Page 63 of Awakened in Her Enemy's Palazzo

‘Define “normally” for you.’

‘I was just desperate to escape.’

Theo was tempted to lift the flask to his own lips, for Dutch courage, but he wanted his wits about him to say what he needed to.

‘There is no escape for me—not from you. We were always going end up here. Your actions just speeded it up. Not here as in this cabin. Here as in this moment.’

He paused, the effort of lowering his guard almost physical, and then pushed on.

‘I might have spent another week, another month, arguing with myself, debating, hating you, loving you...but I would have reached this point eventually and come running after you. I refuse to believe, Grace, that fate would have robbed us of this chance.’

Grace’s breath caught as their eyes connected, and the message in his sent her heart thudding. The silver sheet fell to the floor and pooled at her feet as she took a tentative step towards him, arms outstretched like a sleepwalker, eyes wide, but wary.

‘Before you say anything—’ he continued, in the same driven tone.

She tipped her head vaguely in encouragement. Even if she had been going to say anything she doubted she could have—her throat was tight with a hard knot of emotion.

‘Let me try and explain.’ He dragged a hand across his wet hair and gave a hard laugh. ‘Explain? I hardly understand myself! But I’ll try. When my mother died I think I associated all emotion—love—with pain. Being lonely was my strength...it was safety. And then you exploded into my life and started walking around in my head, taking up residence there, challenging my entire belief system, making me question everything, making me...making me not lonely. I never doubted you. I doubted me,’ he admitted, his voice filled with self-disgust. ‘I couldn’t believe that I was lucky enough to have someone like you in my life, Grace. I was waiting for it all to fall apart. I could not bear to lose you,tesoro mio!’

He grabbed hold of the hand extended to him and reeled her in until she stood in the shelter of his arms.

‘Oh, Theo, I love you.’

He looked into her face and released her hands, but only to frame her face and look down with wondering disbelief into her beautiful glowing eyes.

He held her as though she was something precious that might break, and she felt warm, safe, and loved by the most incredible man on the planet.

‘If you’re leaving I will too,’ he told her.

She pulled back to look into his face, amazed by his declaration. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I can help manage the estate.’

He laughed then. ‘I don’t want a manager, Grace. I want a wife.’

Her eyes flew wide, her jaw dropped. ‘Marry you?’

‘Surely you don’t think I will settle for anything less?’ he said, the hauteur back in his voice. ‘Besides, don’t you think it’s a good idea if I’m around to rescue you the next time you decide to dice with death.’

‘I think that would be a very good idea. Not that I am going to do anything so daft. Oh, Theo, I love you so much!’ she cried, throwing herself at him. ‘Thank you for rescuing me!’

‘You rescuedme,cara. You rescued me from a barren, empty life. You gave me life when you gifted me your love—’

He suddenly broke off his loving contemplation of her features and lifted his head, an expression of disgust etched on his handsome face.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘Unless I’m mistaken, we’re about to berescued,’ he said raising his voice above the whirr of helicopter blades low above their heads. ‘Talk about bad timing!’

She laughed. ‘Oh, I think it’s a good thing to get back. We have another hundred rooms at least to tick off our list.’

He gave her a loving smile that melted her bones.

‘I like the way you think. In fact I like everything about you—except your tendency to rush headlong into danger.’

Stretching up on her tiptoes to plant a long, lingering kiss on his mouth, before lowering herself back to terra firma, she flashed him a serious look.

‘Now I can rush headlong into you, I think I’ll be safe,’ she said, and smiled confidently.

EPILOGUE

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