take his money. Lovers? I know you weren’t a virgin, but you weren’t far off it, Maggie.’
She went even more ashen at his uncannily accurate assessment. He noted it with something close to fury rising in his chest—fury at himself.
He was immovable, implacable. She knew instantly the only thing that would move him would be the one thing that would kill her. But if it meant she’d get rid of him then she had no choice. Before he guessed the full truth, if she could protect herself from at least that…
She squared her shoulders. ‘It was cockroaches, actually, and you want the truth?’ She tossed her head. ‘Here it is. The truth is that I had one lover before I met you, in college. And I didn’t know what Tom had planned until…until…’ She couldn’t do it.
A stillness entered Caleb’s body. He came closer and Maggie could feel the heat from his body reach out to caress her, touch her. He had to go…now. She had to be strong.
‘That day.’
‘The day of the date?’ he queried sharply. Too sharply.
Maggie turned away in agitation, arms around her body. ‘Yes, damn you, yes!’ She turned around again. ‘There! Are you happy now? I didn’t know until that day, so in case it’s not completely obvious, let me spell it out for you. I had a crush on you, Caleb, a monumental crush. I believed that you possibly felt something for me too and I stupidly believed that you wanted to take me on that date, to get to know me.’
‘Maggie…’
She could see a flare of something in his eyes. Her voice shook. ‘Don’t you dare pity me, Caleb Cameron. I don’t need your pity. It was a crush, that’s all. Desire. Tom followed me to Oxford Street that day and made me buy that…that dress…’ a shudder of revulsion went through her ‘…then he told me what he’d do to my mother if I didn’t comply. I had no choice.’ The fight went out of her; she looked away. ‘But then…I just…’
‘Couldn’t go through with it.’
She looked back quickly and a shiver of something indefinable ran through her. He was looking at her with…not pity…something else and it made her silly heart speed up. He came close, too close, and only then she became aware of the fat tear sliding down her cheek. She didn’t even know she’d been crying. He reached out a hand and she jerked away.
‘You’ve been minding her for a long time. And you came back to Dublin to escape, didn’t you?’
Why did he have to say that so gently, as though he really cared? She nodded slowly, more tears slipping hotly down. His hand came out again. This time she couldn’t move as he wiped his thumb back and forth. The contact was too much. A broken sob escaped and, with a curse, Caleb closed the distance, pulled her forward and into his arms. He held her for a long time. Until the sobbing had stopped. Rubbing her back as though she were ten years old.
But then she didn’t feel ten any more. She felt like a grown woman whose body was springing into life, pressed as she was, tight against the length of him.
She tried to pull back but he wouldn’t let her go.
‘Caleb…let me go, I’m okay now…’
She was sure she looked awful; as a freckled redhead, she didn’t do pretty crying.
‘I can’t let you go.’
She looked up. ‘What?’
She felt rather than saw him shrug. His eyes bored down into hers. ‘I can’t let you go. I’m afraid that if I do…I’ll wake up and have dreamt all this and that I’ll never see you again.’
A taut, pregnant stillness seemed to surround them.
‘But…you can go now. Leave. You don’t want to see me again.’
‘No. You don’t want to see me.’
Maggie’s brow creased as she took in a vulnerable light in the depths of Caleb’s eyes. It couldn’t be. She shook her head. ‘Caleb, stop confusing me. Let me go.’ She tried to pull away again, a little desperately. There was no give.
‘Just tell me one thing, Maggie…Was it really just a crush?’
She felt him stop breathing. Nodded her head slowly. And inexplicably, started to drown in his eyes. She just…couldn’t do it. Couldn’t lie. Feeling the last vestiges of her defence and fight fall away, leaving her limp and defeated, she stopped nodding and slowly shook her head.
A surge of mounting hope moved through him. ‘So…if it wasn’t just a crush…was it something more?’
She was feeling boneless. All that existed were those mesmerising eyes. She nodded again, barely aware of what she was saying yes to, only aware that she wanted Caleb to keep holding her. For ever.
Caleb tried to contain himself but could feel the tremor building all the way upwards from his feet. ‘For the past two months…and now…is it still there?’
She broke out of the seductive trance. She could feel the tears well again. ‘Please Caleb…don’t tease…don’t make me say it.’
He lifted his hands and framed her face and she could feel them trembling. ‘You don’t have to…I will. Maggie Holland, I love you. I love you so much that if you can’t tell me you love me too then I’m going to walk straight into the Atlantic and never come back because my life would not be worth living.’
A hard shell seemed to crack open around her. She clung on to his eyes, searching, seeking…and could see nothing but pure love shining back. Could she trust?
She had to trust.
With a very shaky voice she said huskily, ‘That’d be an awful waste because I love you too…I’ve loved you since the moment I set eyes on you.’
‘Oh, Maggie…’ He groaned and lowered his lips to hers, taking her mouth in a sweet kiss, hunger barely checked, but there. He stopped and pulled back. ‘When I saw you that first time…I fell so hard and then when I overheard Holland talking about using you…I cynically assumed you were in on it too. It was easier to see you as an accomplice than face up to my true feelings…I’m so, so sorry; when you tried to stop and tell me—’
Maggie just shook her head, putting a finger to his lips. ‘It was pretty damning and we’d only just met. You had no idea who I was…’
She wound her arms tightly around his neck and, stretching up, pressed her mouth to his and urged him to kiss her deeper, harder. They pulled apart after a few seconds, breathing harshly. She touched his face wonderingly.
‘Are you here? Is this real?’
He laughed shakily. ‘I hope so because I’m about to get down on one knee and propose.’
‘Caleb…’ She watched, open-mouthed, as he knelt down before her. Tears blurred her vision again. They just wouldn’t stop.
He took her hand. ‘Margaret Holland. Will you please become my wife? So that I can spend my life loving you, minding you, protecting you…’
‘But…but
