“That was vulgar and uncalled for.” Anger made her cheeks fill with color. “I know you’re hurting, just as I know your reaction to seeing your brother and now finding you have other siblings is unsettling you. But I won’t be insulted by you because of it.”
“Don’t do that again,” he growled, grabbing her wrist and tugging it hard enough so she fell against him. “Ever.” The kiss was swift and fierce and another mistake. Every time he kissed her, it increased his need for her.
He’d known her a day, and she was now a fire in his blood. Dangerous, he thought, extremely so, especially when coupled with the emotions seething inside him.
“Kate,” he sighed against her sweet lips as the fight left his body. “I know you saved me, just as I know what you’ve said is true. But I need you to back away from me now. I’m not good for you and will leave here as soon as I’m able.”
“Why?” That one word held so much emotion.
“Because this life, your life, is not for me. I am bad, you are good. Innocent and sweet. Naive, I would add to that.”
She could lure him close, as could those others with their promises of love and family if he let them. Releasing her, he stepped back. Rory needed no one. He must get back to France.
“You can’t know that.” Kate crossed her arms, and he knew it as a defensive gesture. “Can’t know if this life is for you unless you try it.”
“I have no room in my life for family, just as I have no room in my life for a woman like you. If you believe otherwise, you are fooling yourself.”
“I never asked you to have room in your life for me.”
“You would not be with me now in this room, alone, if you did not believe there could be something between us.”
“We barely know each other.” She backed away from him, and Rory told himself he was glad.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me—”
“No!” She backed further away.
“Don’t spin dreams around me, Kate. You’ll end up hurt, but I assure you I will not.”
“Why are you being mean to me?”
“Because I hurt him when I left, and now he trusts no one.”
Rory closed his eyes briefly before facing his brother, who had just walked into the room. Max’s expression was calm, Rory struggled to do the same.
Kate looked ready to weep, and he fought the need to apologize. She was nothing to him and never could be.
“Why is it so hard for either of you to understand that I do not want this.” He glared at them.
“You would rather live alone than with a family who loves you?” Kate whispered.
“Yes.”
She turned away then and walked from the room.
“She is a kind and generous woman, I would ask you not to speak to her that way again, Rory.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“In this you do. I will not have her hurt because she has a kind heart and clearly feels something for you.”
Once, Max would have been yelling, but not now. He was calm and reasonable, and Rory hated him for it. He wanted him to yell, wanted to roar back at him, but his brother would not give him that satisfaction.
“I will leave, then you have no need to worry I will upset her again.”
Rory crushed the elation that Max’s words had created. Kate did not care for him, no one did.
“Very well, if that is your wish, I will not try and stop you from leaving, but only if you come to the castle for Christmas Day and the wedding,” Max said.
