He paused, looking deep into her eyes, and Alexa felt as if her legs had turned to water at the sight of the powerful emotion she saw burning there. But still she needed him to say it.
He didn’t disappoint her.
‘You wanted my love.’
‘Oh Santos …’
‘But I didn’t recognise what I was feeling, so how could I say the word? Until I realised that if I didn’t say it, then I had to leave. And I couldn’t leave … Alexa—what I’ve said—’
‘Sounds a lot like love to me,’ Alexa managed, her voice catching, breaking on the words. ‘And I should know because that’s what I’ve been feeling too.’
‘It is?’
The change in his face was stunning. The light that glowed in his eyes warmed her right through to her soul and his grip on her hands tightened, drawing her close to him until she was hard up against the warm strength of his body and it was the only place in the world that she wanted to be.
‘You love me?’
‘I love you,’ Alexa assured him. ‘I love you with all my heart—with everything that’s in me. Without your love I couldn’t face a future with you, but with it you are all the future I will ever need.’
‘And you’ll marry me? You’ll marry me and be my lover? And now that I know what I’m feeling is love—will you let me love you for the rest of your life?’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d want more. Yes, Santos, I’ll marry you—and together we’ll learn about how wonderful love can be when it’s shared. When two become one.’
She sighed her happiness as Santos’s arms came round her and she lifted her face for his kiss. A long, deep, giving, loving kiss such as she’d never known in her life before.
Behind him the door slammed closed, shutting out the rest of the world and leaving them in their own private, special place where the only thing that they needed was each other and the love they had built between them.