Page 85 of Daniel's Daughter
‘It needn’t be.’
He cradled the line of her jaw with his hand as he tilted her face upwards to his. ‘I’ve missed seeing this face scowling at me across the breakfast table.’
Grace smiled. ‘Was I so unfriendly towards you?’
‘No more than I deserved.’
‘And now we are friends again.’
Talek’s hazel eyes darkened with their liquid black centres. ‘I want us to be more than friends.’ A heartbeat later, Talek was wrapping his arms about her. ‘I want what we had. I want what no other man can.’
Grace closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, savouring the moment so she could remember it for the rest of her life — the warmth of his body, the spice and oak moss notesfrom his morning shave, his heart beating wildly against her own. She wanted to remember it all.
‘I’ve missed you so much it hurts,’ he whispered into her hair.
‘And I you.’ Suddenly they were kissing. Both seeking the others lips in mutual desire, their kisses were well matched and demanding, born from pent-up passion and an appetite for more. Both determined not to let this moment be snatched away. But soon that fear lessened, turning their passion to a less hurried, sweet pleasure — a dance of two lovers with promises for more.
They broke away, their heads bowed and a languid smile on their sensitive lips. They rested their foreheads against one another’s as their rapid breaths fanned each other’s heated skin. Talek’s voice was hoarse with relief when he finally spoke.
‘I was a fool to send you away.’
She touched his cheek with trembling fingers and smiled through her tears. ‘And I was a fool to give you cause to.’
‘I meant it when I said my home is empty without you. My life is too.’
‘You wish to employ me again?’ Grace teased.
‘No . . . I wish to have you as my wife.’
Grace turned in the circle of his arms to look at the sprawling countryside below them. ‘I want that too.’
‘Can you give up the beauty of the moor for land of white clay?’ asked Talek.
Grace squeezed his arms against her in reassurance. ‘There is a different type of beauty in the clay lands. It is strange, alien and daunting . . . barren and desolate to the naked eye, yet productive and thriving when you come to know it. A conundrum made by man. But the real beauty is in the hearts of the people who live there and in the products it helps to create.And there is also another unique beauty that this place does not have.’
‘Which is?’
‘The life that it promises me.’
Talek kissed the crook of her neck. ‘A life of a clay miner’s wife?’
Grace rested the back of her head against his shoulder. ‘A life filled with love and passion.’
Talek laughed softly behind her. ‘There is a side to you that I’m just beginning to discover.’
Grace raised an eyebrow. ‘Is it a side that I should keep hidden?’
He turned her to face him and gently threaded his fingers through her hair.
‘Not from me, my auburn-haired beauty. Never from me.’
Grace reached around his neck to draw him closer. She brushed her lips gently against his. ‘Good,’ she murmured on a sigh, ‘for I have no intention of trying.’
THE END
