Living Together

‘Where do you want to go?’

‘To bed,’ he admitted with a groan. ‘With you. For a week. With no interruptions.’

‘I’d like that too,’ she told him shyly.

Leon shook his head. ‘I won’t be used like that again. It almost killed me the last time.’

‘Oh, Leon!’ she choked.

Something seemed to snap within him and he pulled her roughly against him, ravishing her lips with a savagery that took her breath away. They exchanged kiss for kiss, lost in their mutual desire, a desire that raged like an inferno and refused to be put out.

When it seemed that only her full capitulation would satisfy him he reluctantly put her away from him, his breathing ragged, beads of perspiration on his brow. ’Will you move back in here? Oh, not as my wife,’ he added as she went to speak. ‘I know you don’t want that. But I need you so desperately, Helen. I can’t survive without you now. God, you can see what a mess I’ve made of it since we parted.’

‘Do you still love me?’ she asked huskily.

‘Can you doubt it?’

No, there could be no doubt. He was haggard, the pain of their parting hitting him as badly as it had her. ‘I—I have something I want to tell you.’ She looked at him nervously.

He tensed as if for a blow. ‘You can’t be cruel enough to leave me again? I don’t think I could stand it again, Helen. Maybe if you’d stayed away, but not now. You have to stay.’

‘I’d like to.’

‘You would?’ he asked almost eagerly.

‘Yes. But sit down, Leon, I have to talk to you.’ She waited until he was seated before continuing. ‘Leon, two years ago when I lost the baby I—I—’

‘You don’t have to have children,’ he said instantly. ‘You’re all I’ll ever want, I promise you that.’

She shook her head. ‘You don’t understand. When I lost the baby they told me I couldn’t have any more, that medically it was almost impossible.’

‘And that’s why…’ He stood up to come over to her. ‘Good lord, Helen, it isn’t that important to me. Is that the reason you turned down my offer of marriage?’

‘Yes.’

‘How do you really feel about me? And tell me the truth, please.’

She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘I love you. It seems like I’ve always loved you.’

‘Oh, my love!’ he groaned, his face buried in her scented throat. ‘That’s all that matters to me. If we want children later on we can always adopt, I’ll love them as if they were our own. Marry me, Helen. Say you’ll marry me,’ he pleaded.

‘I haven’t told you everything, Leon. I—’

‘Nothing else is of importance to me. All that matters is that you love me.’

‘I love you very much. But—’

He put his fingers silencingly over her lips. ‘When will you marry me?’

She gave a throaty laugh. ‘Will you let me finish speaking?’

Leon sighed. ‘Only if you tell me you’ll marry me.’

‘Very well, I’ll marry you.’

He gave a whoop of laughter, triumph in every line of his body as he swung her up into his arms. ‘You little darling!’ he cried. ‘I love you, I love you!’ and he kissed her until she felt dizzy.

‘Leon, please!’ she begged finally. ‘I have something important to tell you.’