The Art of Love

by Lacey, Lilac

  ‘I didn’t come to boast of my conquests!’ Tara cried, pushed almost to breaking point and unable the fathom the riddles in which Leo persisted in talking.

  ‘So you are seriously contemplating these two offers?’ Leo demanded and despite her anguish, Tara wondered why he looked so horrified.

  ‘Yes!’ she said. ‘I have to…’

  ‘But why?’ Leo asked, running his hands through his hair and Tara had the sudden feeling that they had at last got to the heart of the matter.

  ‘Because they asked me!’ she said and let her words fall into the long silence that followed. Then, to her utter amazement, Leo began to laugh.

  ‘Because they asked you?’ he repeated. He closed the gap between them and took her hands with an infinite gentleness which was as disconcerting as his amusement. ‘My dear and darling Tara, you of all people cannot possibly marry for as mundane a reason as that. You know, and you have known since the first time we met, that we are meant for each other, it is undeniable. That is why, with two proposals up your sleeve you are alone here with me. However, as you imply, I have never actually proposed to you.’ Tara looked into Leo’s eyes and all humour faded from his face, to be replaced by a look of such love that she could no longer doubt his feeling for her as he took her other hand and went down on one knee. ‘Lady Tara, will you marry me?’

  Tara stared at Leo, incredulous, drinking in the fact that the one man, the only man she loved with all her heart, had, at last, asked her to marry him. She felt overwhelmed with love and she knew that she would remember this moment for all time; Leo down on one knee, both her hands clasped in his, and the sun streaming in through the tall windows at the end of the room, gliding him with its light as he gazed up at her. She was speechless with happiness.

  ‘Well?’ Leo asked, though she suspected he already knew the answer, had known it forever, ‘will you marry me?’

  ‘Yes!’ Tara said, ‘Yes, oh yes!’ and in one fluid movement she was in his arms being kissed with a passion which excelled all that had gone before. Life was utterly perfect and so was Leo.

  THE END

  Also by Lilac Lacey

  Picture Perfect