Page 69 of Cora
Cora had been right all along. His mother loathed her. They had both made the best of the situation he had forced them into for as long as they could, but at the end of the day, there was no reconciling two strong-willed women accustomed to ruling their own worlds. There could only be strong fences and solid boundaries.
He was the one who had neglected to build those boundaries. He had set Cora up to fail all over again, and tonight, she had done it spectacularly. With enthusiasm.
Why?
Suspicion crept in. He raced through the crowd, heedless of the people who sought to congratulate him. Half of them were tipsy, a few were drunk, and most of them were…laughing.
He caught sight of her conferring with Miss Caldwell. Both women looked up, glared at him. Then the shorter blonde moved away.
“Cora.”
“I’ll see you at home, Gideon.”
“Leave us, Miss Caldwell.”
The petite woman glanced between the two of them. Apparently taking his glower seriously, she cast Cora an apologetic glance and darted away.
“You cannot leave just yet.” He knew—knew—that ordering her was not the way to handle her at any time, much less when emotions were running high, yet his words ground out past his teeth, sounding like chewed gravel.
“I find performing tiring,” she said. Her hands were clasped at her waist. “Especially in front of you.”
“Cora.”
“This was your idea, Gideon.”
“Stop fleeing from me.”
“Unlike you, I am trying not to make a scene.” Water glistened at the corners of her gorgeous eyes. She blinked rapidly. “The carriage will be here momentarily. I would like to ride home alone.”
He absorbed this information like a blow from one of his boxing opponents.
“You aren’t leaving me.”
“Give me one reason not to.”
I love you.
He nearly said it. Out loud. For anyone to hear. The truth clenched his heart. Agonizing. He had loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her from across a ballroom. Her statuesque height and glorious curves. The slope of her nose and the mischief sparkling in her green eyes, and the proud slant of her chin.
He had to tell her. Now.
But the words stuck in his throat. They shriveled into nothing before they could emerge from his lips.
He could show her with his mouth on her skin, but telling her? Handing her the dagger that could cut out his heart?
Cora turned away in disappointment.
She didn’t need him to hand her a dagger. She already possessed one of her own devising.
“I married you because I wanted to know why you’d played that cruel trick on me. I thought I had an actual shot at redemption.” Her gaze cut to his. “I wanted to know whether there was anything to the way you stared at me from the across the room weeks before you ruined me. That feeling…” She trailed off. “I have never experienced anything like it.”
He knew precisely what she was talking about. The electric frisson like a cord tied between them, so intense that neither of them could ignore it. Nor could they face it directly. Their fate.
“Nor had I,” he managed to grind out past parched lips. Her brows arched.
“Had?” she asked.
“Have.” His palms were sweating. He felt the cord that had bound them for so long fraying. “I have never felt that way about anyone but you, Cora.”I love you.The words were right there on the tip of his tongue, desperate to spill out into the open. But they remained barred behind his teeth. What did they matter, now?
