How different the last ten years would have been if only she’d told Rake instead of Mother of her relationship with Bran. Undoubtedly, Rake would have given Bran what-for, but in the end, Bran would have been hers.
Rake would have seen to it.
How different her life would be now if a different choice had been made.
But what was the point of regret?
The past couldn’t be changed.
And while those past feelings for each other meant something in the present, they didn’t mean everything.
In the ten years that had passed, they had become other people in some ways.
And those two people—who they were today—they liked each other … and more.
Muchmore.
They desired each other.
They …lovedeach other.
She didn’t merely want Bran.
She had to have him as hers—forever.
Which meant …
She would tell him about their lost Selena.
No longer could she hold her from him.
She’d been wrong to think she should.
She’d been wrong about something else, too—that Bran’s wounds meant he couldn’t bear up beneath the truth.
He was strong.
Stronger than her, in fact.
If what she felt for him—and what she believed he felt for her—was to have a future, she must tell him.
No more secrets would come between them.
Never again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
A FEW HOURS LATER
Bran folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.
Tonight would be a sleepless one.
After he’d escorted Gwyneth to her bedchamber, he’d taken himself to his own rooms, rather than rejoin the supper party.
To be alone with his thoughts.
Now, his thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone.
