“Father forced her to be his accomplice in caging me up like an animal.”
I rest my head on his shoulder as he continues to cry. This might be the first time he’s told anyone about his trauma. But how can a person ever process decades of that kind of betrayal?
“Rowland, I’m so sorry. You should never have experienced a day of captivity. You were innocent.”
“And so was Mrs. Fairfax.”
“Right,” I say.
“I watched her take her last breath. My own mother. Treated like a slave until the day she died.”
“That was terrible.”
He lifts his head to meet my eyes, and the anguish in his features makes me splinter. “We never knew the truth until it was too late.”
“I just don’t have the words,” I say, feeling inadequate.
He shoots off the sofa. His chest heaving, his hands opening and closing into fists. I scramble off, my palms raised, not knowing whether he needs anotherhug.
“Rowland?”
He turns to me, his eyes wild, his face etched with raw anguish. “I’ve never known love. Never known tenderness.”
Heat radiates off his body like a furnace. I step back, my pulse quickening to a drumroll. His dark eyes seize mine and bore deep into my soul. My stomach dips. What on earth is he about to confess next?
I take another step backward, then another, but he continues advancing on me until my ass hits the desk. He reaches out and cups my cheek with surprising gentleness.
“My life was nothing until you waved back.”
A lump forms in my throat. I only waved back because of the note, yet that small gesture changed the trajectory of a prisoner’s life. I swallow hard, trying to withstand the intensity of his gaze. My lips part, but I produce no words.
“It was meaningless until you chose me instead of him,” he murmurs.
Every instinct screams to run, but I can’t move. The ache in his voice batters at what’s left of my defenses, and my heart cracks open. Rising on my toes, I press my lips to his, and hope to Almighty God I’m not making a terrible mistake.
THIRTY-SIX
Rowland’s mouth goes still under mine. Like he’s forgotten how to breathe. How to move. How to be human instead of a caged animal waiting for the next beating.
Then something inside him breaks open.
His arms crush me against his chest, all those scars and burns pressing into my body through his torn shirt. His mouth moves against mine like he’s drowning and I’m his last breath of air.
The kiss is urgent. Hungry. Desperate. Desire coils low in my belly, arousal already pooling at the thought of what he’ll do with those hands.
He pulls back, his black eyes stunned and feral. Like he doesn’t quite believe I’m real, let alone choosing him.
“Annalisa… I’ve said your name a thousand times in the dark, but it’s never sounded real until now.”
I cup his bearded face, feeling the rough hair against my palms. “I’m here.”
He exhales a ragged breath. “I’ve wanted this sincethe night you looked at me from that balcony. Every night, I prayed you’d see me. That you’d choose me instead of him.”
The words hit deep in my chest. I was an idiot for even thinking Edward Rochester could be an option.
“I’m choosing you now,” I say, meaning every word.
His mouth finds my neck, lips trailing over my pulse point. His tongue darts out, tasting my flesh. I arch against his broad chest with a gasp.
