Page 87 of The Dangerous Love of a Rogue
He got up.
She sat up, holding the sheet to her chest, her pale eyes angry. ‘Liar.’
They had just shared something blissful… What was this?
‘I doubt you love anyone bar yourself.’
My God.‘I do love you. I know your family told you otherwise, but they are wrong.’
She let the sheet fall and slipped off the bed, going to one of her trunks. ‘Do not lie. I heard you last night.’
She’d been asleep.
She lifted the lid of a trunk. ‘I heard your friends joking about how they helped seduce me with those letters.’
Damn it all to hell!He crossed the room.
The lid of her trunk banged down as it slipped from her hand and she nearly fell in an attempt to back away from him.
She had feared he would hit her. He would never do that, but it cut him hard to know she thought he could. He lifted his hands, palms outwards, his painful rib roaring as it jarred. ‘You were pretending to sleep…’
Her eyes flashed fire.
God, I am an ass.
‘Your friends were laughing at me. I am glad I amuse you all?—’
‘You do no?—’
‘I shall not let them hurt Emily. I will call on her today and tell her not to trust Lord Brooke.’
‘Mary, darling, they were jesting.’
Her chin tilted up. ‘It was unkind of you to court me. You should have left me alone.’
They were not words of accusation, but those of a desperately unhappy young woman. A wave of love rolled in on top of him, crashing over him, a sensation he was becoming used to. He stepped forward, he wished to comfort her. ‘Mary… Honestly, darling.’
She pushed his hands away.
‘Mary…’ he pleaded.
She turned her back and opened her trunk. ‘What is done cannot be undone. Will you help me dress?’
‘Of course I shall. But I only asked them to help with the letters because you would not meet me again, I am not good with words, it does not make the sentiment in them untrue. I would have done anything to win you.’
‘Anything?’ She stood with a dress clasped to her chest. ‘Do you admit you lied?’
‘I have lied many times in my life, but that I love you is true.’ Anger and frustration sizzled.
‘I don’t believe you.’
Damn her.He turned away. He was tired, still half asleep, a little drugged by the aftermath of sex and in pain. He picked out his clothes and tossed them on the bed then looked back at her. ‘And I do not know how to convince you.’
‘It would be better if you did not lie.’
‘I am not lying, but clearly you value your family’s word more than mine. I suppose you have decided you do not love me now?’ It was a childish thing to say, but Drew was out of his depth.
She did not answer.
