly trick. Do you know how miserable I was, thinking I’d scored an own goal?’ she charged aggrievedly.
Roarke laughed. ‘I’ll make it up to you.’
‘The list is growing. You already said I could have anything I want for agreeing to help you out,’ she reminded him.
‘I did say that, didn’t I? Have you decided what it’s to be?’
Ginny smiled to herself as her finger traced lazy patterns over his shirt. ‘I think what I would really like is a baby. Two, actually, to keep each other company. Then we could add to them as time goes by.’
Roarke laughed huskily. ‘Don’t you think we should get married first?’
She lifted herself enough to meet his eyes. ‘Are you asking me?’
‘Sounds like it,’ he confirmed lazily.
‘Then the answer is yes. However, it doesn’t stop us working on the baby, does it?’ she flirted with him, eyes gleaming suggestively.
Roarke groaned and settled her back down. ‘You’re shameless, do you know that? You only said it because Lucy’s in your bedroom.’
Ginny laughed happily. ‘She won’t be long. Besides, we have time. All the time in the world.’
Which was just as well, for when Lucy came out of the bedroom some time later she found them wrapped in each other’s arms, fast asleep.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8068-1
HIS AFTER-HOURS MISTRESS
First North American Publication 2003.
Copyright © 2003 by Amanda Browning.
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His After-Hours Mistress Page 17