“Do you believe I forgot the shape of sleep in your arms? Or think me insincere when I asked you to hold me? That all of the kisses I’ve laid upon you were without meaning?”
Something flashed across his face—doubt loosening, hope lifting—and then the mask slammed down once more.
“I think,” he said, “you didn’t trust me enough to ask if there was another way.”
A chill threaded my spine, for I could not refute him. In one desperate breath, I had made an irreversible choice without considering him.
“I was afraid,” I confessed.
“You didn’t have to choose him.”
“I did not choosehim,” I insisted. “I chose to have a future.”
“You chose a future withhim.” His voice snagged on emotion.
Silence reigned.
Finally, I asked, quieter than pride preferred, “Would it have changed anything?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“I am.” I swallowed the rawness. “If I had looked—if I had asked—would you have told me you loved me?”
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My eyes narrowed. “Are you serious?”
“I am,” she said. “If I had looked—if I had asked—would you have told me you loved me?”
I gaped at her. “I don’t?—”
Seven hells, where do I begin?
I raked a hand through my hair, heart pounding. “You shouldn’t have to ask.”
Because sheshould’ve known.She should’ve felt it. It was in every look, every touch, every time her hand found mine.Had I not shown her enough?
My thoughts unraveled as my heart fell into my stomach.
She hadn’t felt it. She hadn’t seen the truth of it.
Quinn doesn’t feel the same.
Why else would she have accepted that pompous bastard’s proposal as the only way forward?
She’d made her choice, and it wasn’t me.
I looked away, fighting the ache crawling up my throat.
Her voice was hardly audible. “And what if I do?”
My attention whipped back to her. Quinn’s eyes were linedwith tears.And what if I do?The breath left my lungs. I said the only thing I could.
“Don’t marry him.” It came out rough. Pleading.
I watched her shoulders rise with her inhale, watched her ribs strain beneath the bodice tied by my own hands. Saints, waking up beside her felt like another lifetime. So much had changed in the span of a few hours.
