After the noise and heat of the dance floor, it took a few moments for his ears to adjust to the comparative silence. Only when the freshness of the night air cooled his face did he accept that this was no dream.
Helena had reached out to him and brought him here.
She hauled herself onto a wooden table and turned her face up to the starry sky. He didn’t think she’d ever exuded such serenity. She shone brighter than any of the stars above them.
He sat beside her and waited for her to speak.
He didn’t have to wait long.
‘Can we marry in the chapel here?’
He almost choked on the mouthful of cocktail he’d just swallowed.
Still gazing at the sky, she laughed, a joyous tinkling sound that landed like music in his ears. ‘You know you have to marry me, don’t you?’
He couldn’t speak.
‘I think it’s the least you deserve.’ She spoke matter-of-factly but he could hear the undertones of glee. ‘That’s going to be your punishment. You have to marry me. And impregnate me.’
‘That’s a punishment?’ he managed to say.
Her bright eyes landed on him. ‘Oh, yes, my love. I’ve decided that killing you is a waste of an excellent lover, so you have to do a lifetime of hard labour in my bed instead.’
If wishes could come true, then all of his had just turned to gold.
Bowing his head, he closed his eyes. ‘I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you...’
‘But?’ she prompted cheerfully when his voice trailed off.
He met her gaze. ‘I’m all wrong for you. You deserve...’
‘I deserve retribution for your heinous plot, is that what you were going to say?’ Mock innocence rang out of the sparkling eyes. ‘I quite agree.’
Before he could speak, she jumped off the table. She appeared to have springs in her feet. Spreading her arms wide, she pirouetted then curtseyed. ‘Do you see what you do to me?’
At Theo’s furrowed brow, Helena burst into another peal of laughter. She felt as if she could fly. ‘You’ve set me free, my possessive love. You’ve taught me how to embrace life, and you know what? I’m going to take your advice and live but unfortunately for you that means you have to put up with possessive, jealous little old me.’
The furrow in his brow was now so deep she was quite sure it would lead to a permanent indentation.
‘You think you’re the only possessive one? My love, since the day I met you, I’ve wanted to scratch the eyes out of every woman who’s looked at you. It’s like I have a hot snake living in my belly that strikes whenever a pretty woman is within a twenty-foot radius of you.’
‘I’ve only had eyes for you since the day I met you.’
Fresh happiness bubbled in her. ‘I know. But three years ago I was a naïve, insecure lamb who was terrified of all the feelings you brought out in me. I was as terrified of losing you as you were of losing me, but I was too immature to understand my feelings. I remember shouting at you that you were just like my father, but the truth is I was terrified that I was like him. I couldn’t handle the jealousy and the control-freakery I have in me. I never understood what you saw in me. To be honest, I still don’t...’
‘Sunlight,’ he interrupted.
She looked at him.
Finally, a smile played on his lips. ‘That’s what I see in you. Sunlight.’
She beamed. ‘That’s much more romantic than the gorgeous devil I see in you.’ She stepped to him and hooked her arms around his shoulders and sighed. ‘You swept me off my feet when I was still learning to dance. I wasn’t ready for you and I definitely wasn’t ready for the love I felt for you. It all got too much for me, fears I would become my mother and fears over my possessive feelings for you... I couldn’t see straight, so I ran. I spent three years web-searching your name and going green with jealousy over those women but I was powerless to stop. When you brought me back here, all those feelings I’d buried built up in me again...’ She shook her head. ‘They don’t frighten me any more. Your control-freakery doesn’t frighten me any more either. I know you love me as much as I love you. I know you’re as greedy for me as I am for you. I know what we have is special. We belong together and I know we will both move heaven and earth to make it work. So, my love, I figure you deserve retribution too for all the hurt I caused you and I figured that if you were telling me the truth the other night, then you might settle for me doing hard labour in your bed for the rest of my life to make up for it.’
Staring deep into her eyes, his hands clasped her hips. ‘You love me?’
‘More than there are stars in the sky.’
‘Say it again,’ Theo whispered. He brushed his lips over hers and inhaled her warm, sweet breath.
‘I love you.’
‘Again.’
‘I love you.’
He kissed her, then wound his arms around her and crushed her to him. ‘I love you, you crazy, beautiful, clever woman. I swear I will spend the rest of my life making up for—’
She interrupted him with a kiss full of such passion that the last cells in his body able to believe that this was happening, that Helena was here, solid, beautiful and declaring her love for him, woke up and joined the party.
‘No more apologies,’ she whispered when she broke the kiss. ‘Let’s make this a new beginning for us. No secrets, no lies, just you and me together, loving each other.’
‘Always.’
‘Always.’
Then their mouths fused in a kiss that sealed their fates together for the rest of their lives.
EPILOGUE
HELENA
