twisted tightly together in her lap. ‘Because if he hadn’t left when he did I would have broken down,’ she admitted shakily. ‘Because I love him,’ she said more forcefully, shaken at putting her feelings into words for the first time. ‘Because he doesn’t love me!’ she choked, the tears starting to fall now, blinding her as she buried her face in her hands.
‘He loves you, Silke,’ an all too familiar voice told her huskily. ‘He just isn’t very good at admitting he loves anyone. Basically because I didn’t want to love anyone,’ Lyon admitted gruffly.
Silke had turned, stricken, at the first sound of his voice, staring at him dazedly as he stood in the open doorway. How long had he been standing there? She hadn’t even realised he was here; his car hadn’t been outside in the driveway when she arrived, and—
Had he just said that he loved her?
‘I think I’ll leave the two of you alone together,’ her mother stood up. ‘Thirty-five years is a long time, Silke,’ her mother reminded her softly, squeezing her arm as she walked past her to leave the room.
Lyon watched Silke from across the room, dark and attractive in a navy silk shirt and navy fitted trousers, his expression wary now, a little uncertain. It wasn’t an emotion Silke would ever have associated with him!
She stood up slowly, smoothing her hands down her denim-clad thighs. ‘I had no idea you were here,’ she said nervously, her eyes wide as she looked at him.
‘I came down with your mother earlier,’ he shrugged. ‘As she said, I wanted to talk to her.’
Silke nodded. ‘I’m glad the two of you have sorted out your differences, that you’ve decided to accept my mother in your uncle’s life.’
The two of them were talking to each other like strangers; maybe she had imagined that he had said he loved her?
‘I think it may be a question of the other way around,’ Lyon gave a self-derisive grimace. ‘I realise now what your mother must have gone through all those years ago,’ he explained at her questioning look. ‘She had more reason to resent me rather than the other way round. If Henry hadn’t been made my guardian the two of them would have been married years ago!’
Her mother and Lyon had done some talking, hadn’t they? ‘Possibly,’ Silke acknowledged. ‘But they both put that in the past, and so I think you should too.’
He nodded. ‘That’s what your mother said,’ he told her ruefully.
The two of them continued to look at each other, neither of them speaking, neither of them moving, just looking at each other. And it was killing Silke. Had he said he loved her?
‘Of course I love you,’ he spoke huskily—and Silke realised she had said the words out loud!
Her cheeks felt hot as she stared at him. ‘I love you too,’ she finally said softly.
‘So what are we going to do about it?’ he prompted abruptly.
Silke gave a shaky laugh, hardly able to believe this conversation was taking place. ‘Whatever we want to do, I suppose,’ she spoke huskily.
‘I want to marry you,’ Lyon told her evenly.
This was ridiculous! They had just said that they loved each other, Lyon had told her he wanted to marry her—and yet they still faced each other across the width of the room as if they were adversaries!
‘Marriage is a trap,’ she said, reminding him that he had once told her it was a trap he had no intention of getting into.
He shook his head. ‘Not when you love the person you marry,’ he said firmly.
‘I now know for certain I’m not pregnant, Lyon,’ she told him almost regretfully; when she had thought she would be going out of his life for good it had been some comfort to think she might, just might, be expecting his child. Now she knew that was no longer a possibility.
‘Not yet, perhaps,’ he accepted gently. ‘But we have plenty of time to have children. If you’ll marry me?’
He looked uncertain again—and it was an emotion Silke didn’t like to see in him. His arrogance might have angered her in the past, but it was Lyon, and to see him like this was almost too difficult to bear.
‘I might—if you’ll come over here and kiss me!’ She looked at him teasingly beneath lowered lashes.
He gave a throaty chuckle, walking towards her. ‘I thought you’d never ask!’ he groaned as he took her in his arms, crushing her against the lean length of him, burying his face in her silky hair.
Her arms were about his neck, her body moulded to his. ‘You don’t usually wait to be asked,’ she teased huskily.
‘The new me,’ he said with self-mockery as he raised his head to look down at her. ‘Will you marry me, Silke?’
Her face was raised to his, her face glowing; it was going to be all right. It really was! ‘You haven’t kissed me yet,’ she reminded lightly.
‘Once I start I might not stop,’ he admitted self-derisively. ‘So maybe you had better give me your answer first!’
‘Yes,’ she said without hesitation. ‘Yes, yes, yes!’
He gave a triumphant laugh before sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her over to the sofa—where he proceeded to kiss her until they were both breathless!
‘I fell in love with you the moment you removed that ridiculous bunny head,’ he told her some time later, Silke nestled in his arms as she sat next to him on the sofa.
‘You didn’t,’ she protested, looking up at him. ‘You were absolutely horrible to me that day.’
‘I didn’t want to love you,’ he reminded huskily. ‘But Henry has told me that he fell in love with your mother on sight all those years ago, and I’m afraid I did the same thing with you.’
‘”Afraid”?’ she teased, touching the hardness of his cheek with caressing fingers.
‘Hmm.’ He gave a self-derisive grimace. ‘And if Henry hadn’t collapsed in the way that he did, and diverted attention away from the situation I suddenly found myself in, I might have made a complete idiot of myself.’
‘Not you, Lyon,’ Silke lightly mocked. ‘You’re far too controlled.’
‘My control went out of the window that day, too!’ he admitted ruefully. ‘The Jordan women are pretty powerful stuff!’
‘The Winter-Buchanan men too,’ she smiled up at him lovingly.
Lyon returned the warmth of her smile, smoothing the silky hair at her brow. ‘A mutual admiration society, hmm?’
‘Not to start with,’ she reminded him reprovingly. ‘You really were awful to Mummy and me.’
‘I didn’t want you in my life.’ He grimaced. ‘I had lived without love in my life for so long, and I didn’t want it there then either.’
‘And
