A Prize Beyond Jewels

Rafe scowled darkly. ‘You don’t want to be with me any more?’

‘You don’t want to be with me!’ she corrected emotionally.

‘I didn’t say that,’ he rasped harshly.

‘But...’ Nina frowned up at him. ‘It sounded as if you did.’

‘Absolutely not!’ Rafe threw back the bed sheet to climb restlessly out of bed, unconcerned by his nakedness as he began to pace the bedroom, at the same time as he ran an agitated hand through the unruly darkness of his hair. ‘The timing of this is all wrong,’ he muttered crossly.

‘The timing of what is all wrong?’ Nina looked completely baffled by his behaviour.

Rafe gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘You’re naturally upset, traumatised after learning your mother lived.’

‘Rafe, I’m fine,’ she cut in gently. ‘I really am,’ she assured huskily as Rafe stopped pacing long enough to look across the bedroom at her. ‘In fact, I’m better than I’ve ever been,’ she added ruefully as she also threw back the bed sheet and climbed out of bed. ‘I know the truth now, all of it. Don’t you see, Rafe, for the first time in years I feel free of the emotional baggage I’ve been carrying about with me for most of my life?’

‘Free to do what?’ Rafe prompted searchingly, trying his damnedest not to be distracted by the beauty of Nina’s nakedness. A battle he knew he was destined to lose as he became instantly aroused. For Nina. Only for Nina.

‘To live. To love,’ she added huskily as her gaze seemed drawn, as if by a magnet, to the physical evidence of Rafe’s rapidly lengthening arousal.

Rafe’s breath caught in his throat as he couldn’t look away from the provocation of seeing Nina’s little pink tongue sweep moistly across the plumpness of her bottom lip. As if in anticipation of licking him!

He wasn’t even aware of having stepped towards her until he realised he was now standing only inches away from her, not quite touching her, but wanting to. Dear God, how much he wanted to just take Nina in his arms and make love to her again, to keep her in his arms, in his bed, until she promised never to leave.

He swallowed before speaking. ‘I’m in love with you, Nina.’ He gruffly spoke the words he had never imagined he would ever say to any woman, but desperately needing to say them now, to Nina, more than he needed his next breath.

‘I love you.’ It was much easier saying it the second time, something seeming to lighten, to ease deep inside Rafe, a heaviness, a restraint, he hadn’t even known was there until it lifted.

‘I love you, Nina Palitov,’ he murmured again with satisfaction as he took her into his arms at last and curved the heat of his body against hers. ‘I love you, Nina. I love you. I love you!’ His voice rose joyfully as he announced his love for her over and over again, knowing he would never grow tired of saying it.

Nina stared up at Rafe wonderingly, almost afraid still to believe, to hope that he was saying these wonderful words to her when just seconds ago she had thought he was saying goodbye.

‘I love you too,’ she breathed softly. ‘I love you too, Rafe.’ She spoke more strongly now too as her hands moved up to rest on the warmth of his chest, allowing her to feel the wild beating of his heart beneath her fingertips.

Rafe’s arms tightened about her.

‘Marry me, Nina,’ he urged forcefully. ‘Marry me!’ His eyes blazed fiercely down into hers.

She stared up at him unblinkingly. ‘Raphael D’Angelo doesn’t do love and marriage.’

‘He didn’t do love and marriage,’ he corrected gruffly. ‘Until you. But you should know right now that I’m not going to settle for anything less when it comes to you.’ His arms tightened about her. ‘I want you for always, Nina. As my wife. As the mother of my babies. God, just thinking of you pregnant with our child makes me hard!’ he acknowledged huskily as his arousal surged against her. ‘I want a lifetime with you, Nina. Want to wake up beside you every morning, to have the freedom to be able to tell you how much I love you a dozen times a day!’

Nina gazed up at him wonderingly. ‘Yes, Rafe. Oh, yes, of course I’ll marry you!’ Her arms moved about his waist. ‘I love you so much. So very much, Rafe!’ She raised her face to meet the fierce possessiveness of his kiss.

The rest of the world drifted away, ceased to exist, as they revelled in the depth of the love they had found with and for each other.