Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [68]
‘I love you, Natalie,’ he said with a wrenched sigh, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. ‘I never thought that I’d hear myself say those words. I always imagined that love was something I could control, that I’d be able to beckon it when I wanted it, when it suited me, but life has a funny way of kicking your best laid plans on the head, doesn’t it?’
‘Doesn’t it?’
He reached out and stroked the sensitive skin on her wrist with his thumb and the rhythmic warmth made her groan slightly.
‘You excite me,’ he said softly. ‘You’re exciting me now, and I don’t think that this is quite the place, do you? At least, not with the door unlocked.’ He stood up and walked across to the door, clicking the lock into place, then he returned to sit next to her.
‘I went crazy when I thought that you were getting married to that man,’ Kane told her, his hand cupping the side of her face, then moving down to caress her neck and shoulders. ‘What did you tell Tony, for God’s sake?’
Natalie smiled. ‘I told him that I was going to the register office. He must have misinterpreted what I meant.’
‘His mistake put me through hell.’ He leant forward and brushed his lips against hers, then his kiss deepened into one of fierce hunger. Natalie fell back under his onslaught. She was breathing quickly, feeling that rushing, heady excitement that only he could arouse in her. ‘I love you, darling,’ he moaned, and when he lifted his head to look at her his eyes were feverish and sensual. ‘Tell me that you love me.’
‘You know I do,’ she said softly, tracing her finger along his jaw. ‘I’ve loved you for years. I can’t imagine how you could ever have thought that there was anything between Eric and me. It would have been convenient—after all, I never imagined that you could be interested in me—but love doesn’t listen to reason, does it?’ She paused and looked at him anxiously. ‘There’s something else,’ she said hesitantly.
‘Mmm?’ Kane murmured, one hand reaching out to cup her breast while his finger found her nipple and teased it into sweet arousal.
‘You’re making it very hard for me to concentrate,’ she said shakily. Her body was aching for him. She could hardly think straight.
‘Good,’ he said, undoing the buttons of her blouse and staring with concentrated hunger at her exposed breast. ‘Now you know how I’ve been feeling recently. All those years, you worked your way under my skin. Do you know, I thought about you all the time when I was in the Far East? I told myself that I was only drawing comparisons between you and the secretary that I had out there, but deep down I knew that I was missing you for completely different reasons.’
His hand stroked her thighs under the fine linen of her skirt, hitching it up so that he could find the tender moistness waiting for his touch.
‘But I was fat then,’ Natalie said, momentarily distracted, and he laughed softly.
‘You don’t believe that love has anything to do with looks, do you? What a chauvinistic remark from a woman.’
‘The women you dated were always so beautiful,’ Natalie protested, blushing. His words pierced her with a sweet sense of satisfaction. Had he really noticed her? She thought back to the odd times she had caught him looking at her from under his lashes, holding her stare for just a fraction more than was necessary. She had never paid the slightest bit of attention to it. She had never felt that she possessed what it took for a man like Kane Marshall to find her attractive. Her own insecurity had blinded her.
‘I didn’t fall in love with any of them,’ he pointed out, and she smiled, then she shot him a quick, uncertain look.
‘There’s just one thing,’ she said hesitantly, ‘one very big thing.’
‘What?’ His tone was dry. ‘You’ve made me admit that I’m head over heels in love with you, I actually made a complete fool of myself at that damned register office just to prove it. I’ve begged you for your hand in marriage. What else? Do