Wrapped In Pleasure - Brenda Jackson [47]
Delaney looked up at Jamal, questions evident in her eyes. He knew what she was asking. “It doesn’t matter,” he said softly. “If you are pregnant, the child is mine and I will recognize it as such. Your child will be our child, and I will love it…just as much as I will always love you, its mother.”
Tears streamed down her face with his admission of love. It had not been his intent to tell her how he felt, but he couldn’t leave without letting her know their time together had meant everything to him, and without letting her know that he had fallen in love with her.
“And I love you, too, Jamal,” she whispered, holding him tight to her.
He nodded. “Yes, but this is one of those times when love is not enough,” he said hoarsely. “Duty comes before love.”
Asalum blew the horn, letting them know it was time for him to leave. Delaney walked him to the door, then stood silently on the porch as she watched his trusted servant help him with his luggage. When that had been done Jamal turned and looked at her after taking a small box Asalum had handed to him.
Walking back to her he presented the box to her. “This is something I had Asalum make sure arrived with the plane. It is something I want you to have, Delaney. Please accept it not as a gift for what has passed between us, because I would never cheapen what we shared that way. But accept it as a token of my undying love and deep affection. And whenever you need to remember just how deeply I love you, just how much I care, take a look at it,” he said, opening the box for her to see.
Delaney released a sharp intake of breath. Sitting on a surface of white velvet was the largest diamond ring she had ever seen. It was all of eight or nine carats. But what really caught her eye was the inscription on the inside of the wide band. It read—“My Princess.” “But…but I can’t take this.”
“Yes, you can, Delaney. It belonged to my mother and is mine to give to the woman I choose.”
“But what about the woman you must marry, and—”
“No, she is the woman being given to me. In my heart you are the woman I love and the woman I would choose if I could. This is mine and I want to give it to you.”
Delaney shook her head as tears began clouding again in her eyes. “This is too much, Jamal. It is so special.”
“Because you are too much, Delaney, and you are so special. And no matter who walks by my side, remember that things aren’t as they seem to be. You are the one who will always have my heart.”
He leaned and tenderly kissed her one last time before turning and walking to the car. He looked over his shoulder before getting inside, and waved goodbye.
She waved back, then stood rooted to the spot, watching the car drive away. She once remembered him saying that he didn’t like leaving anything behind broken.
Evidently, it didn’t include her heart.
She stood until the vehicle was no longer in sight. It was then that she allowed the floodgates to open, and she gave in to the rest of her tears.
The sun was low on the horizon by the time Delaney finished her walk. The cabin held too many memories, and she hadn’t been ready to go there after Jamal left, so she’d taken a stroll around the cabin. But she had found no peace in doing that, either.
Every path she took held some memory of Jamal.
Already every cell in her body missed him, longed for him and wanted him. There was so much she’d wanted to say and wished she had said, but none of it would have mattered.
He had chosen duty over love.
Delaney’s heart sank, yet a part of her both understood and accepted. She had known all along that things would end this way. There had been no other way for them to end. Jamal had been totally honest with her from the very beginning. He had not given her false