Читать книгу Mills & Boon Modern Romance Collection: February 2015 - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 19

CHAPTER TEN

‘YOU MUST BE wondering why the hell I’m bothering to burden you with all of this unpleasant family history,’ Darius said.

Andy was more than wondering—deep inside, where her hopes and dreams had long been buried, a rainbow of possibilities, which had begun to blossom with her decision to dance again, was now bursting into an array of colours!

‘Actually, I was a little concerned initially that you might be going to confess that those rumours about your exotic tastes for whips and paddles in the bedroom were true after all.’

‘What?’ Darius eyed her incredulously.

She eyed him innocently. ‘You mean they aren’t true?’

‘Of course they aren’t tr— You’re messing with me, right?’ he realised as she grinned at him. ‘You do know that it isn’t true, but just a load of rubbish printed by the gutter press?’

She nodded, relieved that some of the tension seemed to have left his expression. ‘What I was actually wondering—’ she held Darius’s gaze steadily with hers as she slowly stood up ‘—is if you’re now interested in going back downstairs and bringing your fantasy of making love to me in my dance studio to life.’

‘What?’ Darius’s second gasp was a cross between surprise and laughter.

Miranda’s eyes glowed warmly as she slowly crossed the room, hips swaying gently, until she stood just in front of him. ‘I did say that it sounds intriguing,’ she reminded throatily.

‘So you did.’ Darius found himself constantly amazed by this woman.

He had just told Miranda all of his awful family history, and instead of being horrified by it, or running as fast as she could in the opposite direction, as she very well might have done, she was instead reminding him of his fantasy with more than a glint of interest in those amazing green eyes.

He closed his own eyes briefly before opening them again. ‘Have I told you yet how wonderful I think you are?’

A delicate blush warmed her cheeks as she answered him huskily. ‘Not yet, no.’

Darius’s arms moved about the slenderness of her waist as he pulled her gently into him. ‘Possibly because wonderful doesn’t even begin to cover what I think or feel for you. It’s because of how I feel about you that I’ve been able to face the demons of the past. That I’m sure I’ll eventually be able to completely heal this breach with my mother. And that’s because I—’ He broke off, the words proving more difficult to say than he had even imagined they would be.

Except Miranda deserved to hear the words. As heartfelt and as often as she would allow him to say them.

He drew in a ragged breath. ‘I know we haven’t known each other for very long. That it’s far too soon for you. That I definitely need to stop being so emotionally closed off, before I can even begin to hope that you’ll ever feel the same way about me. That...’

‘Darius, will you stop waffling and get to the point?’ She groaned her frustration.

He nodded abruptly. ‘The point is that I’ve fallen in love with you. Deeply. Completely. For always,’ he added with certainty. ‘I may be new to this, but what I feel for you is all encompassing. To the point that you now own me. And you know what? I don’t mind.’ He sounded surprised by the admission himself. ‘For the first time in my life I actually feel complete. I know exactly what I want and who I want to be with. For the rest of my life. But...’

‘Darius?’

‘I knew I had to tell you about my family before I said any of this—my father in particular. Because I never want you to think that I’ve held anything back from you. I want to share all of myself with you, Miranda.’

‘Darius...’

‘Even the bad bits.’

‘Darius, please.’

‘Because I do truly love you—more than I ever believed it was possible to love anyone. More than I believed it was possible for me to love anyone. And—’

‘Darius...!’ Andy’s exasperation at not being listened to came out as a cross between a protest and a choked laugh. Of happiness. Pure, unadulterated happiness.

Darius loved her.

He genuinely loved her!

And she had no doubts that when Darius loved he loved wholeheartedly, with every part of him.

Andy had begun to hope these past few minutes as he talked to her of his family—her heart had more than hoped!—but to hear Darius actually say that he loved her was beyond anything she might ever have imagined.

‘I love you too, Darius!’ she exclaimed joyfully. ‘And if you think your family is a little crazy, then you need to spend some time with my sister and Colin. For starters, they collect antique mirrors, they have a house full of them, and they spend most weekends going to markets and car-boot sales looking for more. My sister is the worst cook in the world. And Colin—’

‘You love me?’ Darius looked down at her with glowing, hesitant eyes.

It was a hesitancy, an uncertainty that Andy couldn’t bear to see in this innately strong and wonderful man whom she loved with every fibre of her being.

‘I love you so much, Darius. So, so much,’ she repeated huskily even as she placed her hands on his shoulders before moving up onto tiptoe to kiss him.

It started as a slow and wondrous kiss, but quickly developed into so much more as the passion instantly flared between the two of them, and they lost themselves in the pleasure of each other’s arms and love.

‘Marry me, Miranda,’ Darius murmured a long time later as the two of them lay in each other’s arms on the sofa together.

Andy looked up at him with wide eyes. ‘You want to marry me?’

He gave a happy laugh. ‘Where did you think this conversation was going, Miranda?’ He pretended some of his old sternness.

‘I— Well, I—’

‘I trust you didn’t think I was going to let you take me down to your studio and ravish my body, and then just let you walk away when you’d used me all up?’

‘Ah.’ Andy felt the warmth of a blush enter her cheeks. ‘Regarding that ravishment...’

Darius saw the uncertainty in the green eyes that couldn’t quite meet his gaze, along with that telling blush to her cheeks. ‘Miranda, are you—? Is it possible that you’re—?’

‘Still a virgin? Yes.’ She buried her embarrassed face against his chest. ‘I was going to tell you, of course.’

‘Well, I should hope so!’

‘It’s just not the sort of thing you blurt out to a man who you think just wants—well, who just wants...’

‘I get the picture, Miranda,’ he drawled ruefully, totally thrown—enchanted—by the thought of his virgin bride. Except she hadn’t said yes to his marriage proposal yet...

Darius sat up to move down onto his knees on the carpet beside the sofa before taking both of her hands in his.

‘Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife, Miranda?’ he prompted seriously. ‘Will you marry me, and be with me, live with me for the rest of our lives, be the mother of our children?’

It was more, so much more, than Andy had ever dreamed of. That Darius loved her was miracle enough, that he wanted her to be his wife, to be with and live with him always, to have his children, was happiness beyond measure.

‘Oh, yes, Darius, of course I’ll marry you.’ Her eyes were blurred with tears of happiness as she launched herself into his arms, overbalancing him so that they both fell onto the carpet, followed by complete silence apart from their happy sighs and the wondrous murmurings of their love for each other.