Page 51 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
The last words came out choked as tears threatened to overwhelm her.
“It ain’t like that.” He got to his feet, and adjusted himself in his snug breeches.
“How can I believe you?” she demanded wildly. “How can I believe anything between us?”
“Because,” he growled, “the fault’s mine. It always has been. Years ago...” He dragged his hands through his hair. “I did somethin’. Somethin’ terrible. And it’ll never stop standin’ between us.”
“What was it?” she pled.
His fists knotted at his sides. “I can’t say.”
“Damn it, Dom.” Her throat burned and she wanted to scream and weep in frustration. “You can tell me. Whatever it is. Only, you can’t keep threatening me with this secret of yours, and then keep it to yourself. That’s not fair. Justlet me in.”
He shook his head, and moonlight gleamed on his wet eyes. “If only I could. But it ain’t possible. I can’t put that burden on you.”
Her shoulders sagged as hopelessness overwhelmed her. “There’s no way to go back, and we aren’t moving forward. We’re stuck here, in this whirlpool, going round and round until we’re sucked under.”
“Lioness,” he rasped. “I wish it was different. I wishIwas different.”
She turned to the sea and its vastness, stretching out endlessly, and yet it didn’t seem nearly as endless as this distance between her and Dom. Every time she thought they were drawing closer, she realized how wrong she was.
Getting out of bed the following morning was a challenge. How could she face anyone, how could she facehimafter last night?
Yet she wouldn’t permit herself to cower. She’d run away to the Continent, and she’d fled the night before. It was exhausting—and fruitless—to keep bolting when that changed nothing.
And, God, how she wanted to change.
She rose from bed and opted to dress herself rather than summon the maid. It wasn’t entirely an easy feat, clothing herself without assistance, but fortunately she had packed a few quickly donned gowns. She could arrange her hair so that it didn’t look as though she’d spent the remaining nighttime hours restlessly turning from one side of her mattress to the other.
She’d been aware of Isla coming in just after dawn to light the fire, but had feigned sleep to avoid conversation.
Now staring at herself in the mirror, she grimaced at the purple crescents beneath her eyes, yet there wasn’t anything she could do about them. She rubbed her palms against her face. Hopefully, the color she summoned in her cheeks would serve as a distraction.
What she’d face with Dom today, she didn’t know. But she couldn’t avoid it.
She stood from the dressing table, strode to the door, and pulled it open. A small object caught her attention, placed as it was just on the other side of the threshold.
She bent down and picked it up. It was a little figurine, carved from driftwood into the form of a tiny lioness.
The workmanship was a touch crude, as if it had been done with too large a knife, but there was no mistaking what it was, or who it was from.
Her fingers tightened around the figurine, itsshapes pressing into her flesh. She’d never known that he had any skill with carving, but she pictured him staying up, all alone as the house slumbered, to carefully craft the small lioness. For her.
She held the lioness to her chest, holding it snug to her beating heart. Whatever she and Dom were to one another, they were far from done with each other.
Chapter 16
“Did I see what I saw last night?” Kieran asked as Dom stepped inside from taking a very fast walk around the grounds.
The weather had warmed, and Dom dragged the back of his hand across his sweat-slicked forehead. Even though he’d done his level best to tire himself out by practically running the perimeter of the estate, he didn’t have his usual release of the boxing academy. Damn, but he needed it, though. After last night, coming so close to pleasuring Willa in the sand, he was on the verge of exploding.
But at least he’d had enough presence of mind to stop himself before sinking into her, the way he burned to.Somepart of him was thinking clearly.
“I’ve no idea what you saw,” he answered, striding past Kieran. “So, I can’t say whether or not you saw it. Jesus,” he added with a shake of his head, “I’m spouting fucking nonsense.”
“You and Willa, last night,” his friend explained as he trotted after Dom.
Dom stopped in his tracks. “Whatexactlydo you mean?”
