After the Affair(44)

Her eyes slid inexorably towards the portrait.

'Oh, Cassie,' Dan sighed. 'Don't go thinking things like that. I haven't shown you the painting to make you feel insecure. I merely wanted to explain that when I met you again, and found you so mature and assured, it came as a shock. I guess for me it was as though you had been frozen in time, and it took a while for my thinking to readjust. You'd grown up. Truly grown up. But once I'd got over the shock I found that you appealed to me even more so. You are a woman such as Roberta never was, or ever could be. Strong and brave. Good and kind. But you are still in essence the girl I painted, with the same sweet, generous heart. You can't imagine how I felt tonight when you told me that you loved me, had never stopped loving me. I thought my heart would burst with emotion. All I can say in return is that I'll try to be worthy of your love. And that I will love you till the day I die.'

Tears shimmered into Cassie's eyes, tears of true joy. 'Oh, Dan...'

He bent to kiss her lightly. 'Don't cry,' he murmured. 'I can't bear to see you cry.'

'Even with happiness?' she managed to get out.

'Even that.' One finger traced her lips. 'From now On, all I want to see is laughter in your eyes, smiles on your mouth. Except, of course...' his expression carried a warm mischief '...when I don't want to see your mouth at all.'

His own mouth descended slowly, giving her time to be ready for him, capturing her parted lips in a heady explosion of passion.

Cassie remembered dimly having wondered if sex would be different without love. Yes, she realised dazedly. Yes, it must be... For this was the ultimate, this was insurpassable, this was making love.

It wasn't just that his touch pleasured her, nor that his mouth matched hers perfectly. There was an inner joy as he kissed her, an almost miraculous blending of the physical and emotional.

He undressed her quickly, yet with infinite tenderness. Each caress, while tinged with impatience, carried the most undeniable respect.

He said nothing, but his silence was loving, an intense showing of his feeling for her. Nothing was too much trouble. He stroked her body, stroked and kissed her till she was a furnace of longing. And when he came to her she was filled with the sweetest bliss, his possession taking her swiftly along the crescendo of sensation till everything burst around her, showing her ecstasy as overwhelming as the man who had created it.

And as she lay in replete contentment on the rug, her arms around Dan, Cassie realised that they had come full circle. This was where it had all begun. This was where Jason had been conceived.

The thought claimed her quite clearly, with a certainty that would not be denied. A child would spring from this union  , a brother or a sister for Jason. This was a new beginning, a going forward. There would be no more looking back.

A long time afterwards, Dan lifted himself from her and brought a hand to touch her face. This he did wondrously, gently, as though in awe of his own feelings.

She looked up at him, not knowing that at that moment, with all her defences down, with her body and soul finally at peace, her eyes were exactly the same as those of the girl in the portrait. Clear and trusting and oh, so full of love.

'Will I never get tired of you, my darling girl?' he murmured thickly.

She smiled. And said one word, a word that carried the total message of their love for each other.

'Never.'