A Gentleman ’Til Midnight
Page 35
He was still breathing hard from their fight. “If you still wish to murder me after I’ve had my say, I invite you to try.”
“Where are you taking me?”
He looked at her—inches away from her face—and smiled a little. “I’ve ordered the coachman to take a detour through the countryside.”
“You’ve gone mad.”
“No.” With his torn shirt and his earrings glinting in the darkness, he looked exactly like the fearsome corsair he portrayed. “I’m in love with you.”
She stared at him. Every emotion she’d spent the past week fighting tooth and nail threatened to overcome her. Whatever she’d thought he might say, this was not it.
“I don’t believe you.” She didn’t dare believe him. She knew better. “You knew what Dunscore meant to me. You knew how I valued my freedom.”
“I did.”
And that, she’d realized in the ballroom, was exactly why he’d done it. Because he feared he’d never win her without taking her.
She pushed away from him. “Let me out of the coach.”
“Damn you, Katherine.” In the dim light she could see the frustration in his eyes. The pain. “I’m asking your forgiveness.”
“No—damn you, James. You say you love me, but you—” her voice caught “—all you want is to own me. Possess me.”
He trapped her face in his hands. “You’re damned right I want to possess you,” he said harshly, so close she could feel his breath against her lips. “For Christ’s sake—you possess me, Katherine. Down to my very last drop of blood. You own me, body and soul. You want to know why I did what I did? That is why. Because I love you, and I don’t want to live without you, and I knew that given the chance you would turn away from me and never look back.” His voice tore. “And now I will never know if by some bloody miracle you might have chosen me, anyway.”
He was such a fool. “I chose you days ago. Weeks ago.” She paused. “I love you.” She practically spat the words.
His hands tightened. “Katherine—”
“But I can’t surrender. I can’t.”
“I don’t want your surrender,” he said roughly. “I want your choice.”
Her heart ached as if it should be mangled and dead, but it pounded fiercely with life.
Her choice. His feelings were unmistakable, and yet—
“A ship can only have one captain,” she said. “Or so I’ve heard.”
He searched her eyes. “Then I shall be your captain,” he said, smoothing his thumbs across her face, “and you shall be mine.” The raw hope in his voice said more than he ever could have—this man who had once nearly killed her and then appointed himself her savior, and failed at both. This man, who made her senses come alive and made her hope again, who made her daughter find the happy things.
“I love you, James.” A great weight lifted off her heart as she spoke the words.
Her name exhaled from him as he pulled her into his arms and held her as if she were the only thing keeping him alive.
She closed her eyes and let herself relax in his embrace.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460323816
A GENTLEMAN ’TIL MIDNIGHT
Copyright © 2014 by Alison Atwater
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