‘You weren’t alone in feeling confused back then, sweetheart. Even standing there at the altar, in total shock, I felt a shiver of relief that someone was stopping me from taking the drastic step of marrying a woman whom I respected more than I desired. I tried to smother the feeling in rage and denial, but that moment of self-betrayal haunted me, especially since it was somehow tied up with the fact that you were the one who had perpetrated the terrible lies about me.
‘But the strange thing was that I felt more betrayed by your lies than by Ava’s defection. When you said that you and I were lovers, it was as though you had translated my deepest; most private thought into a deed. And even when I met you again, after I came back from Australia, that was part of the pleasure of punishing you—making you pay for the sin of my desiring, until I discovered there was even more pleasure in loving you...’
‘We’re quite a pair,’ said Jane huskily, wrapping her arms around him. ‘A matched pair. You know, I even welcomed your revenge in a horribly twisted way because it meant that at least I knew I wasn’t forgotten, I was alive in your thoughts...’
‘Oh, you were in my thoughts, all right,’ he said, kissing her rumpled brow. ‘All the time... And the thought being father to the deed, I couldn’t leave you alone—can’t leave you alone...’ he corrected himself, his hands wandering over the luscious curves of the black dress. ‘So you’d better be prepared for a lifetime of this kind of attention...’
Jane laughed as he tipped her back on the bed and began to kiss her breathless. She couldn’t imagine a more glorious fate!