I raise my head from his chest and meet his gaze.
“I want to take you somewhere.” He looks nervous. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to go anywhere with me…but please give me a chance to apologize properly. You don’t just deserve I’m sorry you deserve so much more. I want to apologize in a way that you’ll have no doubt that I’m truly sorry. I want to explain what happened six years ago…and finally, if you still want me to I’ll bare myself to you.”
He brings tears to my eyes. That wasn’t easy for him to say to me.
I rise up on my tiptoes and before I kiss him, I say, “I’ll go anywhere with you Lucien. You hurt me badly, but I missed you and never want to go through these two weeks again.”
“So you’ll come with me? No questions asked?”
I frown, wondering what he means, and where he intends to take me. I presumed it would be his apartment but maybe not.
“Yes. Why are you so nervous?”
“Because you could say no.”
A tear slips free, which he tracks with his eyes but catches with his thumb before it reaches my jaw.
“Take me with you now, Lucien. I can’t be here when we need to talk and I just need to be with you.”
He briefly rests his forehead against mine.
“Let’s go.”
He wraps an arm around me, keeping me close to his side and leads me away from the room.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lucien
Leading Sabrina out of the ballroom, my head and body are all over the place. The relief I feel knowing I haven’t lost her is overwhelming. All I have to do is get through reliving the fire and the aftermath, and pray she’s still with me at the end now that I’ve accepted she and our unborn child hold my heart in their hands.
Opening the door and helping Sabrina outside, she shivers and this time I’m sure it’s with the fresh night air and not with my closeness. Quickly removing my dinner jacket, I drape it over her shoulders and notice her hard nipples pressing against the bodice of her dress. She’s the sexist damn woman alive, and is playing hell with my intentions.
“Are you alright,” I ask wrapping my arm around her shoulders to keep her close.
“I am now.” She snuggles more against me while we wait for the car I’d hired for tonight to be brought around.
My heart and body want to merge with her badly, but I don’t want to make love to her until I’ve apologized. And the only way I’m going to be able to give her the apology she deserves is when we get back to my home, our home, in Denver. I plan to tell her everything so that there isn’t anything between us except the future we are building.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve given a lot of thought to my life before Sabrina, and came to the conclusion that I want to fight for the life that was hinted at while I was with her. I loved waking with her in my arms every morning, and going to sleep with her in the same position.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell her how sorry I am for the words I said to her that had her walking out of my door. I never want to experience the pain of that again, which is how I came to the conclusion that I needed to get her away from Lexington so that there could be no interruptions by anyone.
The car pulls up in front of us so before the chauffeur can assist my woman into the car, I open the door and help her myself. With how I’m feeling, I don’t trust anyone else to touch her, no matter how innocent his or her touch may be.
Settling beside her, I take her hand into mine and entwine our fingers together just needing to keep the contact between us.
The swell of her stomach surprised me when I’d first walked into the room and seen her dancing with Michael. Our child has obviously had a growing spurt while I was in Denver. When I’d taken the chance of touching her, I was so tempted to slide my hands around her to rest protectively over our child.
Once we’re on the plane and up in the air, I fully intend on making her comfortable and having my hands on her body. Oh, I’m not going to make love to her, even if it kills me, but I’ve missed her and her changing shape.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks me with a slight hesitation in her voice.
I bring her hand up and after placing a gentle kiss to her, I say, “I was thinking about you and our child. How much she’s grown in the past two weeks. How much I want to have my hands on your stomach to feel our child, but most of all I’m thinking that I’m the luckiest man in the world right now, I just hope…”
“You hope what? You can tell me anything Lucien.”