Living Together

She gave a nervous laugh. ‘You may be an important man, Leon, even an influential one, but even you couldn’t arrange a wedding at such short notice!’

‘It isn’t at short notice.’ He took out his wallet and removed a slip of paper. ‘I arranged for the registrar at the beginning of the week, and I bought this,’ he handed the paper to her, ‘two days after I met you.’

Helen looked down dazedly at the special licence in her hand. ‘You can’t mean this,’ she denied shakily.

Leon took the licence out of her trembling fingers and put it safely back in his wallet. ‘Oh, but I do, Helen,’ he contradicted softly. ‘Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock you’re going to become Mrs Leon Masters.’

CHAPTER NINE

HELEN turned away, pain ripping through her like a physical thing. ‘You know that isn’t possible.’

‘What sort of answer is that?’ Leon rasped.

She swallowed hard. ‘I think you know.’

She heard him draw in a ragged breath. ‘Why?’ he demanded.

Helen gave a choked laugh. ‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ she derided.

Leon swung her round. ‘Look at me, damn you! Look at me and tell me why you won’t marry me.’

‘You know why,’ she said dully.

He wrenched her chin up, forcing her to look at him. ‘I’m not asking for the physical side of marriage, only that you marry me, become my wife.’

‘You can’t mean that,’ she gasped. ‘You don’t want—’

‘If you dare to tell me what I want again,’ he ground out, ‘I swear I’ll hit you! I want to marry you, Helen.’

‘But—’

‘I love you, Helen.’

She gasped at the rawness of the emotion behind his declaration. ‘You—you don’t—’

‘I do, God help me! I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you. I took one look at you and knew exactly what I wanted from you—marriage. In my arrogance I didn’t see how you could feel any differently towards me. When you gave me the brush-off I lost my temper. I thought you were lying about being married, using it as a means of getting rid of me, and when you told me you were widowed I couldn’t believe my luck. But when I kissed you! My God, your coldness frightened me.’ His face was grim with remembered pain.

‘I was the one who was frightened, Leon,’ she told him huskily. Leon loved her! It seemed impossible. And yet she couldn’t marry him, she couldn’t marry anyone.

‘But I didn’t know that.’ His hands cupped each side of her face. ‘I’m not asking for more than you can give, Helen, I just want you to be my wife. I’ll be satisfied with that for as long as that’s all you want, for as long as it takes,’ he added desperately. ‘I’ve always known I was going to marry you, always. Why do you think I bought that licence after only knowing you for two days?’

‘But these last few weeks—’

‘We’ve been trying too hard. I thought living together was the answer, but it’s just made things worse.’

‘And you now think marriage is the answer?’ she asked disbelievingly.

‘I think security is the answer,’ Leon corrected, his thumbs moving caressingly over her lips. ‘I would never have made love to you before marrying you anyway, I just wanted you to want it as much as I do. But it hasn’t worked out that way. I think the security of marriage is what you need, and it’s what I want.’

Helen’s eyes were wide. ‘You wouldn’t have made love to me?’

He gave a firm shake of his head. ‘No. But I thought you needed to get over your fear before I asked you to marry me. I was wrong. But I need you for my wife, Helen. I need to know you’re mine.’

‘I still can’t believe you love me,’ she said dazedly, forgetting for the moment that she couldn’t marry him, just wanting to revel in his love for her.

‘Would you like me to prove it?’ he asked throatily.

‘I—I think so,’ she admitted shyly.