“Is a continent away,” she said, as if every excuse of his wasnothing.
He could not let himself be fooled. But by God he wanted to be. Thewantof it all beat in him, loud and tight as any drum.
“I cannot contact him,” she continued, her gaze watching where her fingers touched his jaw. “And he cannot contact me. If you feel so certain he would be…disapproving, he would not have to know. No one, in fact, would have to know.” Her gaze met his. Direct. Seductive. “But us.”
For a moment, his grip tightened. For a moment, he thought giving in was all he had in him.
But this was Evelyne, and he had promised to save her. Truly save her. Not sink her into his darkness like he once had another young woman. Not become a monster like the father he’d saved Evelyne from.
You are a monster, Gabriel. That old voice. That old reminder.
Yes, he could be. But he would not be.
He dropped her hands and whirled away, furious with how she had somehow turned all his normal protections on their head. “Have you thrown yourself at anyone who shows you a modicum of attention?” he demanded of her.
He knew how to be mean. He knew how to cut an unwanted pass off at the source. He knew how to accomplish all these things. To keep that surface level. To never allow anything deeper.
For herown good.
Why didn’t they seem to work on her?
No one would have to know. But us.
He found his shirt, jerked it on. Everything inside him was a hard, tense ball. “I’ll be back in a month or so.”
“It was about a month just five minutes ago. Now it is a monthor so?”
He shouldered his bag, gave her a cold look. “Behave, Evelyne.” He moved past her, almost to the door.
“Run away, then.”
He stopped, midstride, turned in utter shock. “What did you say?”
“I said,run away, then,” she replied, enunciating each word carefully. A bright, glittering challenge. She even lifted her chin.
He moved for her then, swift and furious, and held himself back with his last shred of strength. He towered over her, desperate to put his mouth on her neck where her pulse fluttered. On her breasts, right where he could see the outline of her hardened nipples through the fabric of her nightgown.
Instead, he kept his voice cool and cutting. “If I fell for your sad attempts at seduction, it would beyouwho would be wanting to run away. Except it would be too late for you. You’re a sheltered, pamperedchild,and you know nothing of the real world, or aman’swants.”
She didn’t drop her gaze. Color didn’t even bloom on her cheeks. She raised a regal eyebrow.
“You forget, Gabriel, where I grew up. I may be lacking in education, the ability to cook or take care of myself in a country under a fake name. Perhaps you are even right about aman’s wantsand how little I know of them, but I know how to handle angry men. I know whatreallydrives them, and you aren’t angry at me.”
“No?”
“You’re angry at yourself, because you want me too.”
He stood there, breathing through the truth. There was no way to win this fight. He recognized that, just as Alex had once taught him that sometimes you could not advance, advance, advance. Sometimes you had to have the wherewithal to separate from your feelings and retreat.
“Goodbye,principessa,” he said, and then he left her.
Not sure he’d ever return.
CHAPTER SIX
Evelyne clung tothe belief that Gabriel would return, did not allow the fear he wouldn’t to take root.
Perhaps he wished to never have her throw herself at him again, but he wouldn’t leave her without a way to survive. If he was so worried about what Alexandre would think aboutseduction, then he’d certainly be too indebted to Alex to leave her to fend for herselfforever.
