Australia’s Most Eligible Bachelor (22 page)

“A small risk. I don’t want to walk alone any more, Miranda,” he said very seriously. “I need you with me. Every step of the way.”

She wanted to cry. “Then that’s a miracle, Corin.” Her heart was in her eyes.

“A miracle that humbles me. Can I just say this—and I don’t want you to be cross—?”

“Say whatever you want. Don’t keep anything to yourself. No secrets. Not any more.”

She swallowed on a little dry patch in her throat. He
had
to know. She had no choice. “I know you’ve tried to reassure me, but I can’t help agonising over whether you’re shoving my true identity to the back of your mind? You must give me a truthful answer, Corin. Do you think it possible it could surface over time?”

“Miranda!” He released her name on a long, agonised exhalation.

“Let me finish. Time brings changes. We both know that. You’re taking me into
your
world. It’s a vastly different world from the one I grew up in. We must be clear on this. I know you love me. Lord knows I love you. The magic of it has kept me safe. And sane, I should tell you. There has been a lot to handle. It’s just that I can’t help feeling—actually
knowing
—your life would be so much easier, less problematic, without me.”

“Stop it, Miranda!”

“But it’s eating at me. What if someone tracks me down? Don’t they always say the truth will out?” She held his glittering, dark eyes. “You could be letting yourself in for a lot, Corin. It’s a bizarre story—like something out of a movie—and we can’t escape it.”

He lifted a hand to silence her. “We can and we
will
!” he said with great authority. “No more of this, Miranda. With you at my side, nothing is beyond me. I would want you whatever the cost. Surely you know that? At its worst what would it be? A nine-day wonder? If Leila left any tracks, Dad covered them. I can do the same. Besides, it’s
me
you’re worrying about, not yourself. I won’t have it. You’re everything in the world to me. There’s no going back. There’s only
forward
!”

He sounded so strong, so utterly sure of himself and
her
, and her own waning courage was restored. She wasn’t physically like her mother. Her nature was very different. What more was there to know?

“Come to bed,” Corin urged in a deep, desirous voice. “Just holding you in my arms is the most perfect feeling in the world.” Gently he pulled at the ties on her shoulders. Her loose dress, a series of ruffles, landed gently in an iridescent pool at their feet.

“You’re beautiful, so beautiful!” He cupped her breasts, letting the pads of his thumbs encircle the nipples.

The merest touch and she was aflame, her body flooding with sensation.

His voice had dropped to a deep, yearning pitch. “You’re like some exquisite figurine wrought out of alabaster. You’re more than I deserve, Miranda.”

“No, that isn’t so!” Such a tumult of emotion rose inside her it was like a starburst. Against the catastrophe in their lives, they could set the miracle of their love.

It was the wheel of fortune in motion. If she hadn’t found her mother she would never have found Corin. So in the end it was Leila who had brought Corin into her life. There was grace in that.

Her arms trembling, Miranda reached up to lock them around his neck. “I give myself into your hands completely,” she said with such fervour it became a vow. “You are my love. My lover. My life!” It was the ultimate expression of trust. And with the giving came a hitherto unattainable
peace
and acceptance. Corin had made his choice in life. He wanted
her
for his wife. That was the greatest honour of all.

The radiance of her expression made Corin’s breath catch in his throat. He swept her up into his arms, in that moment no mere man but a god, exultant. He stood for a moment, locking in the memory of her at that precise moment. Then he carried her down the hallway to the quiet of the master bedroom, where he would peel from her what single garment remained, spread her alabaster body on the bed, silver-gilt head against the pillows, before he sank onto her.

Kissing would pass to prolonged caresses…little whispered endearments to moans…soon the rapture would become too intense for them. It wasn’t simply a matter of two people becoming physically one. It was an exchange of
souls
. Corin knew deep within himself he could surmount any and every problem that might confront them. It was the
future
that beckoned, luminous with light, rich with promise.

Life was a tapestry composed of many strands: love, loss, sorrow, happiness, success, failure. There was only one way to handle it—take up the tapestry with both hands. Miranda had given great depth to his existence. He considered himself truly blessed. No greater gift could a woman give to her man than her
heart
.

No one in this world would look after Miranda’s tender heart better than he.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-6596-1

AUSTRALIA’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR

First North American Publication 2010.

Copyright © 2010 by Margaret Way, Pty., Ltd.

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