Flight to Verechenko (21 page)

As he withdrew his head from hers she said, wonderingly,

‘You called me Catherine. When did you know?'

With ease he picked her up in his arms, the fury spent, the amusement that she always aroused in him returning.

‘I have always known. I have always loved you.'

Gently he carried her down the stairs and into the Vishnetski carriage. She nestled against him, as his lips brushed her hair, her cheeks.

‘I fell in love with you years ago, even before you were engaged to Robert.'

‘But how could you have?' she protested, gazing up at him in joy. ‘ We'd never met.'

‘No,' he agreed, pulling her so close to him that their hearts seemed to beat as one. ‘But I used to visit London incognito to see Robert. I saw you then, but was in no position to court you. And you became engaged to Robert. And he brought you to Paris and I saw you again and again and everything he told me about you only made me love you more.'

Robert. The name hung between them.

‘I loved him very much,' Catherine said softly, ‘ and I would have been very happy with him. But the love Robert and I shared was not like this. It was gentle and tender and I was content with it.'

‘Both of us loved Robert,' Dominic said gently. ‘And Robert, above all people would be happy for us, and would understand.'

‘Yes.' She lifted her mouth once more to his.

With Dominic she would find all Robert's gentleness and tenderness, and something else. Something that made her spine shiver and her flesh melt. Something so powerful it united the two of them against the world. They had arrived at the brilliantly lit entrance of Verechenko, but neither Dominic nor Catherine were even vaguely aware of it.

First published in 1983 by Mills and Boon

This edition published 2013 by Bello
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Copyright © Margaret Pemberton, 1983

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