“You do not get to make that decision.”
“The decision is made,” he stated. “I don’t give a damn if you think I am not good enough for you. If the world agrees that you deserve better. I love you, you infuriating woman, and you are mine. I amneverletting you go.”
Her gaze locked with his. He felt the passionate rise and fall of her breasts against his own heaving chest. Her sensual linen-and-Lottie scent pervaded his nostrils.
He’d never been this hard, this angry.
When she opened her mouth, he grimly prepared to be pushed over the edge.
“I don’t think you are not good enough for me.” She tilted her head. “Why would you think that?”
Just like that, she cornered him. He tried to think of some excuse but couldn’t. Since their reunion, he’d striven to cut through the thicket of lies he’d planted between them, to finally have a clear and honest path to his love. He couldn’t bring himself to seed more lies. Not with her.
“I’ve never felt worthy of you,” he said hoarsely.
“But why?”
Fear made him hedge. “I…I am not a true gentleman.”
“You’ve said that before.” She sounded impatient. “And I’ve told you that whatever you’ve done as a spymaster, whatever secrets you’re harboring, you can confide in me. I am not fragile; I will not break. Our relationship, however, is hanging on by a thread, and if you do not show me who you are—who youtrulyare—then it has no chance of surviving.”
Christ.Christ.
Fear morphed into panic.
His lips formed the words. “I am not Sebastian Courtenay, Marquess of Fayne.”
“Yes, I know. You are now Jack Granger?—”
“No.”
He inhaled, looking into her peerless eyes. Eyes that had the power to judge him and condemn him to perdition. He’d taken on a gang of armed enemies and felt less nervous.
Clenching his hands, he forced out the truth.
“What I mean is that I…I was never Fayne.”
Twenty-Nine
It took Charlie a few moments to register what her lover was saying.
“Then who are you?” she asked faintly.
“Jack Granger.” His eyes were as dark and fathomless as a coal pit. “That was the name I was born with. Everything I have told you about him is true.”
“I…I don’t understand.” She wasn’t slow-witted, but this…this was too much to comprehend. “Are you saying that you’ve been lying to me from the moment we met?”
He gave a curt nod.
“You bloodybastard.”
Hurt exploded inside her. She tried to get away, but he wouldn’t let her. He took her blows to his chest, circling her with his arms, saying roughly, “I am a bastard, it’s true. I deserve your hate. But you also deserve to know the truth, and I’ll give it to you, if you’ll listen.”
She struggled to catch her breath and adjust to the topsy-turvy state of her world. Despite everything, she did want to know his secrets. The secrets she’d known he was hiding.
“Let me go,” she said in clipped accents. “I am listening.”
He released her, taking a step back. “Thank you. I know I don’t deserve?—”
