‘It was the one about your being in love with her that I thought to be true,’ Bella admitted. ‘I didn’t know you well, Gabriel, but I certainly never believed you capable of deliberately harming another man.’
‘Bella, what would you have done that day if you had not believed I was in love with Janine?’
‘I would have come to you, of course!’ she exclaimed. ‘I wouldn’t have cared who had tried to stop me. I would have made them let me see you!’
‘Why?’
Bella raised wary eyes to his. ‘Why…?’
‘Why, Bella?’ Gabriel repeated gruffly.
Because she had fallen in love with him that night, that was why! Because she was still in love with him!
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed as he saw the uncertainty flicker across Bella’s face. The wariness. The desire not to be hurt again.
Gabriel felt that same desire, both five years ago and again now.
He drew in a deep breath, accepting that one of them had to break the deadlock between them. ‘Perhaps if I were to tell you why it was that I had no interest in what people believed happened that day…?’
Bella blinked, her throat moving convulsively as she swallowed hard before speaking. ‘Why didn’t you, Gabriel?’
His mouth twisted. ‘For the same reason that nothing mattered to me when I regained consciousness two days after the accident.’ He shrugged. ‘Because you were not there, Bella,’ he admitted bluntly. ‘You were not there. Had never been there. And no matter how much I wished for it during those three months I spent in hospital, you still did not come.’
Bella looked totally stunned now. ‘I don’t understand…’
‘No, I do not suppose that you do,’ he accepted ruefully as he was the one to take the two steps that separated them before raising one of his hands to curve it about the coolness of her cheek. ‘My beautiful Bella. My brave beautiful Bella.’ He smiled emotionally. ‘After all this time, all you have suffered, you deserve to know the truth.’
‘The truth…?’
‘That I fell in love with you that night five years ago—’
‘No…!’ Her cry was agonised and Gabriel only just managed to prevent her from falling as her knees gave way beneath her.
‘Yes, Bella.’ Gabriel’s arms moved about her, his cheek resting against the darkness of her hair as he gathered her close against his chest. ‘Impossible as it must seem, I fell in love with you that night. I have loved you always, Bella. You and only you. So much so that there has been no other woman in my life, or my bed, these last five years,’ he added gruffly.
Bella clung to him as his words washed over and then into her. She had been stunned by what he had told her about the accident and by Janine Childe’s duplicity, but this was even more shocking.
Gabriel loved her. He had always loved her.
The tears fell hotly down Bella’s cheeks as she clung to him.
As she cried for all the pain and disillusionment they had unwittingly caused each other through misunderstandings. For all the time they had wasted…
She pulled away from him slightly before looking up into his face, her heart aching as she still saw the uncertainty in his face. ‘Gabriel, impossible as it must seem, I fell in love with you that night five years ago, too.’ Bella held his gaze with hers as she deliberately repeated his words. ‘I have loved you always, Gabriel. You and only you. So much so that there has been no other man in my life, or my bed, these last five years.’
His expression didn’t change. He didn’t blink. He didn’t speak. He didn’t even seem to be breathing as he continued to stare down at her.
‘Gabriel?’ Bella’s gaze searched his face worriedly. ‘Gabriel, I love you. I love you!’ she repeated desperately as she reached up to clasp his arms and shake him slightly. ‘I never meant to let you down after the accident, I just thought I had been a one-night stand to you. Gabriel, please—’
‘You did not let me down, Bella,’ he cut in harshly. ‘You have never let me down. I was the one who let you down when it did not even occur to me that you might believe I was in love with Janine. I was the one who let you down by not even thinking you might become pregnant from our night together. How can you love me after what you have suffered because my pride would not let me be the one to seek you out again? How can you love me when my arrogance, my intolerance, meant you had to go through your pregnancy, Toby’s birth, the first four and a half years of his life, completely alone?’
‘Gabriel, I’d really rather you didn’t continue to insult the man I love,’ Bella interrupted shakily. ‘And I wasn’t alone,’ she reassured him. ‘I had my parents. My sister and brother.’
‘I should have been there for you, too,’ Gabriel growled in self-disgust. ‘Instead of which, when we did finally meet up again, I only made matters worse by forcing you into marrying me.’ He shook his head. ‘I should not have done that, Bella.’
‘You’re Toby’s father—’
‘He was not the reason I forced our marriage upon you, Bella. It was—’ He stopped and then sighed. ‘Having met you again, having realised that I still love you, I could not bear the thought of having to let you go again!’
Gabriel hadn’t married her just for Toby, after all?
Bella looked puzzled. ‘But if you felt that way—if you do still love me—’
‘I love you now more than ever, Bella,’ he assured her fiercely.
‘Then why did we leave the island so abruptly?’
‘We left the island so suddenly for the same reason I should not have allowed our lovemaking last night to go as far as it did,’ Gabriel cut in grimly. ‘You almost died giving birth to Toby, Bella. I would not—I did not want to put your life at risk by another unplanned pregnancy, and so I decided we had to leave the island before I gave in to the temptation being alone there with you represented. That we needed to consult an obstetrician before we made love again. Instead of which, as soon as we were back here, I allowed—!’ He shook his head. ‘I had an appointment to see a specialist in Harley Street today, needed to know that a second pregnancy would not endanger your life. He was most unhelpful,’ Gabriel said, patently annoyed, ‘and said he could not pass comment before first examining you.’
‘You spoke to an obstetrician about me…?’ Bella echoed dazedly.
Gabriel frowned darkly. ‘What if you are pregnant right now, Bella?’ His face had gone pale at the mere thought of it. ‘What if our time together last night results in another child?’
A slow, beatific smile curved Bella’s lips as she realised their sudden flight from the island, Gabriel’s grimness after they made love last night, had all been for one reason and one reason only.
‘Then I, for one, would be absolutely thrilled,’ she assured him breathlessly. ‘I thought you wanted lots of brothers and sisters for Toby?’ she cajoled as Gabriel still looked haunted.
‘Not at the risk of losing you,’ he stated definitely.
‘We don’t know for sure that there is any risk,’ Bella teased him, no longer daunted by the fierceness of Gabriel’s moods. He loved her. They loved each other. Together they could overcome any obstacles that might come their way.
‘Until you have seen this obstetrician we do not know for sure that there is not, either,’ Gabriel persisted.
‘Have a little faith, Gabriel. Remember you’re a Danti!’