Carole Mortimer Romance Collection. Carole Mortimer

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 now?’ Silke kissed the length of his jaw.

      ‘Now I wish we were already married and I could take you away somewhere and make love to you without interruption,’ he admitted huskily. ‘But I doubt either Henry or your mother would let us get away with that; it will have to be the whole “white wedding” bit!’

      She looked up at him searchingly. ‘Not if that isn’t what you want.’ She shook her head. ‘I was going to have that once before, and it isn’t important—’

      ‘Silke.’ He looked down at her intently now. ‘I want to see you walking down the aisle to me in a silky white gown, want to watch with pride as you become my wife. Cameron was an idiot,’ he grimly repeated the accusation he had made once before concerning James.

      ‘I was never going away with him, Lyon,’ Silke assured him. ‘I only let you go on believing that so that you would leave.’

      He nodded. ‘I realise that now.’

      ‘James’s marriage had been going through a rough patch, and he—well, he thought—’

      ‘I don’t give a damn what he thought.’ Lyon’s arms tightened about her possessively. ‘Now that I know you love me, he isn’t coming anywhere near you ever again!’

      But she would send James his wedding invitation, just so that he would know she and Lyon had ‘sorted things out’, and that she was going to be happy; she knew James would have enough sense not actually to attend the wedding!

      ‘I don’t want him anywhere near me again,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘I didn’t want him near me on the two occasions you did see him.’

      ‘Good,’ Lyon said with satisfaction. ‘It totally threw me when I realised he was back in your life,’ he acknowledged ruefully. ‘But it certainly took my mind off Henry and your mother.’ He grimaced. ‘Their relationship suddenly took second place in my priorities!’

      ‘It didn’t seem that way,’ Silke frowned. Although, thinking about it, perhaps Lyon had become less intense about Henry and her mother after seeing James at her flat that evening...

      ‘Quite honestly—’ Lyon gave a rueful smile ‘—Henry could have married a twenty-five-year-old bunny girl after that and I wouldn’t have objected!’ He looked down at her teasingly.

      Silke gave a soft laugh. ‘You’re not going to let me forget that incident in a hurry, are you?’ She hugged him for the sheer pleasure of being able to do so; she loved this man with every part of her. And the miracle was, he loved her in return.

      ‘When I’m Henry’s age I’ll be telling our grandchildren about the way we first met!’ he warned her affectionately.

      She didn’t doubt he would too. And just the thought of those children and grandchildren was enough to fill her with a warm glow for their future together.

      ‘Our children will grow up in a loving family, Silke,’ he assured her huskily, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘There will be none of the loneliness for them that we both knew in our own childhoods. They will have two parents who love them. And, more importantly, who love each other,’ he added with satisfaction.

      And they did love each other. Very much. And they would continue to do so. Silke didn’t doubt it for a moment, knew that neither of them had fallen in love lightly. And it was a love that would last a lifetime.

      The war was over at last. And both of them had won...

Two’s Company

      “You’ve never had a boyfriend?"

      He eyed her disbelievingly.

      Just the one. Simon. But he had died. And she hadn’t allowed herself to love anyone since him.

      Liam’s mouth twisted. “You seem to be taking a long time finding an answer to that question,” he taunted.

      She drew in a deep, steadying breath. She had no intention of