Page 107 of Cocky August Rake

“I asked you to give up everything.” He shook his head. ““I never told you what I’d give you in return.”

He let out a bitter breath.

“I was so pleased with myself. I imagined showing you the world. New ports. New cities. Every place I’d seen, only better because you would be beside me.”

His expression tightened.

“But it was all about what I wanted. You aboard my ship. You giving up your life to join mine.”

“Oh, Reginald.”

“I told myself I was offering you freedom.” He shook his head. “But I was asking you to surrender your home. Your family. The one place that had ever made you feel safe.”

He reached for her hands.

“I don’t want only part of you, Rose.”

His silver eyes held hers.

“I want all of you.”

UNDERSTANDING ROSE

His thumb moved slowly over her fingers.

Reginald had to get this right. He couldn’t wound her again simply because the truth was more complicated than he wanted it to be.

“I should’ve listened,” he said. “I should’ve believed you when you told me what this place had given you.”

Rose stared at him.

“And you’re right, The Domus protected you when no one else would. It educated you. Gave you safety, friendship, and the freedom to decide what happened to your own body.”

He tightened his hold on her hands.

“But that’s not what made you so courageous, Rose. Or clever. Or kind.”

A faint, unsteady smile touched his mouth.

“It merely gave those parts of you room to survive.”

Her lips parted.

“I love your beauty. God knows I do. But I love your strength more. Your honesty. The way you fight for the people you love.”

His silver eyes held hers.

“I’ve never known anyone like you.”

Reginald lifted her hands between them.

“The Domus is part of your life. Part of your history. I don’t have to understand every part of it to understand that rejecting it meant rejecting part of you.”

His thumb brushed over her knuckles.

“I won’t make that mistake again.”

Then, Reginald released one of her hands and reached inside his coat, grasped a handful of papers, and then tore them cleanly in half.