Page 81 of As the Devil Dares

“All that time we spent together, what we did—” She pressed the back of her hand to her lips as humiliation flushed her cheeks. She breathed out past her fingers, “You used me.”

His head snapped back at that, stunned. He forced out in a low voice through clenched teeth, “I did not use you.”

But she said nothing, her silence a damning accusation.

His heart slammed against his ribs. Everything he’d worked so hard to obtain during the past two years was suddenly spinning out of his control, and he felt as if he were now grasping at straws blowing in the wind. The more desperately he tried to hold on, the more they slipped through his fingers.

“I care about you, Mariah.” He tried to keep from hurting her the only way he knew how, by stating the truth. “Very much.”

“But you care about the partnership more,” she accused in a heart-wrenching whisper. “Even now, even after all we shared…” She gave an anguished shake of her head. “You’re still trying to prove yourself to your father.”

He bit out a curse of frustration. “It isn’t as simple as you—”

“Then end the project right now,” she challenged. Twisting free of his hold, she ran through the office to his desk and snatched up the papers lying there. “Destroy all your notes, tear up all the sales offers—do it!” She shoved the papers at him. When he wouldn’t take them, she thrust them into his arms. “If St Katharine’s means anything to you—if I mean anything to you—” Her voice choked with desperate hope. “Then walk away.”

And with that, to completely end all possibility of proving himself to his family.

As he stared at her, unable to do as she wanted, the silence reverberated between them like cannon fire. The wounded look of betrayal on her face cut through him. A look so raw and anguished that it stole his breath away.

In that moment’s silence, he knew he’d lost her.

She stepped back and raised a hand to keep him away. “You told me how much this partnership meant to you, how you’d do anything to prove yourself.” Her rasping voice broke with emotion as she struggled to fight back the sobs. A tear spilled down her face as she whispered, “But I underestimated how far you were willing to go.”

“You’re wrong.” Dear God, why wouldn’t she believe him? He tossed the papers aside and reached for her shoulders. “Mariah, listen—”

She slapped him, so hard that the crack of her hand against his cheek echoed through the office.

“Congratulations, Carlisle,” she choked out as she wrenched herself away from him. “You’ve proven yourself a true beast after all.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Oh, she’d been such a fool!

Swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Mariah stopped in the basement hallway of the Gatewell School and leaned against the wall.

Breathe…just breathe…If she focused on the simple act of breathing, then perhaps she wouldn’t crumple to the floor in tears.

But each beat of her heart brought a jarring stab of self-recrimination inside her hollow chest of how stupid she’d been to fall for Carlisle’s charms. And oh God, what she’d done with the man! How she’d behaved no better than a wanton, foolishly believing that he found her desirable and beautiful. That he’d cared for her…

She squeezed her eyes shut, thanking heaven that the school was quiet for once, that the children were at their studies upstairs and the basement was silent except for the faint noises coming from the kitchen. But even that moment’s calm wasn’t enough to fight down the emotions churning inside her, so much so that she pressed her hand against her stomach to keep from being sick.

Oh, what a goose she’d been to trust him! To so blindly give herself to him—worse, to have fallen in love with him…only to have her body used and her heart shattered. Dear God, how would she ever recover?

From Papa, profiting from the new docks made sense. He’d never understood how much Gatewell and St Katharine’s meant to her, and working to increase the company’s profits was simply how he strove to protect his family. To him, the company’s future was the family’s future.

But Robert wasn’t some mindless soldier blindly following her father’s orders. He had more resolve than any other man she’d ever known, certainly enough to stand up to Papa about this project. She’d been convinced that he’d understood what this place meant to her. He’d lost a parent himself, knew what grief could do. She thought she’d come to know him…but apparently, she hadn’t known him at all.

No. She knew exactly what he was.

He was the devil, and she’d let him take her soul.

“Mariah, oh thank goodness you’re here!”

She opened her eyes and stared through the watery blurriness as Mrs. Smith hurried down the basement hallway. Mariah couldn’t answer for fear of breaking into fresh sobs.

The housekeeper stopped suddenly and stared at her. Her lips pressed together at the sight of her red-rimmed eyes and puffy nose, and her face softened sympathetically. “So you’ve heard already, then?”

Confusion added to the swirling emotions inside her. “Pardon?”