Suddenly, his earlier words struck her. ‘You said you’d told yourself you wouldn’t use your feelings to make me come back. What are your feelings, Duarte?’
‘Apart from feeling like a fool for letting you go?’ He shook his head softly. ‘I realised that the anger I felt when I got my memory back was so strong because I was in love with you. I never stopped being in love with you—even when your father came to me, even when I lay on the ground with you holding me and begging me to live. And when I found you again those feelings were always there, drawing me back to you. Back to where I belonged. Once I’d worked past my own stubbornness, and once I’d realised how much I hurt you by telling your father you meant nothing to me, I saw that my anger was only towards myself, and I saw how blind I’d been to what I’d had. And I saw that I’d had the kind of second chance that most people can only dream of...’
Nora felt her breathing become shallow as she took a step towards him, flattening her hands against his chest and feeling the steady beat of his heart under her fingertips.
‘I don’t want you to jump back into my arms,’ he said. ‘I know you have every reason to wait and see if I can keep my promises. But if you give me another chance I will do everything right this time. I will show you every ounce of love I possess.’
Nora claimed his lips then, unable to wait another moment to be in the warmth of his embrace. They kissed for what felt like hours, her heart singing with joy at his words, at how his body moulded around hers in a mirror of the relief and longing she felt.
When they finally separated he still held her close and breathed in the scent of her hair. He laughed. ‘I think I might have to go back on that promise to leave.’
‘I think so.’ She smiled. ‘I know we have a lot of plans to discuss, but about your proposal—’
He cut across her. ‘I was wrong to make that proposal. I wanted to force you to stay with me, to be mine. If we do this now I want you to be with me because you want to. I don’t care if we never get married, as long as we’re together.’
‘And if I say I want to live here in the rainforest for ever...?’ Nora breathed, keeping her expression deliberately serious.
His eyes widened slightly. ‘Well, it would be a hell of a commute, but I would make it work somehow.’
She closed her eyes, laughter bubbling in her chest along with an intense euphoria such as she had never experienced before. ‘Well, if that isn’t love I don’t know what is.’
He lowered his mouth, nipping at her neck with his teeth and making her shiver. ‘You are a cruel negotiator, Nora Beckett.’
The kiss that followed was even steamier than the first, leaving both of them out of breath and her shirt wrapped around her waist by the time she had the sense to break away.
‘I don’t really want to live here,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ve spent all week applying for internships in London. I want a fresh start. I want to create a family with you and turn your big house into a home. Our home.’
Her hands travelled over his chest, feeling a bump under his shirt. He smiled self-consciously, revealing a chain around his neck and on the end of it...her diamond engagement ring.
‘I spent hours that day, picking this out.’ He pulled it over his head, placing it in her palm. ‘It doesn’t need to mean anything. It can just be a symbol.’
‘You know, I always dreamt of having my wedding here, in the local chapel, surrounded by the friends of my youth, my mother and our little community.’
Nora held the ring in her palm for a moment, watching it glitter and sparkle in the light. When she finally met his eyes again she felt a wave of emotion so strong it took her breath away. She placed the ring back in his hand.
‘I want it to mean something, Duarte. If you’ll still have me.’
He needed no further encouragement, getting down on one knee right there in the rain-soaked mud and taking her hand in his.
‘I didn’t give you a proper proposal the first time and I won’t make that mistake again.’ He looked up at her, the ring glittering in the light between them. ‘Will you marry me?’
‘I thought you’d never ask,’ she breathed, getting down on her knees with him as he slid the ring onto her finger.
‘I never thought I’d be so grateful for almost dying,’ he murmured against her lips. ‘If that pain was what I needed to go through to bring us back together I’d go through it all again right now, just to have you here in my arms where you belong.’
‘Please don’t,’ she said. ‘I was quite looking forward to celebrating our engagement somewhere private before we’re interrupted.’
He laughed, standing up and scooping her into his arms to carry her into the house in search of the nearest bed.
‘Lead the way, my love.’
‘I always will.’
EPILOGUE
AS A YOUNG GIRL, Nora had dreamt of her wedding day. She’d imagined herself walking down the aisle in a flowing gown to the sounds of a classical melody. As an adult, once she’d learned the truth of her parents’ history, she’d stopped seeing marriage as something to celebrate. But now, as she walked down the planks at the sanctuary’s wooden dock, hand in hand with the man she’d just vowed to love and cherish for ever, she felt her heart swell with joy.
They’d spoken their vows in the old chapel in the village, taking Liam into their arms between them towards the end of the ceremony when he’d begun to fuss. Nora wore a simple white strapless dress, with flowers from her mother’s garden woven through her hair. Duarte looked effortlessly handsome in a tux, the shirt collar unbuttoned. She’d chosen the colour scheme, even convincing him to tuck one of her favourite purple orchids into his lapel.
They reached the small speedboat at the end of the dock and Nora turned to her husband, looking over her shoulder at the small crowd of their loved ones, still enjoying the wedding reception and dancing on the bank of the Amazon behind them.
‘What is this surprise you’ve kept so secret?’ she murmured against his lips, smiling at the sound of cheers erupting behind them.
‘It’s not a surprise if I tell you first.’ He took her hand, helping her into the boat and getting behind the wheel. ‘We’ll only be away for a bit.’
She smiled as he manoeuvred them away from the sanctuary and along the river at a gentle speed. She placed her hand over his on the wheel, looking at the matching rings on their fingers and feeling herself smile even wider as the sun danced through the trees.
When he began to slow, she looked around.
‘I read about this place a long time ago.’ Duarte turned to face her. ‘Do you know where we are?’
She shook her head.
‘We’re at the meeting of the waters. It’s where two separate rivers finally meet and become one after running side by side for miles. Look down.’
He pointed to the river around them and Nora blinked. Sure enough, ahead of them the water seemed to cleave into two different shades. The dark, almost black waters of the Rio Negro ran seamlessly alongside the coffee colour of the Amazon before blending into one behind them.
They stood in silence for a moment, taking in the remarkable feat of nature.
‘I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before,’ she breathed.
‘Today has been perfect.’ Duarte turned and took her hands in his, gently sliding her wedding ring from her finger and holding it up to the light. ‘But I have one last surprise.’
She frowned, looking down at the inner circle of the ring. A soft gasp escaped her lips. Despite them having barely a week to plan their small civil ceremony, he’d somehow managed to have the platinum band engraved with the date and time of when they’d first met. The moment he’d asked her to dance and she’d lost her heart to him.
‘I wanted us to make our own vows here, because I feel like it symbolises everything I love about you. About us.’
&nbs
p; ‘Darkness and light,’ Nora murmured, smiling as tears filled her eyes.
‘I love you, Nora Avelar.’ He slid the ring slowly back onto her finger, his eyes never leaving hers. ‘I love everything you have been through, and everything that makes you the woman you are today. I promise to love and honour you for the rest of our lives.’
Her hands shook as she removed Duarte’s ring and pressed it gently to her lips. ‘There’s nowhere else I could imagine making my vows to you than here on the water. This is beyond perfect.’
She slid the ring back onto his finger, smiling as she looked up into his brilliant golden eyes. ‘I promise to love and honour you, Duarte Avelar. Para sempre.’
‘Para sempre,’ he echoed, sweeping her into his arms to show her just how good for ever could feel.
Coming next month
PRIDE & THE ITALIAN’S PROPOSAL
Kate Hewitt
‘I judge on what I see,’ Fausto allowed as he captured her queen easily. She looked unfazed by the move, as if she’d expected it, although to Fausto’s eye it had seemed a most inexpert choice. ‘Doesn’t everyone do the same?’
‘Some people are more accepting than others.’
‘Is that a criticism?’
‘You seem cynical,’ Liza allowed.
‘I consider myself a realist,’ Fausto returned, and she laughed, a crystal-clear sound that seemed to reverberate through him like the ringing of a bell.
‘Isn’t that what every cynic says?’
‘And what are you? An optimist?’ He imbued the word with the necessary scepticism.
‘I’m a realist. I’ve learned to be.’ For a second she looked bleak, and Fausto realised he was curious.
‘And where did you learn that lesson?’
She gave him a pert look, although he still saw a shadow of that unsettling bleakness in her eyes. ‘From people such as yourself.’ She moved her knight—really, what was she thinking there? ‘Your move.’
Fausto’s gaze quickly swept the board and he moved a pawn. ‘I don’t think you know me well enough to have learned such a lesson,’ he remarked.
‘I’ve learned it before, and in any case I’m a quick study.’ She looked up at him with glinting eyes, a coy smile flirting about her mouth. A mouth Fausto had a sudden, serious urge to kiss. The notion took him so forcefully and unexpectedly that he leaned forward a little over the game, and Liza’s eyes widened in response, her breath hitching audibly as surprise flashed across her features.
For a second, no more, the very air between them felt tautened, vibrating with sexual tension and expectation. It would be so very easy to close the space between their mouths. So very easy to taste her sweetness, drink deep from that lovely, luscious well.
Of course he was going to do no such thing. He could never consider a serious relationship with Liza Benton; she was not at all the sort of person he was expected to marry and, in any case, he’d been burned once before, when he’d been led by something so consuming and changeable as desire.
As for a cheap affair…the idea had its tempting merits, but he knew he had neither the time nor inclination to act on it. An affair would be complicated and distracting, a reminder he needed far too much in this moment.
Fausto leaned back, thankfully breaking the tension, and Liza’s smile turned cat-like, surprising him. She looked so knowing, as if she’d been party to every thought in his head, which thankfully she hadn’t been, and was smugly informing him of that fact.
‘Checkmate,’ she said softly and, jolted, Fausto stared at her blankly before glancing down at the board.
‘That’s impossible,’ he declared as his gaze moved over the pieces and, with another jolt, he realised it wasn’t. She’d put him in checkmate and he hadn’t even realised his king had been under threat. He’d indifferently moved a pawn while she’d neatly spun her web. Disbelief warred with a scorching shame as well as a reluctant admiration. All the while he’d assumed she’d been playing an amateurish, inexperienced game, she’d been neatly and slyly laying a trap.
‘You snookered me.’
Her eyes widened with laughing innocence. ‘I did no such thing. You just assumed I wasn’t a worthy opponent.’ She cocked her head, her gaze turning flirtatious—unless he was imagining that? Feeling it? ‘But, of course, you judge on what you see.’
The tension twanged back again, even more electric than before. Slowly, deliberately, Fausto knocked over his king to declare his defeat. The sound of the marble clattering against the board was loud in the stillness of the room, the only other sound their suddenly laboured breathing.
He had to kiss her. He would. Fausto leaned forward, his gaze turning sleepy and hooded as he fastened it on her lush mouth. Liza’s eyes flared again and she drew an unsteady breath, as loud as a shout in the still, silent room. Then, slowly, deliberately, she leaned forward too, her dress pulling against her body so he could see quite perfectly the outline of her breasts.
There were only a few scant inches between their mouths, hardly any space at all. Fausto could already imagine the feel of her lips against his, the honeyed slide of them, her sweet, breathy surrender as she gave herself up to their kiss. Her eyes fluttered closed. He leaned forward another inch, and then another. Only centimetres between them now…
‘Here you are!’
The door to the study flung open hard enough to bang against the wall, and Fausto and Liza sprang apart. Chaz gave them a beaming smile, his arm around a rather woebegone-looking Jenna. Fausto forced a courteous smile back, as both disappointment and a very necessary relief coursed through him.
That had been close. Far, far too close.
Continue reading
PRIDE & THE ITALIAN’S PROPOSAL
Kate Hewitt
Available next month
Copyright ©2021 by Kate Hewitt
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India
http://www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
Dublin
HarperCollinsPublishers
1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road
Dublin 4, Ireland
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
Returning To Claim His Heir Page 17