Lacybourne Manor (Ghosts and Reincarnation #3)(111)

It was more than relatively important, two of his meetings concerned deals that involved millions of pounds.

“Mm,” she carried on with her hand distractedly.

He gently took her hand in his and shifted it lower, under the sheet, showing her the unconcealed evidence of what she was doing to him. He felt her cheek move on his chest as she smiled.

He ignored it.

“So, perhaps you’ll tell me what’s on your mind,” he suggested.

She lifted up on her elbow and pulled her hand from his, rested it on his chest and looked him in the eyes. Hers were a thoughtful hazel.

“Colin?”

“Hmm?”

“I just wanted you to know that I…” She hesitated and he watched as she struggled with some unknown. When she found it, she finished, “Like you.”

He stared at her in incredulity for a moment and then roared with laughter. Shifting her on her back, he covered her body with his.

“You like me?” he teased affectionately.

“Yes.” She now looked disgruntled as if she regretted her decision to impart this information on him.

“I’m pleased to hear it, darling,” he murmured after he bent his head and nuzzled her neck, laughter in his voice.

“No, I mean it.”

“I know you do.” He lifted his head and cupped her beautiful face in his hands.

“You’re a good man,” she told him fervently.

“Thank you.” He smiled at her, his body beginning to shake with mirth.

Something shifted in her face. “Colin, listen to me,” she said forcefully and very sombrely. “You are a good man.”

His amusement fled at the grave look in her eyes. She was telling him something important, her true intent still guarded but he recognised that this moment was profound for her.

“Thank you.” This time, he said it seriously.

“You’re welcome.” Her voice was solemn and intense and she was watching him with an entirely new look on her face, a look full of exquisite hope and he felt, for the very first time in his entire life, humbled. So humbled, if he had been standing, he would have fallen to his knees.

“Jesus, Sibyl,” he muttered as he recognised what was so profound about this moment and it being the fact that she’d let him into her heart.

And knowing that, he did the only thing he knew how to do. He made love to her, slowly. It was not about sex, about passion or about cl**ax, it was about something else. It was sweet and wild and beautiful and very nearly, but not quite, everything a coupling should be and after it was done, Colin found it had moved him to his deeply, right into his soul.

And falling asleep, his front pressed full-length against the back of her body while his arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand cupping her breast, he did not notice the dim, golden, ethereal shimmer that slid out of the bedroom, waving, undulating and growing as it spread through the house, around the house and over the house. It continued, covering the grounds of Lacybourne Manor and up into the very atmosphere, going so far as to brighten the moon in the cloudless sky.

* * * * *

The next two days in London, he was luckily so busy he only spent half of his time thinking about Sibyl.

Between meetings, he’d called her on Monday, listening to her shouting into her mobile over the wind, “We’re at Tintagel, over the other side of the ruins. Oh Colin! I haven’t been here in so long; I forgot how beautiful it is. I wish you were here.”

Colin Morgan was not one to go tramping through ruins. Ever. But regardless of that, he found himself wishing it too.

Again, he called her on Tuesday to hear what could only be described as pandemonium behind her. “Colin, I’m sorry, babe, but I can’t talk now. I’m at the Day Centre and Mags suggested a game of strip bingo to the oldies and they’ve taken her up on it. I’m in Damage Control Mode,” she spoke urgently as Colin heard the words “unlucky for some’ called in the background. “Dear goddess, they’ve started!” she groaned into the phone. “I’ll call you later.”

He didn’t care that she couldn’t talk. Not only had she called him “babe’ in her engaging American accent, he needed her to control the proposed game of Pensioner Strip Bingo. He didn’t even want to think about it much less learn it actually occurred.

On Wednesday, after a meeting finished in his conference room, he headed to his office to return some calls when his London secretary stopped him and announced, “Miss Godwin is waiting in your office.”

He nodded curtly and lengthened his stride at news of this surprise. The Godwins had come on a shopping and museum expedition to London and they were supposed to meet Colin and his entire family at Claire’s house in Kew at six o’clock.

He opened the door to see her standing across the expanse of his office, staring out the window at his unobstructed view of the Thames, Big Ben and the London Eye. She looked contemplative, standing behind his vast desk lost in thoughts he couldn’t fathom.

At her posture, he felt an unusual sense of dread creep through his bones.

He halted and shut the door and, when she heard it, her head turned to him with a jerk.

He rested his back against the door, crossed his arms on his chest and waited for her to speak. She didn’t move a muscle as she regarded him.

Finally, she broke the silence. “I left my family at the Tate,” she said in a voice so low he could barely hear her. “I came around, thinking you might have time to join us for lunch.”