Free No More Lonely Nights by Nicole McGehee Page B

have ever considered him distant?
    A look of secretive excitement came over Stephen. He leaned across the table and took Dominique’s hand. “I have a special Christmas gift for you,” he said softly.
    Dominique grinned at Stephen. “I brought your present, too.” She withdrew from her clutch a small box and slid it across the table to Stephen. “You first.”
    Stephen at once recognized the name of the store embossed on the gold box. He asked with endearing enthusiasm, “Is this what I think it is?” He slid his finger under the seal and carefully removed the lid. “It is!” He withdrew an intricately detailed crystal paperweight in the shape of a book, which he had several times admired in a shop near Dominique’s apartment. Stephen held up the translucent object so that the light from the chandelier overhead passed through it. He smiled. “I don’t have to tell you that I love it, because you know it already.”
    Dominique flushed with pleasure.
    Stephen returned the paperweight to its box and moved it to the middle of the table, where it would be out of harm’s way. Then he reached into his breast pocket and drew out a satin-covered jeweler’s box. Without a word, he placed it in front of Dominique.
    Her eyebrows shot up in surprise at its unmistakable shape. Ever so slowly, she reached forward and opened it. Embedded in soft white satin lay a diamond solitaire. For a moment, Dominique could do nothing but stare. It seemed alive with fire, its facets reflecting each light from the chandelier, each flicker of the candle on their table.
    Dominique raised her eyes to Stephen. There was no misreading the intention behind the ring. One part of her soared at this evidence of his love. The other part, the stronger part, shrank from it. She slammed the box shut. “I’m sorry,” she said, heartsick, “I can’t accept this.”
    Stephen looked dumbfounded. “What do you mean?”
    “No, Stephen,
what do you mean?”
Dominique hardened her voice to cover the shaky feeling inside.
    Stephen stared at the box. With quiet determination, he said, “I mean to marry you.”
    Dominique’s reaction was immediate. She shook her head in a rapid, panicky movement. “We can’t do that!” she cried.
    Stephen’s eyes bore into her. “We can’t keep on this way!” He was emphatic. “We’re together
more
than most married couples. We hate being apart. It’s like the best sort of marriage, except—” He stopped and looked away with a sound of frustration.
    There was only one thing missing, but they both knew the rules. Dominique couldn’t have spoken of it if Stephen had been looking directly at her. But to his profile, she was able to say, “I’m grateful you haven’t pressed me about that—”
    He turned then, and the expression on his face brought her to a dead halt. For the first time, Dominique saw the fighter pilot he had once been. His mouth was taut and strained; his eyes, gray steel, unwavering; his nostrils pinched. In his temple, a vein throbbed. He was almost frightening in his intensity. And he seemed devastatingly powerful. Did he know how much she wanted him, too?
    “Dominique, I’m not a boy anymore.” His voice was as steely as his regard. “This is torture and I can’t keep pretending otherwise.” He leaned forward and took her hands in his. Something he read in her eyes softened his expression. “I know what your upbringing has been. For God’s sake, it’s practically medieval how young women are raised here!” He swallowed, then went on in a calmer voice. “Look, I want to marry you more than anything in the world. It’s the only way for us.”
    Dominique couldn’t suppress the euphoric drumming of her pulse at his words. She wondered if Stephen could feel it pounding where his fingers brushed her wrist. “If you were free!” Dominique’s voice was fervent. “Or maybe if it was just your wife. But”—her eyes grew moist— “I remember when my father died. And… I can’t