Loveshouldnot be denied.
“I told them how smart, insanely gorgeous, gentle and kind you were to me,” she said. “I told them how happy I was with you.”
“What else did you tell them?” he asked, groaning as he realized she may have confided their most intimate moments to her friends.
She winced. “I told them everything.”
“Blessed saints, Syd. You told them our marriage was make-believe?” He looked hurt more than angry.
This only made Syd feel worse. “Quite the opposite. They now know our marriage is real…or will be as soon as we have our clothes off. If I understood the first thing about seduction, I would be using every feminine wile on you right now instead of talking. But I am not wily, apparently.”
He was still staring at her and not making a move to undo a single one of her laces or any of his buttons. “Must I say it, Octavian?”
“Say what?”
She let out a breath. “Do not be difficult about this. Can you not see? I want you to take me, for I am yours and wish to be yours…forever.”
He stared at her in silence for a long moment before the hint of a smile crossed his lips. “Yes, there is a very important thing we must say to each other before we go at it like a pair of wild monkeys.”
“Octavian!” But she laughed. “I am trying to make this a tender moment and bare my soul to you.”
He caressed her cheek. “You know how I feel about you. Do you feel the same way?”
He loved her.
His every action spoke of his affection.
He hadn’t said the words because she had refused to hear them until now. Idiotically refused, as though not hearing them or saying them back to him would make this pain she still felt ripping through her more endurable.
She had it all backwards.
His love was the cure for her pain.
It was time she told him how she felt.
To her surprise, tears formed in her eyes.
Why was she turning into a blubbering peahen at this critical moment? She was almost as bad as Marigold who was sentimental about everything.
“Syd, shall I say it first?”
“No, I want to say it to you. It is important, Octavian. I have to say it first.”
He took her hands and held them in those big, rough hands of his that never failed to stir her to passion with a mere touch. “I’m listening, love.”
“Octavian…Octavian…”
He gave them a light squeeze. “You needn’t force it, Syd. You’ll say it when the time feels right.”
“But it has always been right. That’s just it. There has never been a moment when I have not loved you.” She gasped. “I just said it, didn’t I? I just said that I loved you.”
His grin was ear to ear. “Indeed, you did. Care to say it again?”
She nodded. “I love you, Octavian.”
“There’s my girl.” His voice was achingly soft.
“I’m so sorry I waited this long to tell you. But you knew I felt it.” She was going to cry again because this admission had her heart in spasms and she had no idea how to control it.
