Fortune in the Stars (23 page)

Penny smiled dreamily, then decided it was about time she
made a more positive effort regarding his hands.

'I didn't realise you'd gone back to Paris!' she
exclaimed, puzzlement postponing that effort a while longer.

'I've been back a week,' he told her. 'It was your phone
call to Sarah that started up a chain reaction, so to speak. She rang
Lexy, who promptly rang me in Paris… I arrived on her
doorstep at one o'clock this morning.'

At those words Penny released his hands and wound her arms
tightly round his neck, burying her face against his as a welter of
emotions threatened to overwhelm her.

'Mind you, it took a second call from Sarah—this
morning—before Lexy would give me this address. Penny?' he
exclaimed suddenly. 'Darling…you're not crying, are you?'

She shook her head, her arms clinging even tighter.

'I'm sorry… I don't seem to know what I'm
doing,' she choked. 'All I know is that I love you—I love you
so much.'

'Just keep on telling me that,' he whispered huskily, his
lips tactfully kissing away her tears. 'Now and for the rest of our
lives.'

She loosened her throttling hold on his neck, turning her
face until his mouth was covering hers.

'I love you, I love you, I love you,' she vowed
passionately. 'That's what I told those four hotel walls the morning
after we'd first made love… I told them out loud.'

'I had a discreetly telepathic conversation with the hotel
lift that morning, if you must know,' he chuckled softly.

'The morning after we first made love?' she asked dazedly.

'That very morning.'

'But later you told me there was no chance of your ever
loving me—'

'I had my fingers crossed mentally—as I hope you
had all those times you swore you loathed me,' he teased, then his face
grew serious. 'I loved you then, my sweet Penny, as I do now and as I
always shall— which reminds me,' he added decisively, holding
her firmly to him while he heaved them both to their feet. 'I think
it's about time we got that call to Lexy behind us…and then
we can see about making that last outstanding dream of mine come true.'

'You've only one?' she asked, leaning against him for
support as joy rushed drunkenly to her head.

'Just the one—now that you've made all the rest
come true,' he whispered, entwining her fingers in his, then raising
them to his lips. 'And it's to be able to hold you in my arms and make
love to you…and at the same time to speak words of love to
you and hear your words of love to me… Then I'll honestly be
able to claim I'm a man whose every dream has come true.'