“That’s for me to decide,” she told him and paid no attention as the driver of her limo discreetly slipped off in the direction of the barn. “I’ve spent the last several hours thinking of exactly what I want to tell you and now I will.”
“Fine,” he said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “Have at it.”
“Good then. Where to begin?” She took a deep breath, met his eyes and said the first thing that came to her mind. “You’re a bloody fool to walk away from me, Jefferson King.”
“That’s what you wanted to tell me?” he asked, smiling. “You came all this way to insult me?”
“That and more. I’ll say this to your face as it’s not something a woman wants to tell a man over the telephone.” She walked toward him then, steel in her spine and fury in her steps, despite her earlier hesitation to be too close. “The reason I refused to marry you when you offered me a cold, empty marriage for the sake of our child or for convenience’s sake was because I love you, you great ape of a man.”
He gave her a slow smile. “You love me.”
“I did. I do. But don’t hold that lapse against me.” Sputtering now, as thoughts crashed through her mind in a kaleidoscope of images and words, she wondered where her carefully rehearsed speech had disappeared to. Then she gave it up and spoke from the heart. “Though I love you, I won’t marry a man who won’t love me back.”
She glowered at him, seeing him now through her tears and anger and wanting nothing more than to throw herself into his arms and taste his kiss on her lips again. “So I’ve come to tell you that refusing to love another out of loyalty to your first wife is a foolish waste—though I’ll say it speaks well of you to remember her and care for the memory.”
“Thanks,” he said, then added, “God, I love you.”
She rolled right over his words, intent on telling him everything that was inside her. “Still, the living must live, Jefferson. Denying your heart is just another kind of death. I won’t do that. And I hate that you’re willing to. I’ll tell you now, I will love you till I die, but I won’t stop living. I’ll be there, in Ireland, when you come to your senses.”
“Maura,” he said, “I love you.”
“I’ve not finished,” she told him sternly. Why couldn’t the man be silent and let her get this said? “You’ll miss me, Jefferson, and the life we could have had. You’ll pine for me and I swear you’ll regret ever walking away. And when, in your misery, you finally realize that loving me is what you were meant to do, remember it was I who told you. ’Twas me who came here to look you in the eye and give you one last chance. And blast it all, remember it was love that brought me here.”
“I said I love you.”
“What?” She whipped her head back to shake her hair out of her eyes and blinked up at him as if he were suddenly speaking Gaelic. “What was that? What did you just say?”
“I said, I love you.”
She looked up into his eyes and read the truth of his words shining back at her. A bright burst of light exploded in the center of her chest and Maura thought with those words ringing in her ears, she wouldn’t have need of a plane to get back home. She’d simply float across the Atlantic.
“You love me.”
“I do,” he said, grinning now as he reached for her.
She went willingly, throwing herself at him as she’d longed to do from the first moment she stepped out of that long, elegant car. Her arms came around his neck and she clung to him as she muttered thickly, “Well, why the devil didn’t you say so?”
He laughed out loud and, arms wrapped around her waist, he lifted her off her feet and swung her in circles around the drive. “Who could get a word in when you’re on a rant?”
“True, it’s true. I’ve a terrible temper, I know, but it’s just that I hurt so badly and I wanted you to be as miserable as I was feeling,” she whispered into the curve of his neck, inhaling his scent, feeling the hard, solid strength of him pressed against her.
“I was,” he confessed, his strong arms crushing her to him. “Without you, there’s nothing. I know that now.”
“Oh, Jefferson, I’ve missed you so.”
“I was coming to you,” he told her, his voice husky and filled with emotion. “I’d just decided to go back to Ireland and convince you to marry me, even if I had to abduct you.”
She laughed a little, relief and wonder tangling up inside her. “I’m almost sorry to have missed that.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised. “I want to live in Ireland, with you and our baby, at the farm.”
She pulled her head back to stare up at him in wonder as the last of the dream slid into place. “You’d live in Ireland?”
“It’s not a hardship,” he told her. “I think I love the place almost as much as you do.”
“You’re a lovely man,” she said on a sigh. “Have I mentioned that lately?”
He grinned. “Not lately, no.”
She’d come so far, hoped and dreamed so much and now that she had everything she had ever wanted in the circle of her arms, she could only hold on to him, reeling at the happiness coursing through her. Finally though, he set her on her feet, but left his hands at her waist as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.
“I’ll still have to do some traveling at times,” he was telling her, “but you and the baby can come with me. We’ll have so many adventures, love. Our life will be full and happy, I promise you.”
“I believe you,” she said, lifting one hand to cup his cheek.
“Maura,” he said softly, staring into her eyes like a man who’d just awakened from a long sleep to find his heart’s desire landing at his feet. “I’m going to ask you again. The right way this time. I want you to marry me. For real. Forever.”
“Ah, Jefferson, now I’m going to cry,” she said, and felt the tears sliding along her cheeks.
“Don’t,” he whispered, bending to kiss her briefly, hungrily. “Don’t cry.” He smoothed her tears away with his thumbs and smiled into her eyes. “I’m really not worthy of you at all, am I?”
She laughed and leaned into him, relishing the sound of his heartbeat beneath her ear. Wrapping both arms around his middle, she said, “Oh, you darlin’ man…if every woman waited for a man who was worthy of her, there’d be no marriages, would there?”