Enticed by His Forgotten Lover (Pregnancy & Passion #1)(52)

Bryony wasn’t as convinced but she allowed Silas and Mamaw to drag her to the municipal building where the meeting would be held. It took everything she had not to run back out the door when Silas led her to a front-row seat.

Talk about being a masochist. She’d have a front-row seat in which to listen to the man she loved announce his plans for a resort made possible by her stupidity.

She sighed and sank into one of the folding chairs. Mamaw and Silas took the spots on either side of her. Several people stopped by to talk to Silas. Some even shot sympathetic looks in her direction.

Yep, it was clear everyone knew what a naive fool she’d been.

At least no one was yelling at her for allowing the outsider to come in and develop the island. Yet.

Rupert strode in a minute later, an uncharacteristic smile plastered on his face. It wasn’t his politician smile. It was a genuine one filled with delight. He looked, for lack of a better word, giddy.

He held up his hands for quiet and then frowned when the din didn’t diminish. He cleared his throat and scowled harder. He was forever complaining to Bryony that he wasn’t given enough respect by his constituents.

Finally Silas stood, held up his hands and hollered, “Quiet, people. The mayor wants your attention.”

Rupert sent Silas a disgruntled look when everyone hushed. Then he looked over the audience and smiled. “Today we have Rafael de Luca of Tricorp Investment Opportunities, who is going to talk about the piece of property he recently acquired here on the island. Give him your undivided attention, please.”

It took all of Bryony’s self-restraint not to swivel in her seat to see if he was here. Many of the assembled people began to murmur, and then Bryony heard footsteps coming up the aisle.

Rafael stepped to the podium and Bryony was shocked by his appearance. First, he was wearing jeans. And a T-shirt. He looked tired and haggard. His hair was unkempt and it didn’t look like he’d shaved that morning.

There were hollows under his eyes and a gray pallor to his skin that hadn’t been present before.

He cleared his throat and glanced over the audience before his gaze finally came to rest on her.

He looked…nervous. It didn’t seem possible that this ultraconfident businessman was nervous. But he seemed uneasy and on edge.

She watched in astonishment as he fiddled with something on the podium and when he looked up again, there was a rawness to his eyes that made her chest tighten.

“I came to this island for one thing and one thing only. I wanted to buy property that Bryony Morgan had put up for sale.”

Several muttered insults filtered around the room, but Rafael continued on, undaunted.

“When it became clear that she would attach stipulations to the sale of the land, I conspired to seduce my way into her heart. Basically I was willing to do whatever necessary to convince her I’d do as she asked without having to commit her conditions onto paper.”

Bryony would have bolted to her feet, but Mamaw gripped her arm with surprising strength.

“Sit. You need to listen to this, Bryony. Let him finish.”

Rafael held up his hands to quiet the angry murmurs of the crowd. Then his gaze found Bryony’s again. She slowly slid back into her seat, caught by the intensity in his stare.

“I’m not proud of what I did. But it was part and parcel of the kind of man I was. I left here, never intending to return until it was time for groundbreaking. But my plane crashed. It took weeks to recover and I lost all memory of the time I was here. I’m so grateful for that accident. It changed my life.”

The room went completely silent on the heels of his last statement. Everyone seemed to lean forward in anticipation of what he’d say next.

“I came back here with Bryony to try to regain my memory. What I did was fall in love with this island and with Bryony. For real this time. She’s told me on multiple occasions that I don’t have to always stay the person I was, that I can change and be whoever I want to be. She’s right. I don’t want to be the person I was any longer. I want to be someone I can be proud of, someone she can be proud of. I want to be the man Bryony Morgan loves.”

Tears crowded Bryony’s eyes and her fingers curled into tight little fists in her lap. Mamaw reached over to take one of her hands and rubbed it reassuringly.

“I’m giving Bryony back the land I bought from her. It’s hers to do as she likes. If she wishes, she can make it a gift and deed it to the town. Turn it into a park. Make it a private sanctuary. I don’t care. Because all I want is her. And our child.”

He stopped speaking and seemed to be battling to keep his composure. His fingers curled around the edges of the podium, but she could see that they still shook.

Then he walked around the podium, down the single step that elevated the stage. He came to a stop in front of her and then dropped to one knee. He reached for her hand and gently pried her fingers open and then he laced them with his, something he’d done a hundred times before.

“I love you, Bryony. Forgive me. Marry me. Say you’ll make me a better man than I was. I’ll spend the rest of my life being that man for you and our children.”

A sob exploded from her throat at the same moment she launched herself from her seat and threw her arms around him. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed huge, noisy sobs.

He gripped her tight, holding one hand to the back of her head. He shook against her, almost as if he were dangerously close to breaking down himself.