Page 105 of Three Weeks with a Princess
She grimaced. “I’m so sorry. It was very poorly done of them.”
“It was, but you have no need to apologize for it.”
“Well, someone’s got to,” she said. “Your poor mother has suffered greatly as the result of my family’s bad behavior. Asking her to accept me as your wife would poison your relationship with her and I couldn’t live with that.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen.”
His blasted self-confidence and arrogance made her want to shake him. “You’re not a god, Jack. You can’t just order people about willy-nilly, telling them how they must feel about things—or people.”
“So you’re going to sacrifice your own happiness to make up for something that happened years ago? To atone for the failings of your mother and my father?”
“If that’s what it takes. Besides, I don’t think I can face Lady John, not after everything she’s gone through.” In fact, the very notion made her sick to her stomach.
“I never thought you a coward, Lia,” he said.
Her anger spiked and she started to jump to her feet. But Jack grabbed her arm and plunked her back down.
“This discussion is over, Lord Lendale,” she snapped. “Please leave.”
“Lia, I truly regret the indignity my mother suffered, but I will not sacrifice my life—or yours—to make up for it. I’ve already lived through my parents’ unhappy marriage. One relationship of that nature was sufficient; I have no intention of repeating their mistakes. Is that clear?”
“Jack, it’s not as if you truly want to marry me. You’re just doing it because you have to.”
He grimaced. “Where the hell did you get that idea?”
“It’s the truth.”
She yanked herself out of his grip and clambered awkwardly to her feet, turning her back on him. Itwasthe truth, but that didn’t make it any easier to say. Yes, he had a great deal of affection for her and wanted to keep her safe, but he only wished to marry her because he’d compromised her. It was a terrible basis on which to begin a marriage, whether he realized it or not. Eventually, he might even come to resent her, which would all but destroy her.
Lia heard him come to his feet.
“It’s far from the truth.” His big hands came to rest on her shoulders. “I do want to marry you. Very much.”
Her eyes started to itch with incipient tears, but she forced herself to remain firm. “It doesn’t matter because I have no intention of marrying you.”
He gently turned her and tipped up her chin, making her look at him. His gaze was so tender that she could almost believe he truly did love her in the way she wanted to be loved. And that tore her heart into a thousand little shreds of tattered lace.
“Do you know why I came to call tonight?” he asked.
“So you could annoy me?”
His laugh was low and husky, sending flutters of pleasure deep in her belly despite her seesawing emotions.
“No, it’s because I couldn’t wait days, much less three weeks, to sort this out,” he said. “I want you, Lia, more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. We’re going to settle this tonight, once and for all.”
When he lowered his head to kiss her, Lia’s thoughts scattered like dandelion puffs on the breeze. She told herself to move, to shove him away, but her limbs refused to respond.
Just as his lips touched hers, an earsplitting wail came from behind them. They sprang apart as if a giant had thrust his hands between them and tossed them away from each other.
“Bloody hell,” Jack muttered. “That probably took ten years off my life.”
Lia pressed both hands to her chest, gasping as her heart pounded against her rib cage. “Dom does have a rather healthy cry,” she said with a quavering voice.
As she went to retrieve the baby, she told herself it was for the best that he’d woken up and interrupted them. Kissing Jack would be so dangerous. Once she started, she likely wouldn’t be able to stop.
And she knew very well where that would lead.
“There, there, darling,” she said in a soothing voice as she picked Dom up. She cradled him against her shoulder, patting his back. He started to settle, gave a little hiccup, and then proceeded to spew up his dinner all over the front of her dress.
