Page 153 of You Only Love Twice
The duke.
The Rogues parted, revealing Malloryn stiffly ascending to the top of the stairs with his cane in hand. Herbert lingered at his side as if afraid the duke would topple down the stairs and prepared to catch him.
Dear Herbert, fussing like a mother hen.
Gemma swallowed hard, staring at the way Malloryn leaned on his cane and the bruises mottling his face. "You're alive."
"I'd hug you, Gemma," he said roughly, "but I honestly don't know if I'll fall on my face if I try. You'll have to come here."
He held one arm open as she walked into them, and suddenly her tearless sobs were back. Malloryn curled her against his shirt, and her whole world shattered around her.
"I didn't—"
"I know."
"I nearly killed you—"
"No. You had your chances." He pressed a faint kiss to her hair, and then eased away from her, his gray eyes searching her face. "The fact you didn't means you weren't trying that hard."
"All I could remember was pointing the pistol at the back of your head as you were crawling across the floor—"
"You knocked me out instead."
She froze, the breath locking in her chest as she fought her way through the rush of memories. Trying to find the truth in his words. Had she?
"Trust me. If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead. I think some part of you was still fighting against your commands." He cleared his throat. "And I wasn't crawling. Dukes don't crawl. Even with a shattered kneecap. We tend to... glide, instead."
Gemma couldn't find it in herself to smile. "Is that why you didn't kill me?"
Malloryn glanced away.
He'd always taken risks when it came to her life.
She'd accused him once of not caring enough about the people around him, and pushing and pulling them across the chessboard of life as if they were pawns, but Gemma suddenly realized the truth.
She'd said he wouldn't hesitate to pull that trigger.
She'd been wrong.
He loves you like a sister—one of the last things Isabella had ever said to her.
And oh, God, she could see it now. All those times he'd lectured her. Rolling his eyes at her as he threw a crumpled-up piece of paper at her head. Sending her on easy missions so she wouldn't be hurt, when she'd thought he was dissatisfied with her performance.
She'd spent so many years trying to prove herself to him, only to discover she'd never needed to.
"Gemma." Malloryn's voice roughened as their eyes met. For the first time in her life, she saw him truly speechless.
Help came from an unexpected quarter.
"Malloryn likes to pretend he hasn't got a heart," Kincaid muttered, "but he's soft as butter underneath. Of course he couldn't kill you."
"Soft as butter?" Byrnes sounded doubtful. "What? In the middle of the Arctic?"
Ingrid gave him a nudge. "He could have shotyouthe night you were injected with thedhampirserum, but he didn't and he didn't even care for you then."
"I'm not sure he cares for me now," Byrnes protested.
"And he saved Kincaid and me from a draining factory last month when it was on fire," Ava broke in. "He's a hero."
