Page 195 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

He doesn’t.

He stays exactly where he is.

Giving me the space I asked for even while his eyes tell me how much it is costing him.

“I love you enough to sign those papers if that’s what you want.” His voice roughens, the control finally beginning to fracture. “I love you enough to know that your happiness has to matter more than whether I get to be part of it.”

My vision blurs completely.

“Lucian…”

“I don’t want to let you go.” The words are raw, sandpaper dragged over steel. “God, Sophie, I would give almost anything not to have learned this lesson.”

A broken laugh catches in my throat and turns into a sob.

His eyes close for a moment.

When they open again, the devastation in them nearly takes me down.

“I won’t sacrifice your happiness to keep you at my side.”

Something inside me breaks wide open.

For weeks, I have been trying to reconcile the man who could be so gentle with my body with the one who believed he had the right to arrange my life.

And now he’s standing in front of me, loving me in the one way I never thought Lucian Hawthorne could.

By letting the choice be mine.

I swipe at my tears, but more immediately replace them.

Across from me, Lucian simply waits.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Sophie

“You…?”

And I have no idea what to do with the fact that Lucian Hawthorne loves me.

The words are still moving through me, finding every tender place I want to protect.

“I love you.”

Years ago, when I still believed in proposals beneath twinkle lights and diamonds offered on bent knees, I assumed those words would feel warm and safe.

This feels like being cracked open.

Because Lucian didn’t offer me love with a promise that everything will be all right.

He offered it with the freedom to leave him if that’s what I want. My happiness at the cost of his own.

“Lucian…”

His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t rescue me from the silence, doesn’t tell me what he hopes I’ll say.

God, that alone makes fresh tears gather.