Sally Wentworth - To Have And To Hold

Alix’s eyes widened with pleasure. ‘Rhys! Do you mean it? Oh, that would be great, great, great!’

He laughed and tossed her the keys. ‘Don’t have any rave-ups and don’t upset the neighbours. OK?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Let’s go, then.’

They reached the airport and he turned to her. ‘Goodbye, urchin.’

Alix swallowed and blinked hard. ‘I’m going to miss you, Rhys.’

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face, looked down at her with strange intentness. ‘Then remember this,’ he said softly, and bent to kiss her.

At last it was a real kiss, not that of an indulgent friend, but the kiss of a man to a woman. Letting her know masculine curiosity and desire, softly exploring her mouth, drinking in its moist sensuality, deepening to demand a response. At first taken by surprise, Alix was completely still, but then she gave a low moan of wonder and joy, opening her lips to him, finding herself caught in whirling timelessness, clinging to him as she experienced overwhelming sexual need for the first time in her life.

When he lifted his head there were tears of happiness in her eyes.

‘Idiot,’ he said, and kissed the tears away.

‘Wow!’ she managed on a choking laugh. ‘That was really something!’

He grinned. ‘You should get me on a good day.’

‘Yes, please,’ she said fervently.

He laughed and tweaked her hair. ‘Goodbye, urchin. Take care of yourself.’

He unloaded his bags, turned to wave to her as he went through the doors. But it was a while before Alix had recovered enough to start the car and drive home.

Alix moved into his flat the next day, enjoying hanging her clothes beside his in the wardrobe, putting her things out as if they were sharing the place. Not that there was much of Rhys’s stuff there; he was hardly at the flat long enough to make it look lived in, and he seemed to take most of his clothes with him. She got into bed that night, her thoughts full of him, when the phone rang.

‘Hello, Alix.’

‘Rhys! How did you know I was thinking about you?’

‘Telepathy. You settled in OK?’

‘Yes, fine.’

‘I forgot to tell you to forward any post.’

‘Will do.’ A little disappointed, Alix said, ‘Is that why you rang?’

‘No.’ His voice changed a little. ‘I called to ask you to marry me.’

‘ALIX? Alix, are you still there?’ Rhys demanded when the silence had lengthened and she still hadn’t replied.

‘Y-yes, I’m here,’ she said faintly. Then, on a note of understanding, that was, however, unable to hide the disappointment, ‘It was a joke, right?’

‘No joke, urchin. I’m asking you to be my wife.’ Again there was a long silence. ‘Alix, don’t do this to me. Is it yes or no?’

From somewhere, out of the overwhelming joy that filled her heart to bursting, out of the dizzying happiness that filled her head, her every sense, Alix was able to say with some dignity, ‘I shall have to think about it.’

‘You’ve got two minutes,’ Rhys said in amusement.

This time she was silent for only two seconds. ‘Yes, of course I’ll marry you, you idiot! Oh Rhys, oh Rhys, oh Rhys!’ The happiness bubbled in her voice, then changed to awe as the future she’d always dreamed about shone before her. ‘Oh, Rhys!’

‘Can’t you think of anything else to say?’ he complained.

‘I’ll try.’ She gave a watery chuckle.

‘And if you start to cry the deal’s off,’ he warned.

That made her laugh properly. ‘I do wish I could see you.’ She rolled on to her stomach. ‘Tell me where you are,’ she commanded. ‘I want to picture you there, proposing to me.’

‘It’s just a hotel room like any other—except that the fridge is bigger to hold all the beer.’

‘I’m in your bed,’ she told him with satisfaction. ‘And I’m wearing the top of a pair of your pyjamas that you left behind. The dark blue silk one.’

‘I never wear the tops,’ he told her.

‘Oh, good. Think how much money we’ll save,’ Alix said happily.

Rhys chuckled. ‘We’ll get officially engaged when I get home,’ he told her. ‘In the meantime keep it under your hat.’

‘Can’t I even tell the parents?’

‘Oh, sure.’ His voice changed a little. ‘But don’t expect them to be surprised.’

‘You think they’ll have guessed?’

‘They knew I didn’t stand a chance.’

Alix laughed richly. ‘When did you realise?’

‘Realise what?’

‘That you were in love with me, of course.’

‘Oh…’ His voice became flippant. ‘When you glared up at me and told me you weren’t a boy, you were definitely a girl, of course.’

‘Really? Was it that long ago for you, too?’ Alix’s voice was all eagerness.

‘No, idiot. I was only kidding. I’ll tell you when I get home. OK?’

‘OK,’ she agreed, a little wistfully. ‘Will you write to me—a proper letter?’

‘Wouldn’t you rather I called?’

‘I’d like you to do both. Oh, Rhys. I wish you were home. I wish you were here with me.’

‘It won’t be long, just a couple of months.’ There was a noise in the background. ‘Alix, I have to go now. My car’s arrived to take me to work.’

‘You’ll call me tomorrow?’

‘As soon as I can. Bye, urchin.’

‘Goodnight, Rhys.’ Then, experimenting with happiness, ‘Goodbye, darling.’

Being an only child, Alix was used to sharing everything with her parents, and it wasn’t in her nature not to, so, even though it was almost midnight, she hugged her joy to herself for only a short time before picking up the phone to call them.

‘Daddy,’ her voice was still breathless with excitement. ‘I’ve got something to tell you. No. No, I haven’t been mugged. I’m quite all right. Fine. Yes, I know you told me to be careful.’ She raised her voice. ‘Daddy, will you please listen ?’ Alix paused till he was quiet. ‘I’m going to get married. I’m engaged!’ she told him, the thrilled wonder of it still in her voice. But then she frowned. ‘No, I am not at a party and I’m not drunk. Of course it’s someone you know—it’s Rhys.’

She grinned with supreme pleasure as she heard her father excitedly telling her mother. Then of course her mother came on the line, wanting to know every detail. ‘Yes, he phoned me from Australia. I know, isn’t it wonderful? What do you mean, you’re not surprised? I was. But Rhys said you wouldn’t be.’ She listened, then said, laughing with excitement, ‘No, Ma, of course we haven’t set a date yet. Rhys didn’t even talk about that. We only got engaged half an hour ago, for heaven’s sake! Oh, and he said we weren’t to tell everyone yet, not till he comes home and makes it official. No, you can’t tell Uncle David and Aunt Joanne because I want to tell them myself. No, Rhys had to go to work. OK. Yes. I promise to ring them right this minute. Yes, I am brilliantly, fantastically happy. More happy than it’s possible for anyone to be. Yes, tomorrow. Goodnight, Mum. Love to Daddy. Night.’

The next twenty minutes and more were almost exactly identical as Alix told Rhys’s parents the news. Next to her own parents, she was closer to them than to anyone, even her own relations, and had always called them aunt and uncle; the knowledge that their relationship was soon to become even closer gave them all the greatest of pleasure. ‘We’re so pleased, darling,’ Aunt Joanne told her. ‘We’ve been looking forward to this day for years.’

Alix accepted their happiness as perfectly natural, quite sure that their pleasure wouldn’t have been half so great if Rhys had chosen to marry some other girl. She had been a proxy daughter to them for so long, and now she was to officially become part of their family. Everything was perfect for them all.