`Please,' she said, tears starting to her eyes again as she kept her head buried. Will you go now, and .. . and forget me?'
She felt the arms holding her tighten. 'Oh, Kim, my Kim,' he said, his voice thick with emotion. 'I know
the faith you had in yourself has been pulverised, but please, my little love, please have a little faith in me.'
Not knowing what he was meaning, nowhere near to understanding that exquisitely tender note there, Kimberley felt his hand turning her face up as he made her look at him.
And then she was barely able to breathe, because if she wasn't mistaken, and she must be, Slade was looking at her as if he absolutely adored her. 'What . . escaped her, while the knowledge sped in that she had to be wrong, utterly wrong.
`You're truthful friend wasn't lying when she told you about the—freedom I enjoyed as a bachelor,' he said, his adoring look staying on her. 'But believe me, my beautiful Kim, when I tell you I gave up that freedom willingly, that I haven't so much as given any woman a second look from the moment I saw you.'
And while she looked at him, unable to utter one syllable, her heart beating a crazy rhythm, his hand cupped her face, and he told her:
`My own true love, I took one look at you at the Gilberts' party and for me that was it. I fell in love with you.'
`You fell . . . ?' Kimberley was reeling. But even though she wanted with everything in her to believe what he was saying, the let-down would be too great if he explained what the joke was. 'That's not funny,' she said, tight-lipped. 'As I recall it you were enjoying yourself too much dancing with the most attractive women there to even remember you'd previously introduced yourself to me.'
`Dearest Kim,' Slade said softly, his manner not changing at her challenging his statement. 'I hope soon to convince you how much you mean to me. I hope before too long that the confidence in you that had taken such a beating will find a firm foothold in knowing my love for you.' He smiled, a smile that had her legs wobbly, doubt that she might be wrong wanting
I
to be sent on its way. 'I may have danced with a few ladies, I can't clearly remember. What I can recall is that after the way you'd looked at me with your nose in the air, I was trying to appear as normal as I could, while at the same time racking my brains for the best way to get through your frosty exterior.'
Her eyes brimming, Kimberley so wanted to believe him. She recalled too the way she had been at that first meeting. She had been frosty, she remembered, he hadn't lied to her about that. She had snubbed him. Yet—yet Slade, a man no one would snub twice, had come back for more.
`Oh, Slade,' she said tremulously, the hope in her heart overflowing, 'I do want to believe you.'
Gently he bent and kissed away a tear that trembled on her eyelashes. 'Believe me, my sweet darling,' he breathed. She was half way there, but another doubt presented itself. 'What is it?' he asked, his look encouraging. 'Don't bottle it up, Kim. There'll be no secrets between us from now on.'
She swallowed at the depth of tenderness he was showing her, then realised he was right. If she was ever to gain that confidence he spoke of, then anything that was worrying her had to be brought out into the open, had to be aired so her trust in his love for her could find that foothold.
`We hadn't been married above t-two days when— when you were spending the day in London,' she said huskily.
`I wasn't seeking what you were denying me elsewhere,' he said, seeing straight away what was in her mind.
And it was blissful to her not only to hear that, but to feel the caress of his lips whisper down on hers. But he drew back, his expression controlled.
`I want to kiss you so badly, my dear,' he told her. `But first I think it's essential to you that I clear any skeletons you think may be lingering in my cupboard.'
A tender hand came to brush her forehead, and then he was telling her with a sincerity she couldn't doubt, 'I knew I was in love with you on the day we were married. What I didn't know, never having experienced such emotion before, was the depth of my love for you. I discovered that the very next day.'
`When I went missing?' she asked quietly.
`When you went missing,' Slade confirmed, his face serious, a pain there she had never seen before as he remembered. 'All powers of logic deserted me as I searched for you. I knew terror that I might come across you—lifeless.'
It was in that moment that her belief that he did mean it when he said he loved her began to grow in Kimberley. No man could look so haunted, so agonised by the pain of what he was recalling, and not feel as deeply as he had told her he did.
`Oh, Slade!' she cried, and saw the cloud go from his eyes, eyes dark now with emotion as he told her:
`I nearly went out of my mind that day—cursed myself for being too rough on you the night before. You'd given me a lot to think about,' he broke off to tell her. 'I knew after you'd gone to bed that second night that with you so close I wasn't thinking straight. I decided to go to London the next day, I needed to be away from you. With you safely back home the fears I'd had that . .
`That I might have ended it all?'
He nodded, his face grim for a moment, then sending her another loving look, he said, 'My fears seemed ridiculous. But when I discovered you kept a supply of tranquillisers, knowing you didn't want a marriage at all, I had to get away to think it out.'
`You came back laden with suitcases,' she remembered.
`With you firmly set on divorce, I decided you'd better start getting used to the idea that I was going to be a permanent fixture.'
`I'm glad,' said Kimberley honestly.
And it was then the control Slade was exerting broke. A groan left him as he pressed her up against his body, his head coming down as his mouth claimed hers. Kimberley hung on tightly, drowning in his love as without reservation her arms went round him and she kissed him back clinging to him
`My darling, my darling,' Slade murmured, his voice thick with emotion.
'Oh, Slade, I love you so,' Kimberley whispered, tears she couldn't stay swimming in her eyes.
A shuddered breath left him. 'Sweet Kim,' he said hoarsely. `You have no idea what you've put me through. Wanting you so badly, almost taking you so glad was I to see you that second time I came back from London.'
`Why did you go—that second time?' she asked, but her question then wasn't because she distrusted him. And it showed in her face, delighting Slade as, unable to resist it, he bent and kissed her long and meaningfully.
When at last he drew back, Kimberley's face was showing the delicate hue of aroused womanhood. His hands went to her hair, releasing it from the pins that confined it, the pins scattering unheeded to the floor as a sigh of satisfaction left him before he buried his head in the perfume of her long tresses.
`I adore you, my beloved,' he breathed. And he seemed to have forgotten her question entirely as he led her to a chair and pulled her down on to his lap, his hands caressing, seeming not to mind at all that her fingers strayed to touch his mouth.
He kissed her fingers, looked down at her where she nestled in his arms. He was about to kiss her, when an expression crossed his face as that of a man with a vague recollection of being asked something.
`Er—my second visit to London,' he said, cancelling out what he had been about to do, prepared to do any-
thing that would do away with her slightest worry, 'was purely and simply because I was trying to get you to see me as a husband. To my mind you'd sounded just a touch as though you didn't like the idea of me having—er—extra-marital activities. I thought then it was worth working on.'
`I thought, when you left me without kicking up a fuss—that night you came back—that you might have already . . .' she couldn't finish it.
`There's been no one since I met you, my love,' Slade told her. 'How could there be?—you fill my thoughts. But it was after that night when I went to my solitary bed wondering if I was a fool not to take you as I was aching to, that you told me you didn't know if you still loved Bennet. It was a red le
tter day for me. I saw then that if I were to gain what I was hoping, then it would be foolhardy of me to rush you. I saw then that with that fine sensitivity you have, the time to adjust you asked for, whether you knew it or not, was what you needed.'
`You've been so patient,' Kimberley sighed, finding joy that she could look at him the love shining in her eyes, and not have to hide it.
`Keep looking at me like that, my darling,' Slade said softly, 'and you'll discover just how impatient a man can be for the woman who holds his heart.'
His longing for her showed as he pulled her close, his hand at her breast, his mouth caressed her eyes, her throat, and finally her mouth. His colour was flushed too when at last he drew back.
She saw his glance go to the bed. Intuitively she knew he didn't care much for her hotel bedroom. Then she saw exactly what he meant by a man being impatient for the woman who held his heart, when softly he groaned, and said:
`Do we have to go back to Bramcote, my darling?' Her heart so full, Kimberley was having difficulty in thinking clearly. Then she knew her feet had found
that firm foothold in the confidence of his love, that she was able to say, and manage to make it sound quite demure:
`I've never seen the inside of your London home.' But a blushed covered her, as she asked, 'Is it very far away?' and she was enchanted by the look he gave her.
`About fifteen minutes,' he replied. 'But I reckon I can do it in ten.'
He kissed her again before he lifted her and stood with her. Once more he held her close to his heart, then as if he needed a moment to ease the arousal of his ardour before they left the hotel, with that way he had of making her laugh at the least expected moment; he let some daylight come between their bodies, and looking deeply into her eyes, said gruffly:
`Come, wife. It's time I made an honest woman of you.'
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