Page 31 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

“I called.” He watched the words make an impact with her as if it was a cold bucket of water shocking her. “I called several times. Every time I called the estate to speak to you my uncle answered the phone. He told me you were done with me. That when I left, you’d realized that you didn’t want to have any contact with me.”

“But I wasn’t at the estate anymore.” Her shoulders rose and fell as she struggled to catch her breath. “After you left, I went to stay with my cousins in Arizona for a while. I needed to get my feet firmly on the ground because what I really wanted to do was to run after you, but I thought you’d left me behind for good.”

“When I called, and my uncle said you were out, he made it sound like you were out.”

Her soft exhale sounded like it caused her pain. “You mean that I was out with a man.”

Donal nodded and then shook his head. “I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew that what I’d done… that leaving you behind like that… was a horrible thing. To abandon you without a real explanation. I didn’t blame you for moving on. It hurt like a knife in my chest, but I wanted you to be happy.”

“It sounds like you were the only one. Your uncle told me that he hadn’t heard from you at all. That you’d left us behind. That you were so intensely focused on your work that you didn’t even ask after me. You didn’t want to know how I was doing.” She shook her head, and he could feel the weight that pulled her shoulders down. “I can’t believe I didn’t question it back then.”

“I didn’t question it either.”

“It sounds like we were both too stupid to know better. Too young. Too ignorant to believe that things were just supposed to happen and fall into our laps.”

He watched the words slip into her mind, and he swore he could see her turn the words over and over as she sat there before him.

She had never looked so beautiful as she did in the firelight, absorbing the story he had never told anyone else in his life.

When Tamsin looked up into his eyes, her lips curved in a gentle smile that gave him hope. “Then it wasn’t because you didn’t want me.”

“No.” He shook his head and set his hands on her shoulders, smoothing his hands down her arms until they reached her hands. Donal lifted them together and touched his lips to the warm skin of her wrists, feeling the fluttering beat of her pulse under his lips. “You are everything to me, Tam. I left because I couldn’t bear to think of hurting you.”

Tamsin pulled her hands gently from his and took his hands in turn. “Do… do you have to stay here tonight? In camp?”

His heart, their heart, pounded in his chest, the rhythm echoing in his ears. “No. I don’t have to be back for almost a day.”

She stood, looking every inch a goddess wreathed in fire as she held her hand out to him. “Take me home.”

* * *

When they arrived at the house, it surprised Tamsin. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected to see in terms of architecture, but when Donal leaned forward to point through the windshield at the opening in the gate, it took her a moment to realize what she was seeing. The trees and plants seemed to enfold the two-story structure within the shadows of their boughs and leaves.

“I’m sorry it’s so dark,” his voice whispered to her in the near silent night, “I wasn’t planning to come home for a week or two.”

She reached out and blindly found his arm, lightly gripping his hand with her own. “You spend a lot of time with the Bandile.”

“They’re like family. We’ve been through so many things together after I got a hold of what was happening to me.”

He stopped the Jeep at the front of the house under the portico and turned to look at her. She could feel his eyes on her face. He probably had much better night vision than she did. He was likely more accustomed to the darkness.

“They’ll be your family too, if you decide to stay.”

She drew in a breath, and it seemed like the only sound for miles, as if the world understood how much that moment meant to her.

“If you want me to,” she took a breath, “then I’ll stay. I’m tired of wasting time waiting for my life to really begin.”

“All right.” He opened his door and pushed it closed as he made his way to her side of the vehicle. “Let’s go inside.”

Just inside, she started to take off her boots so she could leave them by the door. She heard his soft laughter reach her ears. “You don’t have to do that.”

Standing on one foot she peeled one sock off and then the other. “Don’t laugh at me, Donal. I can tell hardwood floors when I feel them, and I’m not tracking mud or dirt across your floors.” She managed to remove the other sock and draped them over the tops of her boots. “You’ll thank me later.”

Donal took her hand in his and pulled her closer until she felt his warmth from her knees to her belly and then through her chest as his hands roamed her back, fitting them together.

Tamsin felt his breath on her cheek a moment later.

“You forgot one thing about this house, Tam.”

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