The Dom with the Dragon Tattoo (Masters of Submission #5)(37)
“Yes, you did, my sub, but after reading your letter, I now understand that you’ve been incredibly brave.”
A silence, an understanding, seemed to bridge the gap between them, and for a while nothing could be heard except the sound of two human beings breathing in perfect harmony. All the time, the constantly changing patterns of blue light from the pool danced on the walls and ceiling of the bedroom.
“Why?” he eventually asked.
“Why what, Sir?”
“Why leave without a word, and on the very day I asked you to be my wife?”
Rebecca was still clearly upset. She shook her head, and her voice quavered when she spoke. “I thought it would be best for you if I left. I can’t give you what you need.”
“I need your love, Becca. Are you saying you can’t give me that?”
She shook her head again, violently this time, and burst into tears. “Oh, no, I can give you every ounce of love I possess and even find some more, but I can’t give you—”
“Shhh.” Tyler leaned forward in his chair and pressed a finger to her lips. He saw her visibly tremble as she struggled to hold her emotions in check. “All I need is your love, Becca.”
Her face crumpled, and an agonized wail left her lips. “Oh, Tyler, I’m so sorry.” She clung tightly to his legs. So tightly, in fact, he felt her fingernails digging into his jeans as she lay her cheek on his lap. Her words came haltingly as she fought for breath. “I can’t give…you a…child, and I so…wanted to do…that.”
“I know, honey.” He felt a little choked himself as he stroked a hand through her beautiful dark hair, trying to soothe her worries away, but it didn’t work, and her tears flowed unchecked as years of pent-up emotion finally poured from her.
The final remnants of tension and downright anger that had plagued him for the last twenty-one days finally melted from his body. “Shhh, it’s okay, I’m here. I’ll always be here for you.” He lifted her from her kneeling position and pulled her onto his lap, sheltering her in his arms, protecting her from the evils of the world. Tyler savored the way her beautiful naked body seemed to melt into his until they became one. He tenderly kissed the top of her head as she sobbed quietly against his shoulder. He’d really missed Rebecca these last three weeks, and it felt so f*cking good to cradle the woman he loved in his arms once again.
As he waited patiently for her emotional crisis to calm, the small bedroom appeared to take on a tranquil serenity. Ripples of silver and blue light eddied and flowed all around them, making this precious moment between two soulmates so incredibly special—priceless even. Rebecca’s skin took on a translucent quality, the magical light flowing from her face all the way down her slender legs to her perfect petite feet. It was obvious she’d lost weight, and he guessed she hadn’t been eating properly. As he ran his fingers across her shoulders, he couldn’t help noticing how prominent her bones had become. Tyler realized it wasn’t just him who’d had a bad time of it recently. They both had. Now was the right time to move on and for all the recriminations to stop.
Eventually, when her breathing slowed and her tears dried, he quietly said, “I now understand your reasons for leaving, even if they were badly misguided. But that’s all in the past now. It’s time to make a fresh start.”
She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eyes as she idly smoothed her fingers across his jaw. “I was trying to set you free.”
Tyler squeezed her hand. “I know that now, and I can see how brave you were.” He smiled into her sad brown eyes, glad that the bitterness between them was now gone. “When we’re married, we’ll have lots of children. We’ll just adopt them, that’s all.”
Wide-eyed and close to tears again, she softly asked, “Married, children, you’d do that for me?”
“You bet, honey. If it’s a choice of having my own children with a woman I feel nothing for or having adopted children with the woman I love, you win every time.
“Don’t ever doubt my love for you, Becca. Why do you think I took the time to track you down and then traveled over five thousand miles to be here with you now? Besides, I was adopted myself, and my parents were the best.” He laughed. “But you and me working together will be even better. If there’s one thing I learned from my ma and pa, it’s this. It’s the quality time you spend with your children that really counts. That’s what makes you a real mom and dad. I had one hell of a happy childhood because my parents wanted me, and for that reason, I was never treated as an inconvenience.”
“Oh, Tyler, what you say is so very true. My parents never had time for me. Looking back, we never connected on any level. I sometimes wonder why they even bothered at all. I was an only child, so perhaps after I was born, they decided that was enough.”
He brushed a stray hair from the corner of her eye. The moisture from her tears had held it in place. She seemed a lot more composed and upbeat now. “So why hide away in Rio, especially as you have such unhappy childhood memories of the place?”
“It does seem strange, doesn’t it, but when I was ten years old, I would regularly visit this very beach. The doctors informed my parents that the sea air would be most beneficial. I loved the feel of the ocean spray and the sound of the wind as it whipped through my hair. When I became too sick to travel, I would daydream about running at full speed along the golden sands from my bed at home.”