‘Until you realised what, Luccy?’ Sin prompted huskily.
Her chin rose. ‘You want me to bare my soul completely, is that it, Sin?’ she choked. ‘Want me to tell you that I’ve only ever had one other sexual experience, a horrible fumbling night years ago that I never wanted to repeat? Want me to tell you that when we made love it was—it was out of this world? Unbelievable? Everything I had ever thought—hoped—it could be? Is this what you want from me, Sin?’ she challenged emotionally.
Sin reached out and touched Luccy’s cheek, gently, caressingly, her beauty such that she completely took his breath away. ‘Luccy, will you marry me?’ he whispered.
‘Wh—what…?’
Sin swallowed hard before repeating the question, a little louder this time. ‘Will you marry me, Luccy?’
Luccy took a step back even as she eyed him suspiciously. ‘You haven’t finished explaining why you were sending me away.’
‘I decided I had to let you go if that was what you really wanted. That isn’t the same as sending you away.’
No, it wasn’t, was it…?
‘Do you want to leave, Luccy?’ Sin looked at her intently.
Of course she didn’t want to leave. Not if there was a chance the two of them could—
She was being ridiculous again! So Sin was starting to have doubts about Paul Bridger’s version of things—what did that prove? It certainly didn’t mean that Sin loved her in the way that she loved him. Or that he ever would!
She nodded. ‘I think it’s best for everyone, don’t you?’
A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘Not for me.’
‘Sin, you can’t marry me just because I’m expecting your baby. I’ve already explained to you—told you—why I can’t marry you for that reason, either,’ she reminded him shakily.
Sin reached out and grasped her arms. ‘What if I’m not asking you to marry me just because you’re pregnant?’
‘But you are—aren’t you?’
He drew in a ragged breath, knowing too much depended on his answer for him not to tell Luccy the truth. If she still turned him down afterwards—He didn’t even want to think about that!
‘I love you, Luccy,’ he rasped. ‘I love you, damn it!’ he repeated determinedly. ‘So much that the thought of you leaving—going back to England and leaving me, now or any time in the future—is killing me!’
Luccy stared up at him, totally stunned. Had Sin really just said—? Had he really just told her—?
She gave a jerky shake of her head. ‘You can’t love me!’
Sin gave a humourless smile. ‘Maybe you’ll believe me if I tell you that whether you marry me or not I intend spending the rest of my life showing you just how much I love you. I won’t let you go, Luccy, not if it takes me fifty years to convince you!’
He meant it. He really meant it!
Sin loved her.
Luccy looked up at him, able to see the sincerity of that love burning in his eyes, accompanied by an expression of uncertainty that was totally alien to his nature…
She took a deep breath. ‘I fell in love with you that very first night, Sin. That was what I realised that night at the hotel,’ she finished her earlier sentence for him. ‘And I left so suddenly because that realisation terrified the life out of me!’
It was the first time that Luccy had actually admitted that truth to herself.
She had fallen in love with Sin almost on sight.
That was the reason she had behaved so—so impetuously.
And she loved him still!
Her eyes glowed with the emotion. ‘I love you, Sin. I was only leaving today because I love you. Because I couldn’t bear the thought of being with you and not having you love me in return!’
His answer was to sweep her up in his arms as his mouth fiercely claimed hers.
It was some time later before either of them could put a coherent sentence together, Luccy snuggled in Sin’s arms as they sat together on the sofa in the sitting-room.
Luccy chuckled softly. ‘I still can’t believe you stopped the plane taking off.’
Sin’s arms tightened about her. ‘I would have bought the whole damned airline if I had to.’
‘That’s going to take a bit of getting used to…’
Sin looked down at her curiously. ‘What is?’
She shrugged. ‘Being married to a man who could buy out an airline if he wanted to.’ She grimaced. ‘I come from a very ordinary background, Sin. Wonderful, but ordinary. What if—?’
‘I sincerely hope you aren’t having doubts about marrying me because I’m rich?’ Sin frowned fiercely.