“But I didn’t do anything.”
“You did. You kept your head, talking to him about that damned parrot. I couldn’t have reached him in time otherwise.”
She shuddered in Kyle’s embrace. “No, it was you. If you hadn’t come in time—”
“I have every confidence you would have thought of something, my brave, beautiful Moonwitch.”
Hearing the smile in his voice, Selena drew back to search Kyle’s rugged face. Sunbeams highlighted his thick hair with gold and increased the sharp clarity of his eyes, making it impossible for her to deny the love she saw there. She took a steadying breath, daring to believe. “I thought I had lost you,” she whispered, her voice nearly breaking.
His mouth curved with quizzical amusement. “Is that why you were leaving?”
“I thought I would stay with Bea until you could obtain a divorce.”
Kyle’s expression turned instantly sober, but Selena continued, determined to give him a final chance to reconsider. “Then you would be free to marry Danielle…and claim Clay as your son.”
Kyle held her gaze intently. “I suppose I should be grateful for your unselfish offer, but I’m not. Besides, your plan wouldn’t work. In the first place, I don’t want to marry Danielle, and she doesn’t want to marry me. She and Orrin are far better suited, and I imagine she’s already come to that conclusion. They’ll be married after a decent interval, no doubt. And in the second, I can’t marry Danielle. I already have a wife—whom I love very much.”
“But… what about Clay?” Selena said helplessly.
“I admit I would have liked to make him my son legally, but as you pointed out, it isn’t possible. I’ve come to terms with that. Besides, Orrin will make him a good father. I’ll settle a sum on Clay that he’ll inherit when he’s older. And it isn’t as if I’ll be giving him up entirely. He can come and play here with our children when we have them.”
“Our children?” Selena breathed, still not sure she wasn’t dreaming.
“Yes.” It was Kyle’s turn to be humble. He took her hand, gazing down at her slender fingers as if afraid to meet her gaze. “I haven’t been much of a husband to you, Selena. I don’t know if I can be, but I mean to try my damnedest. I intended to court you properly and win you, if I could—that was what I was trying to do this past week, though it didn’t seem to be working.” He hesitated, glancing up at her with a plea in his eyes. “Tell me it’s not too late, Moonwitch.”
“No,” she whispered. “It’s not too late.”
“I’m not what you deserve. I’m not nearly good enough for you—”
“Oh, Kyle.” She murmured his name on a sigh as she pressed her cheek against his solid chest. “You’re everything I want.”
“And do you think you could come to love me someday?”
She heard the uncertainty in his tone, felt the tension in his body, and her heart melted. “I love you now. I have for a long time.”
Kyle hesitated, still tense. “More than…what was his name? The man you wanted to marry.”
“Yes, more than Edward. I was so young then…a mere girl.”
His sigh was one of relief as his arms came around her. “You can’t imagine how jealous I was of him.”
“Yes, I can. I felt the same way about Danielle…and Angel… and that red-haired woman in New Orleans.”
“It sounds like you didn’t trust me.”
The laughter was back in his voice, and his teasing unfortunately reminded Selena of the tormenting jealousy she had endured during the past month or more. She stiffened, pushing against Kyle’s chest with an indignant look. “How could I trust you with so many women chasing you?”
“Selena, my love,” Kyle said with a smile as his mouth slowly descended, “I promised to be faithful—” he nuzzled her open lips in a tantalizing caress “—and I have been, body and heart.” His tongue slid inside her mouth, seeking hers.
Pressing Selena down into the straw then, Kyle proceeded to kiss her with a tender, arousing passion that left her breath erratic and her body throbbing.
He was breathing hard, too, when he finally drew away. “How,” he said with weak laughter as he propped himself up on one elbow, “could I ever look at another woman when I have you?”
Too dazed to move, Selena murmured a contented sigh in answer. She felt Kyle brush an escaping tendril back from her face.
“How could I not love you?” he repeated quietly. “You’ve shown me how to run this plantation, you’ve been a mother to my sisters, you’ve made it easy for me to be with Clay… I do love you, Selena. Every night for the past week I’ve tried to show you how much.”
Her eyelids fluttering open slowly, Selena gazed back at Kyle, watching his eyes, the green flecks swimming in a sea of gold. “I thought it was just physical desire.”