Page 77 of The Miracle of Love
Disdainful of authority.
He had spent a lifetime doing things his own way and answering to nobody. Making a point of boasting about it. How did he think this sweetheart of a girl who wanted her husband to be more than a mere coin purse would react to his declaration?
But it was not something he was going to discuss with her tonight. Some old houses were sturdily built and had thick walls that rocks hurled on catapults could not destroy. This inn had paper-thin walls and he was not going to engage in a conversation on love and marriage with a woman he had already passed off as his wife. The risk of their being overheard was too great, especially now that the taproom was emptying out and had turned quiet.
He downed his ale, nodded to the innkeeper on his way out, and mounted the stairs. The door was latched when he tried it. Well, he wanted Grace to think of these added measures of security, even if she had latched it only to keep him out.
He knocked lightly. “Grace?”
“I’ll be right there.” He heard her soft footsteps approaching. “I did not mean to shut you out. I was putting on my bedclothes.”
“You did right to be careful. I should not have stormed off the way I did. Just proves what an arse I can be.”
“Deklan, I–”
“No, let’s not talk about what I said. Let’s not say anything to each other tonight. All right? I do not want to discuss that mistake.”
She nodded. “Yes, a big mistake. As you wish.”
He watched Grace slip under the covers and curl herself up in a tight ball on her side of the bed. After securing the door, he readied himself for bed and fell in beside her. But he did not like that she was setting herself away from him.
He put an arm around her waist and drew her up against him. “You need my body’s warmth, Grace.”
And he needed her body’s softness.
This is how they fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms.
This is how he wanted it to be for the rest of their lives.
Their silence continued into the morning, broken up only by the sound of waves crashing along the nearby rocky shore, and an occasional comment by each of them on how beautiful the sunrise looked upon the water.
They left the inn and did not stop until they arrived in Brighton at the twilight hour. Deklan was excited to show Grace the house he had acquired, a beautiful, stone manor nestled atop a hill with a view of the sea. They reached it just as the sun was fading, its last rays of golden-pink light illuminating the elegant structure to magical advantage.
Of course, it was better viewed during the day when the light was more natural. He would give Grace a tour of the place tomorrow. Right now, they needed to settle in before night descended. In another few minutes, they would be stumbling around in the dark, the only thing visible being moonlight upon a black expanse of sea.
“What do you think, Grace?”
She took in its height and breadth. “It is stunning. Takes my breath away.”
“A step above living in a tree, is it not?” he teased, knowing she thought of him as a leopard. He hoped showing her this house might convince her that he was capable of putting down roots.
“Yes,” she said, smiling at him for the first time in hours.
“I have yet to see the inside. After Finn helped me with the purchase, I left him in charge of restoring this house to its original condition.”
“Finn decorated it?”
Deklan laughed. “No, he gave the plans over to Ronan’s wife and asked her to work on it. Dahlia has an artist’s eye. He knew she would be able to restore it to the magnificent structure it had once been. However, she did not know it was mine. He only told her the project was for one of his clients. No one but Finn knows I own this house.”
“Why did you keep it a secret from your family?”
“I wasn’t ready for them to make a fuss over it or me.” He raked a hand through his hair, realizing how bad that sounded. Had he become so detached, he could not reveal something as innocuous as a house purchase to the family he loved? “Just more of my leopard ways, I suppose. Shall we see what it looks like inside?”
“Don’t you have any idea?”
“No, I haven’t been here since I purchased it.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide and her expression mildly chastising. “Then you never even saw sketches of what Dahlia designed for you?”
