Page 90 of A Rogue to Resist
She paused, drawing a steadying breath before continuing, her voice gaining strength with each word.
“But because I cannot bear the thought of you binding yourself to another when I—when I—”
She faltered again, her courage seemingly deserting her at the critical moment. Drake waited, barely breathing, as she visibly struggled to find the words for what she clearly needed to express.
“When you what, Katherine?” he prompted gently when the silence had stretched nearly to breaking.
Katherine met his gaze, her eyes bright with unshed tears and a vulnerability he had never before witnessed in this strongest, most independent of women.
“When I have only just realized how much you have come to mean to me,” she whispered. “When I can no longer imagine Greythorne—or my life—without you in it.”
The simple admission, offered with such evident courage, struck Drake with the force of revelation. Katherine had come to him not with practical proposals or estate concerns, but with herheart laid bare—something she had likely not done since before her disastrous marriage to Edmund.
The magnitude of her trust humbled him, even as it kindled a fierce joy he dared not yet fully embrace.
“Katherine,” he said, her name a prayer and a promise on his lips.
But she shook her head slightly, denying his interruption with gentle firmness. “Please, let me finish. I’ve rehearsed this a dozen times, and if I don’t say it now, I may never find the courage again.”
Drake nodded, subsiding into attentive silence once more, though every fiber of his being urged him to close the distance between them, to take her in his arms and confirm that her feelings were not only welcomed but reciprocated beyond measure.
Katherine’s hands twisted around each other, her gloves crumpling under the pressure of her grasp as she visibly gathered her courage for what came next.
“I have more to say,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, even in the quiet room. “Much more. If you’ll hear it.”
Drake’s response was immediate and heartfelt, the only possible answer to such a request:
“I am yours to command, Katherine. Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Ishould have said this sooner,” Katherine said, her voice shaking.
Katherine pulled off her gloves with trembling fingers, needing something to occupy her hands as she gathered courage for what she needed to say. She twisted them in her hands, the fine fabric crumpling under her nervous grip. The morning light streaming through the study windows mingled with the warm glow from the banked fire, casting the room in a contradictory blend of coolness and warmth that mirrored the tension between them.
Drake forced himself to remain motionless, his stillness a counterpoint to her agitation.
“Take your time,” he said gently. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His patience only increased her nervousness. She had arrived at Greythorne House with determination fuelled by Rosabel’s encouragement, but now—faced with the reality of confession—Katherine found herself grasping for words that had seemed so clear in the solitude of her chamber.
“When I came here today,” she began, forcing steadiness into her voice, “I believed I was taking an extraordinary risk. Coming to stop your wedding, to ask you not to marry LadyEleanor—it seemed the most forward, improper act I had ever contemplated.”
She moved toward the fireplace, needing its warmth despite the mild spring morning. “And now I discover you were already planning to break the engagement. I don’t know whether to be relieved or—”
“Or?” Drake prompted when she faltered.
“Frightened,” she admitted. “Because now there is nothing to prevent me from saying everything I came to say. No convenient interruption, no external circumstance to blame if my words are unwelcome.”
Drake’s expression softened. “Katherine, surely you must know that any words from you would be welcome.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” she countered, her practicality asserting itself even in this emotionally charged moment. “You don’t yet know what I’ve come to say.”
“Then say it,” he encouraged quietly. “Trust me enough for that, at least.”
Trust. Such a simple word for such a monumental act.
After Edmund—after five years of having her trust systematically betrayed and diminished—opening herself to that vulnerability again terrified Katherine more than any physical danger could.
