Page 113 of Peasants and Kings
The thought of leaving him was a punch to the chest and left me short of breath.
“You’re not safe with me, Sterling. And I will not jeopardize your life. I’ve already lost one woman because I—you have to get as far away from me as possible.”
For the first time since I’d met Hadrian, he looked unsure.
“Hadrian?” I peered into his eyes. “Do you like being with me?”
“That has nothing to do with it. I can’t guarantee your safety here.”
“Could you guarantee it when you offered me the contract?”
He clenched his jaw and then said, “You weren’t in danger then. You are now.”
He cared.
Hadrian Rhys cared about me.
Somewhere along the way, in our short time together, I’d managed to sneak past the fortifications guarding his heart.
Hadrian could protect me. Hehadprotected me. He’d shoved me under the bed and then fought off an assailant in the night.
“I can’t imagine the pain you’ve gone through. Losing Finola the way you did…but I’m not her. Let me stay. Let me be here with you.”
“Why would you knowingly put yourself in danger?” he demanded. “Do you have a death wish? Don’t you understand? I’m cursed.”
“You’re not cursed, Hadrian,” I said, my heart fracturing for the man standing in front of me, fracturing for the hurt he’d borne through the years.
“Aye, I am,” he said, his tone emphatic.
“You live on an island, away from civilization. Why? To keep others out? Or to keep them safe from you?”
His expression cracked, finally showing the bleak pain shackled to his soul.
Only Hadrian could be the one to break free from it. I could be there to support him. I could prove to him I wasn’t going anywhere, but that was all.
“You have no sense of self-preservation,” he stated, his gaze flinty. “You’re leaving the moment the storm clears, and that’s final.”
He marched to the balcony doors and placed his hand on the glass. His back was to me and his shoulders were tight with tension.
He was right. I didn’t have any sense of self-preservation.
There had never been anyone in my past that elicited even a fraction of emotion that I felt for Hadrian.
I set my glass of brandy down on the bedside table, and with a boldness I didn’t expect, I trekked across the bedroom floor to stand behind him. I brushed a kiss across the middle of his back and then pressed my cheek to his skin.
He tensed and then shuddered.
“You need me,” I whispered.
“No,” he lied.
“Well,Ineed you.”
I thought he’d shrug me off, not wanting me to touch him, but he suddenly turned around to face me. He cradled my face in his hands. “Say it,” he commanded. “Say it now or get out and never come back.”
I swallowed, tears brimming in my eyes. I’d been fighting it since the moment I met him, the magnetic pull I didn’t understand. The pull I thought was only lust.
But it was more.
