“No! No, Gabe! You must tell me what is the matter. What have I done to displease you?”
He freed himself from her grip, his expression cool and remote. Stepping down from the bed, Gabe retrieved his trousers and jerked them back on.
“You have done nothing wrong. My apologies, Mary, but I…I cannot…” He shook his head then retreated behind the privacy screen.
Mary sat up on the bed, the frigid fingers of painful rejection clawing at her. Her body still ached with need, the painful reminder of his rejection throbbing in hermons.
She could hear Gabe performing his ablutions on the other side of the screen, and shame washed over her. Had she not been enough for him? Had she not lived up to his expectations? Had she done something?Saidsomething? Lord, she didn’t know.
With a glance toward his hiding spot, Mary hurried to the chest of drawers to retrieve another night rail and quickly put it on. As confident as she was in her own skin, Gabe’s reaction to her made her feel not just humiliation and hurt, but distinctly…undesirable.
She ran silently on the pads of her feet back to the bed and wrapped herself beneath the coverlet.
Her stomach knotted sickeningly as his expression flashed through her mind’s eye. How could she have been so foolish as to think that Gabe wanted her?
The sting of embarrassing tears burned behind her eyes and she cursed herself for her weakness. The dim light from the coals now scarcely lit the room, and through Mary’s watering gaze, the entire room wavered.
She had known he would hurt her again, yet she had fallen for his charms regardless of that knowledge.
Fool!She swiped inelegantly at her damp eyes with the back of her hand.
Curse Gabriel Ashley anyway.
