Love Islands…The Collection. Jane Porter
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tell me you were worried? He called me after I’d seen Antonio this morning. I was angry you hadn’t told me... I thought we’d gotten so close last night... But then to find out you’d held back something so important... That you wouldn’t turn to me...’
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She’d frozen at the hurt she saw in him.
‘I hate being excluded,’ he said rawly. ‘When the people I care about don’t tell me what they’re going through it makes me feel...feel like I can’t help them. Feel that they think what I have to offer isn’t enough...’
She had hurt him. And that was why he’d shut her out this morning. He’d been as hurt as she. Neither of them able to articulate their true fears. Both of them scared of trusting.
But there had to be that leap now.
‘It’s just that I was scared,’ she mumbled, desperate to explain. ‘Not of you,’ she clarified quickly. ‘I’m a soldier. I’m supposed to be brave. But I’m terrified about giving birth.’
‘Oh, sweetheart.’
‘And I was scared you only cared about the baby. Not really me. And I didn’t want to bother you.’ She closed her eyes. ‘I hate being so pathetic.’
He placed his hands on her waist, firmly anchoring her. ‘The last thing you are is pathetic. You don’t have to be alone and scared. You don’t have to be either of those things ever again.’
Her tears spilled from beneath the closed lashes. And despite that massive lump in her throat she could finally speak clearly. ‘I had this huge crush on you for so long, and then all this happened and I just wanted more. You were so much more than I’d ever imagined. So charming, so sexy...and then so funny and kind. So much more a prince than I’d thought... And then I didn’t want to be the bride you bedded, who had your baby and who you then walked away from. I wanted the whole fairy tale. And it wasn’t fair of me. It wasn’t realistic of me to expect everything from you—’
‘Why not?’ he interrupted. ‘I want more from you. I want everything from you.’
He enfolded her in warmth and strength. She melted into his arms, reaching up to kiss him. A kiss full of desperation and apology and desire. And so much love.
He broke away with a pained groan. ‘We need to tell your father you’re okay. He’s worried.’
‘Maybe we could invite him to have lunch soon?’
She was so happy, so full of future possibilities, she saw now that she needed to try again. Her father had offered to help. Maybe, with Eduardo’s support, she could open up to him too—maybe they could rebuild a relationship outside of regimental duty.
‘He’ll have to come in the helicopter. We’re going back to Secreto Real for the next few weeks.’ Eduardo brushed her hair back with gentle fingers.
‘We are?’
‘If that’s okay with you.’ He gazed into her eyes for a moment, then rested his forehead on hers as if he couldn’t bear to stand more than an inch away from her. ‘We need time, Stella,’ he said softly. ‘Fortunately we have for ever.’
She lifted her chin and met his kiss. Tender and true and so emotional. She clung to him .
‘I love you,’ he said.
Two fat tears trickled down her face. He kissed them away, but the lump in her throat grew. She knew she had to push past it.
‘No one...’ she whispered, but her voice gave out.
‘No one what?’
She could see him thinking.
His eyes widened and he asked in a strangled voice. ‘You’ve never heard that before?’
She couldn’t even shake her head, her throat was so tight, and for a split-second she wanted to look away from him, to hide safely behind her personal ramparts. But it was too late. And, as exposed as she was, she was glad it was him seeing her now.
‘Oh, Stella.’ His expression softened, but the embrace he enveloped her in was fierce. ‘Not even your father?’ He ran his hands up her back. ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’
He kissed her, held her. She leaned as close as she could. She never wanted to leave his arms.
He scooped her up and with keen determination quickly looked about. After three strides he turned and sank onto the sand at the very base of the cliff. His arms loosened enough for her to wriggle and wrap her legs around his waist. Embracing him. She kissed him back, pouring herself into the passion, wanting to give him everything she could. She’d missed him, needed him. She couldn’t get close enough.
‘I was worried I’d lost you,’ he groaned breathlessly, between kisses that grew both frantic and yet more tender. ‘That I was never going to have you...not really have you. Not like this.’
She took the lead, impatient and yet aching to savour the preciousness of this moment. She grappled with the zipper of his jeans. He shifted beneath her, helping. Helping again by sliding his hand under her skirt, up her thighs, pulling her panties aside enough to access her secret heat. But then she hesitated, looking deeply into his eyes, drawing courage from what she saw in them. Her heart soared. Lust was a mere fraction of all she was feeling.
‘I love you,’ she whispered.
There was another flawless moment of silent, straining emotion before he breathed—a broken sigh of pleasure, an aching heart filled to bursting.
‘Another first?’ he whispered back, gazing into her eyes as she nodded. ‘The most precious,’ he muttered gruffly.
Her eyes remained locked with his as she sank down, taking him hard and deep within. Her core moulded around his, strengthening, securing. They both sighed at the searing sweetness. Fully clothed, yet bared to the soul, Stella had never felt as close to anyone as she did to him then.
‘I just want to love you,’ he breathed, combing his fingers through her hair and cradling the nape of her neck. ‘Just want to stay close like this.’
She knew he meant more than physically—that he felt this emotional connection as profoundly as she.
‘Don’t ever shut me out.’ His eyes gleamed with that contrary mix of arrogance and vulnerability that she now understood and adored in him.
‘Never.’ Another tear escaped, but her soul eased. ‘I’m here for you—you’re here for me.’
It really was that simple. That true. That perfect. She had never thought she could ever feel this happy. This loved.
He smiled that gorgeous, dimple-studded smile that was simultaneously wicked and challenging and irresistible and heart-stopping.
‘Always.’
PRINCE EDUARDO DE SANTIS cradled the tiny baby in his arms and looked across the room at his sleeping wife. She was pale and she had smudges beneath her eyes, and her hair was swept back in a loose, messy ponytail, but he’d never seen her looking so beautiful.
The bells celebrating the birth had only recently stopped ringing across the city. The bells in his heart were still going strong—reverberating with joy around his body. His wife and daughter were well and happy and safe. And he’d never felt so lucky. Never so grateful.
‘No reason why she couldn’t be a non-commissioned officer if she wanted,’ he said slowly, turning to the older man who stood in the room with him.
A slow smile spread across General Zambrano’s face. ‘No reason. She’d be good at training on the base.’
‘Part-time