Once Grace was back in Minnesota, it was like nothing had changed—at least outwardly. Because inside, everything had changed.
She had gone to Wales as an unaware bitter young woman, angry at herself and the world for the unfair hand that fate had dealt her when it came to love and family. The woman who returned was no longer angry. She was hurting from the battles fought with her inner demons—but she was also on her way to being healed and a stronger person for it. And the bitterness she hadn't even really been aware of was gone.
It made life feel different, full of possibilities and hope.
At night she would sometimes pull the letters out and read them, feeling as if her sister was there with her again. And even though it made her think too often of the man who had given the letters to her, she forgave herself. After all, what woman could ever forget Adrian Roussiard once she had met him? It hadn't just been his dazzling looks that made him so unforgettable—it had been everything about him. His dry sense of humor and his innate honesty; the strength of character that he'd had even as a boy that had enabled him to prevail despite the terrible events that had forced him to leave his home behind.
Sometimes she wished that she had agreed to an affair with him. What would it have been like, to be his lover? He was such a passionate man—and she had lived without passion for so long.
But Grace was determined not to spend life regretting what could have been. She also knew that although she might have been happy for a brief moment with an affair, eventually it would probably have ended badly for both of them. He wasn't the type of guy to settle down with one woman—and she had already been feeling far too much for him. It was better that she had ended it the way it had. This way she could start anew and despite the bittersweet experience with Duval, she knew that she wanted to experience love again.
Grace threw away her ill-fitting frumpy clothes and bought some things that were more flattering to her slim shape. She bought makeup and learned how to use it, garnering compliments at work.
And when a handsome visiting doctor at St. Kate's asked her out on a date a few months after she came home from England, Grace accepted tentatively. She was in no rush to get into a relationship—but she was no longer hiding from life either.
Shutting the door behind her, Grace sighed and dropped her purse to the floor. This was the second date with Dr. Brad Thomson and he had just kissed her outside before regretfully leaving. It had been obvious that he had been hoping to get invited in. She had seen the expectation in his rather attractive brown eyes.
So why hadn't she?
Biting her lips, she kicked off her shoes and went into the kitchen in search of some ice cream. Once she was settled in with a carton of Edy's caramel pecan swirl, Grace admitted to herself what she had been afraid of for the last few days.
She wasn't interested in Dr. Brad Thomson.
It just didn't make sense. Brad was handsome with his dark hair and brown eyes. He was an interesting person and he had a dry sense of humor that was even more attractive then his chiseled cheekbones and broad shoulders. But when he had kissed her—nothing.
Frustrated, Grace scooped a huge spoonful of caramel pecan swirl into her mouth and swallowed. Tears squeezed out at the coldness numbing her head.
She wondered how Adrian was doing. If he had cleared things with Duval or if they were still fighting. If he ever thought about her.
Or the kisses in the maze.
Her face flamed and she ate more ice cream to cool it. The last thing she wanted to be doing was to be obsessing over another impossible man. So why was she even thinking about him?
She ate another huge bite of ice cream and let the cold trickle down her throat to cool the heat in her chest. It wasn't helping too much. Grace put the ice-cream away and went into her bedroom. She was taking a shower and then getting some sleep. Then tomorrow she was letting Brad know that they should just be friends.
Maybe it was too soon. Maybe he wasn't the person who was going to sweep her off her feet and make her fall madly in love. But at least she had given it a shot.
"Dr. Grace Madison to the front desk please."
Grace looked up from the paperwork on her desk. She debated whether she should just stay and finish the mound of work still left. But they paged her again. With a frown, she pushed the papers aside and stood up.
"There's a package here for you." The receptionist motioned her behind the desk. "You might want some help carrying it though. It took two guys to carry it in."
A wide flat rectangular brown box with international stamps was propped on the floor against the desk.
"What is it?" Grace asked in confusion.
The receptionist—Tammy—frowned. "Didn't you order it?"
"I don't even know what it is." Grace bent down and looked for a return address. It was from London. She tried to think if she had ordered anything that might have come from London. Maybe a book from Amazon?
She shook her head. "I didn't order anything."
Tammy grinned. "Maybe it's a secret admirer. Whatever it is, it's expensive. Anything from Sotheby's is expensive."
"Sotheby's!" She gaped at the package. She knew for a fact that she had never ordered anything from Sotheby's. "How do you know?"
"This card came with it."
Tammy handed her a creamy envelope with embossed letters. Sotheby's.
"Open it then." The receptionist bounced up and down. "I can't wait to see what it is."
Grace nodded slowly. With Tammy's help and a box cutter, she opened the brown packaging and foam padding.
In the box was an absolutely gorgeous oil painting in a heavy ornate gold leaf and bronze frame. About eighteen inches wide and twenty-four inches tall, the painting was of a young girl surrounded by a lush array of flowers.
"Oh my god." Tammy breathed. "That is so beautiful!"
Grace found that she couldn't speak. As she stared at the painting, her throat tightened until she was afraid she would start crying. She recognized the painting now. She remembered.
The painting was of a young girl with the eyes of a lion, of the summer storm. She sat among a riot of beautiful lush flowers and should have faded away, but she didn't.
Adrian's painting. The one he had spoken about that day in his car before telling her about Elizabeth's letters.
What was it called?
"Nest pause on floor?" Tammy read slowly looking at the card from Sotheby's.
"N'est pas une fleur." Grace correct softly. "Not a flower."
"So who sent it to you?"
Grace shook her head and began packaging the painting up again. With the help of two other people, she managed to get the painting to her car.
As pale and shaky as she looked, Grace had little trouble convincing the supervising doctor to let her leave early. She drove home in a daze, unable to think coherently.
Why had Adrian sent her the painting?
It had to have been him.
The painting was so completely beautiful. Was it merely a thoughtful gesture from a friend? Or was it more?
Grace was suddenly frustrated with her lack of experience with men. If only she knew what Adrian had been thinking in sending her the painting.
Her mind filled with those turbulent thoughts, she didn't notice the man leaning against a small white car parked in front of her house. Or she did notice him but her brain just couldn't process the fact that it was him standing there.
"Adrian." She whispered slowly.
She parked her car in the driveway on auto pilot. For a moment, she sat in her car with her hands clenched around the steering wheel. Then with courage she did not feel, she got out and faced him.
He had on a faded expensive looking leather jacket. His jeans were designer and he had a charcoal cashmere scarf around his neck in deference to the cooling autumn weather. Everything about Adrian was elegant and slightly tough—all except for his car.
Grace stared at the tiny and cute white Mini-Cooper that he was leaning against.
His eyes rose to hers. They were serious for a split second—before she suddenly burst out laughing.
He grinned, his pale wolf eyes glinting with humor.
"Do you like my ride?" He asked innocently?
"It's very fashionable." Grace wiped a few tears away. "Is that really your car?"
"Sort of." He pushed off and walked towards her.
Grace no longer felt like laughing. It was unreal to see Adrian here in Minnesota, in front of her house and in front of her. He looked too exotic to belong here in mid-western America.
"Adrian, what are you doing here?" She asked him a bit nervously. She remembered how they had parted. With regret at the end—but before that there had been those wonderful kisses. Already she could feel her stomach clenching and that sensation of falling out of control again.
He regarded her closely his grin fading until it was a soft smile.
"I'm here to see you." He stopped once he was within a foot of her. "I've missed you. Quite a lot actually. And I would have been here a lot sooner but it took a while to track down a certain painting I wanted you to have."
"It is so beautiful." She told him earnestly. "But it must have been so expensive. I can't accept a gift like that."
"Too bad. I'm giving it to you." He crossed his arms and smiled thoughtfully. "It belongs with you, you know. The girl who isn't a flower. And who doesn't want to be. If you can't really see her for what she is—then you don't deserve her."
"That—that was beautiful." She looked at him in some wonder. He was different—changed in some way she couldn't pin down.
In the hedge maze at Castle La Mer, Adrian had been filled with tension and a sort of misery she couldn't understand. Besides the passionate kisses and her helpless response, Grace had been aware that he was deeply unhappy about something.
But that unhappiness was now gone.
"It's about you Grace. So please take it."
She nodded solemnly. "Thank you."
"I wanted to thank you in some way—show you...." He paused. Then he simply grinned. "Anyways, Duval wants me to say hi for him."
Her eyes widened in understanding.
"You spoke with Duval didn't you?" With a huge smile, Grace ran forward and gave him a sudden hug. "Is everything okay now? Are you okay now? Doesn't it feel good to make up?"
"Yes it does." Adrian hauled her closer ignoring her sudden squeak of surprise. With a half smile still on his lips, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Then her nose. When he went for her lips, she struggled.
"W-what are you doing?" She whispered, afraid to look at him in the eyes.
"I'm kissing you."
She strained and pulled away. He let her go but his gaze didn't waver from hers.
"What's going on Adrian?"
He sat down on her curb and patted it. "Sit with me." She sat down.
"Duval and I have spoken. You were right. I needed to tell him the truth about what had happened. But I was afraid." Adrian crossed his arms and his lashes lowered. "My worse fear was that he wouldn't believe me. That I would make myself vulnerable only to be called a liar again."
"But he believed you right?" Grace moved closer despite herself. A happy warmth was building in her chest. She had missed Adrian so very much. He had been an integral part of her self-discovery in Wales. Without him, she doubted she would have had the courage to do what she did.
"Yeah, he believed me." Adrian looked down at her and smiled. Grace was as mesmerized now by his dimples as she had been the first time she saw him. Blinking she looked away and flushed.
"And then he also let me in on a few truths."
She glanced up again. "What truths?"
"He told me that you loved him, but was not in love with him."
"I told you that." Grace smiled briefly. "You thought I was being facetious."
"I was being a jerk."
"I won't argue."
He laughed softly. "Okay, I deserved that."
"What else did he say?"
"He said—" Adrian finally seemed to lose his cool. He stumbled over his words and Grace watched in amazement as he flushed. Clearing his throat, he spoke again.
"He said that you—you were in love with me."
Grace jumped to her feet. Her heart thundered loudly.
"He said what!" She backed away towards her house. "The nerve of that guy! How dare he!"
Adrian followed her. He grabbed her hands. "Grace, listen!"
She breathed deeply and looked up. His wolf eyes were completely sober.
"Is it true? Are you in love with me?"
Grace drew her brows together. She looked down and away. But in the end, she had changed too much in England to ever go back to the frightened person that she used to be.
"Why do you want to know?" Grace asked in a low voice.
He tilted her chin up and said simply, "Because I'm in love with you, Grace."
She thought her ears were deceiving her. Her knees weakened but he held her tightly against him.
"What?" She shook her head and said the first thing that came to mind. "I thought you didn't believe in love."
"I was wrong." His teasing grin appeared briefly. "Can't I be wrong once in a while?"
Then he kissed her. And everything else faded into unimportance. Grace soaked in the heat and passion greedily. His hair was coarse and silky under her fingers, his body hard and warm.
"Grace." He groaned. "God I've dreamed about this."
She broke away with a gasp. "This is moving too fast."
"I've waited forever."
Her eyes welled up. Adrian cursed softly and held her close.
"Listen to me, Grace. I started falling in love with you long before I ever met you through Elizabeth's letters." Adrian smiled a bit wryly. "At the caves I knew I was attracted to you but it wasn't until that day at the beach when I confessed to you those things from my past I had never told another person—that I realized I had completely fallen in love with you."
Grace blinked wet eyes.
"But from that moment on, I fought it Grace. I fought it because I thought you were in love with Duval. I didn't want to be in love with you—I was so damned jealous of Duval that I could barely see straight. But I loved you—and in the end, I just wanted you to be happy. Even if it was with someone else. So I forced myself to back off—and give you time to think things through."
"I don't know what to say." Grace said unsteadily.
"You don't believe me? I don't blame you. We Roussiard men haven't exactly been kind with your heart." Adrian gave her a devastating smile filled with promise. "But I'll convince you. I love you Grace. And even if takes years, I'll prove it to you."
She bit her lips. "Why are you doing this? Is this some sort of game to you?"
His mouth tightened and his tone cooled. "Do you really think I would hurt you in this way? After all that we have been through together? Am I really that much of an asshole in your eyes? Even if Duval was wrong and you don't love me, do you at least care about me in the slightest bit?" He gave a rough laugh. "I thought you of all people would know me better then that."
Grace clenched her hands to stop from reaching out to him. She said in a low voice. "I don't think you're an asshole. I think you're a wonderful person, Adrian. I just—I just don't know what to think right now."
"Grace, how do you feel about me?"
"I care for you." Grace knew that she was lying even as she said it. Wanting to hit herself for being such a fool, she looked up at him and lied. "But I'm not in love with you."
Eyes dimming a little, Adrian stepped back. Then he shook his head. "I don't believe you."
"Don't do this." She begged.
"Do what? Love you?" He asked in a gentle parody of what he'd said in the maze to her. "I can't help it Grace. I'm just a man. Not a saint."
"Then why did it take so long for you to come here then?" She suddenly asked fiercely. Grace was silently amazed at her own bravery in saying these things.
But instead of getting angry, he looked exhilarated by her words. He leaned against the house and pursed his lips. "Well...it took almost two weeks to track down that painting and buy it. Another week to get it through customs." From his pocket he pulled out a key fob. "And I know you laughed at my car but...did you know it's the same car we took on the trip from London to Wales? I had it shipped here for you. That took about another week there."
"That's the same car I rented on the drive to Castle La Mer?" She looked back at the Mini-Cooper and her eyes widened. "It is! The steering wheel is on other side!"
Her eyes returned to Adrian and she whispered. "I'm so confused right now."
His smile fading, Adrian nodded slowly.
"I know you need time. That's why I waited around for another month at La Mer with Duval, helping him clean up his mess with Vivian to pass the time. They are going to give it another try, by the way. Vivian forgave him."
"She's not right for him." Grace said automatically. "And what Duval did to her is unforgivable."
"I agree. But that's their problem." He sighed and reached for her hands. "Listen Grace, I can say all I want but words don't mean a damn thing. So all I ask is that you give me a chance to prove it to you."
Grace knew that she was hesitating on something that she should be grabbing on to with both hands. But she wanted to believe him—too much. And she didn't trust her feelings very much any more.
"We can take this slow if you want." He forced her to look at him. His gaze was steady. "Go out on a date with me."
"A date?" A quiver of excitement darted through her body. "You're asking me out on a date?"
"Yeah." His tone lowered and in the most seductive tone she had ever heard, he whispered, "Don't you want to go out with me?"
She did. She really did. Grace swallowed hard and before she could change her mind, she nodded. The pale cerulean blue of his eyes darkened until it was almost indigo as the uncertainty on his face lightened into joy.
He leaned down slowly and Grace gave up pretending she didn't want him. She shut her eyes and tilted her lips up to his. But only after a brief touch, he pulled away.
Walking backwards with his hands stuffed in his jeans pockets, he gave her an impish grin that belied the heated look in his eyes. Grace was fascinated by the perfection of his body and the arrogant satisfaction on his face.
"Always leave them wanting more." He called out. "That's how you win the chick."
"Wait!" Grace cried—then flushed when he gave her a knowing look.
He chuckled but his eyes were soft. "I can't believe you let me get away with calling you a chick."
Her heart was still pounding too hard for her to calm down yet. Feeling unsatisfied and not knowing how to deal with it, she gave him an angry glare.
"You jerk."
"I love you."
"Stop saying that!"
He said quietly. "Don't be jealous that you're too scared to say it back to me."
Grace was terrified that he was right.
"But I'll make you believe in it—in us, Grace." Adrian's voice was gentle. "You're the woman I love, the only one I've ever said these words too."
She leaned back against her door and tightened her lips against the urge to damn it all and say the words that were welling up inside.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow night at seven. Wear something sexy all right?"
Grace was barely able to nod.
"Chin up. I know you're too brave to wimp out on me now." He gave her a wry smile. "What happened to the girl in the cave who had no qualms about pushing me into an icy pool, huh?"
She didn't know that she was going to fall in love with you yet. She couldn't stop herself from suddenly crying and was appalled. Scrubbing her face with unsteady hands she forced herself to stop being such a wet bucket.
Cursing, he ran back and gathered her tightly into his arms.
"Shh... It's okay, Grace." He kissed her wet eyes. "I know it's scary. Hell, it frightened me so much that I almost got into another fight with Duval over it. But it's worth it, you know? In the end, I looked at this wonderful gift that I had been given and almost kicked myself for not seeing it sooner."
She held him tightly and felt that simultaneous breaking and healing inside of her again. This time she knew what it was.
He looked down at her with that familiar wolf gaze.
"Be brave Grace. You deserve the world and I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life proving it to you."
The kiss that followed was as gentle as a candle flame. But even that made the passion resting inside of her roar into life. Laughing wickedly, he kissed her one more time, this time hard and fast. Then he was backing away again.
Grace watched as he drove off in the Mini-Cooper. God, even in that ridiculously tiny car he looked as cool as if it had been the Batmobile or something. She suddenly laughed as blinding joy rose from her heart until her whole body felt engulfed by the warmth.
Adrian loved her?
Even after she had told him that she didn't feel that way about him?
Did she dare believe him?
Grace wanted to—and deep inside she knew she already did. The world might see Adrian as a good-looking playboy and nothing more—but he had let her into his heart and had shown her his soul. She did know him better then anyone else.
Where it counted they were the same. Two people haunted by a past they couldn't change. But they had faced it together—and had won.
Hugging herself tightly, Grace barely felt the ground touching her feet as she danced into her house to look for something to wear for her date with destiny.