“You’re mine. Do you understand?” he all but growled. “We’re to be married and not you or your Pendenton or God himself will be able to undo it.”
“Do not insult me, Graham. There are other options—”
“You have no options. You’re mine.”
He was being bull-headed and intransigent, but he refused to give her up. Even if he had to sacrifice everything he owned, he wouldn’t let her go.
“Listen to me, Graham MacKinnon,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “I may be a fool—in fact, I know I am—but I’m not the sort of woman who can live unhappily for her entire life. I thought I could once, but…”
Hope shook her head, seemingly unable to explain. It was as if she were slipping away, right through his hands, like a rope he couldn’t hold on to and it shook him to his core.
Reaching for her once more, he gathered her tightly to his chest. The gentle scent of rose water perfume wafted against his nostrils and he had to fight to remember his intentions. Though he had never experienced addiction, he wondered if this was the feeling others experienced when their unattainable need broke over them.
“Graham, please let me go.”
“Over my dead body,” he said, his words rough and angry as he bent his head low. “I won’t ever let you go. You belong to me, Hope.”
Triumph surged through him as he felt the softest of pressure from her, leaning against him. She wanted him still, despite everything and it was the single most important thing in his world. She wanted him. And he wanted her, was desperate to possess every inch of her.
Didn’t she understand? She was his as much as the leaves were to the trees, as much as the rain was to the land. He stroked her cheek and kept a steady gaze on her.
“Ye belong to me because you're mine,” he rasped as his mouth came down on hers.
His hands drifted down the front of her dress and he pressed his hand into the folds of her skirts, between her legs. Her eyes fluttered close as he moved his mouth down the edge of her jawline to her ear. He felt a desperation to mark every inch of her for himself. It was intoxicating.
But just as he felt the pull of his own need, she tore out of his arms.
“Stop it,” she said, holding her hand up to stay him. She was breathing heavily. “Please, just stop. Someone will see.”
“As well they should. In case there was an ounce of doubt left in anyone’s mind about whom you belong to.”
He reached for her once more but she sidestepped him.
“Insufferable man.” She pushed past him. “I am not an object or creature you can own.” She gestured up at the ceiling. “I am not Lismore Hall.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?” she asked, her heart pleading. “I’m also not some idiot who will be swayed by kisses and empty words.”
“What words have I spoken that are untrue?” he challenged.
“What words have you spoke that were fully honest?” she countered, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I think, perhaps, that you should go.”
Every inch of Graham seemed to turn to stone as he watched her pull on the lock of hair. Though his heart beat furiously against her words, his head wondered if he hadn’t earned her condemnation. He had kept an essential truth from her from the beginning and even though his feels for her were genuine, he knew to deceive was to kill any and all feelings she might have for him.
He stood a single, shaky step forward.
“I don’t want to,” he breathed, his words broken.
Hope closed her eyes tightly, her entire face crumbling with pain as she inhaled in unsteady breaths. He knew in that moment that it was over. He had caused her too much heartache to be forgiven.
What sort of man deceived the woman he loved?
“Please, Graham. Just go.”
Without another word, he stepped around her and left the dining room. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Belle, Rose, Grace and Faith standing some yards away, huddled together like some gaggle of geese. He wanted to say something, to blame Belle for everything, but as he stalked away to the foyer, he knew it was no one’s fault but his own.
As he shoved his way through the front doors into the midmorning air, Graham felt well and truly cut off. The doors slammed behind him and he turned to give the pile of rocks a final glare. Lismore Hall had been lost once more by a MacKinnon and it should have been a torturous realization it, but all Graham could see was Hope’s heartbroken face.
