He did not move as she approached, though the tension that rolled through him was unmistakable. When she reached him, he glanced down at her dance card and stilled.
“Falchester,” he muttered, and something dark flickered over his expression, a quiet, lethal displeasure.
Without asking, without even pretending to ask, he reached for the card, drew a line straight through Falchester’s name, and wrote his own in its place.
“Your Grace!” Isabella gasped.
“Yes?” he asked, his voice deceptively calm.
“You cannot do that!” She protested.
“I already have,” His gaze lifted, locking onto hers with unnerving intensity.
She snatched the card back. “You cannot meddle in my life like this! You have no right?—”
“I know,” he cut in sharply. “I know I have no right.”
His chest rose, breath ragged, as if something inside him had finally splintered.
“But I cannot stop myself.”
The admission shocked her into silence, and he took one step toward her.
“You have burrowed into every corner of my mind, Isabella. Every quiet moment, every waking thought. I cannot escape you. I cannot think. I cannot breathe without you intruding…”
The beat of her heart thundered in her ears.
Cassian swallowed hard. “You have no idea what you do to me. What I imagine—” He stopped abruptly, dragging in a harsh breath. “What I cannot allow myself to imagine.”
“Then… tell me.” Isabella’s lips parted.
His jaw clenched almost painfully.
“Lady Isabella?—”
“What do you imagine?” she asked softly, innocently.
His eyes darkened. Something wild and restrained tore through him. “You do not understand what you are asking.”
“Then explain it,” she whispered. “Why do you push me away so fiercely?”
He looked at her as though the answer itself tormented him.
“Because I am not good for you. I… There is a darkness in me. A darkness that a woman like you shouldn’t be exposed to.”
“What does that mean?”
He inhaled sharply, as if her nearness made breathing an effort. “It means I do not fare well with women who challenge me. Or tempt me. Or buy me thoughtful gifts that undo me.”
Her pulse stumbled.
He stepped closer, shadows and moonlight wrapping around them both. “It means I fail, every time, to remain honorable. Especially when it comes to you.”
“And do I look,” she murmured, “like a woman who would be afraid of such darkness?”
He shut his eyes for a heartbeat, pained and undone. “No.”
She reached for him then, not touching, just close enough to feel the warmth between them. “Cassian.”
