'She said that you came back without going to Madrid because you could not afford the new salon,' Beth told him, her face filled with happiness.
'I came back so soon because I found to my great astonishment that I could not bear to be away from you,' he said softly. 'I knew then that I loved you. I was furious to think that you had been out with Alain.'
'I hadn't!' Beth assured him, adding quietly, 'You never told me that you loved me until I nearly fell today. That's what made me get rid of my fear. I think it gave me a greater shock. I never realised that you might love me. I knew that you—you wanted me but I thought that you and Gabrielle…'
'Gabrielle was a part of my life before I met you,' he confessed softly, 'but we have never been lovers, if that is what is worrying you. I had thought that I would never have any feelings again, would never trust any woman with my life.' He stroked her face, his eyes tender. 'My feelings for you were not even reasonable. I was simply mad for you almost from the first. Perhaps I should have said the words,' he whispered against her cheek, 'but I imagined that you must surely know. I cannot look at you with anything but love in my eyes. I cannot bear it when you are not there.' His hands moved over her with complete ownership. 'I suppose that I have loved you from the moment that our eyes first met, when I saw you through that shop window in your strange attire with your hair like a rope of gold down your back and your beautiful nose twitching as you pulled a face at that woman.'
Beth began to laugh delightedly and then suddenly stopped as she remembered her life before she had met Gaetan.
'If you had not found me…' she said softly.
'But I would have found you, my own,' he smiled. 'I was looking for you with the intention of giving you a severe beating, but when I saw you, I could not quite get my feet back on to the ground. They are still not on the ground. I think that they never will be.'
'I thought that I was intruding into your life,' Beth said, flinging her arms around his neck.
'And I feared that you would walk out of it,' he whispered, tightening her to him and looking into her upturned face. 'Do you know how much I love you, my beloved darling?' he asked quietly.
She did. It was in his face, in his eyes, in the arms that held her close. She would never be alone again, and as his lips closed over hers, the unhappy past died away completely in the love that flowed between them.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Beloved Intruder Page 17