I’m a coward,” he said, his throat constricted, his voice rough. “It’s because I have been trusted with the task of protecting you, which means every thought I’ve ever entertained of doing something to the contrary has been in violation of my orders. Any time I have allowed myself to be distracted because you were on my mind—your face, your body and not your safety—I compromised you. And if I were to speak the words now, or act on the impulse that I felt, I would be leaving my role as protector behind completely in favor of becoming a predator, and I will not do that.” He took a step closer to her, his hands trembling. “But if you say the words. If you cross the line...”
“I’ve been good all of my life. Never causing scandal, never doing anything beyond what was expected of me. But that’s because I think I never wanted anything enough to make rebellion worth it. But I do now. I want you,” she said, without hesitation, without pause. “That’s why I’m here. Because I will not have everything decided for me, and when I go into that meeting with my father I will go in feeling like I’ve at least lived some of the life I wanted. I can’t have everything I want. My position makes that impossible. But...but dammit, Liam, I will have a piece of what I want.” She stood up, her voice trembling, her hands trembling. She was a force of anger and sadness, beautiful and desolate. She made him ache.
She always made him ache.
“In your one last grab for the things you want...you would choose me?” he asked, not trusting his voice. Not trusting anything at the moment.
“Every time,” she said. “I would choose you every time.”
CHAPTER THREE
ALYS COULDN’T BREATHE. This wasn’t random, and it wasn’t something she was doing on a whim, even though she was sure it must seem that way to Liam. Whom she had never so much as batted her eyes at before and was now propositioning, essentially naked, in her flimsy little bathrobe.
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