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“Dane?” Malcolm’s brows came down, confusion in his gaze as his dark eyes took in the brute before him and Lillian, whom he guarded so fiercely. Then his gaze moved to her, and she thought she caught a flicker of relief as his gaze raked over her. “Lillian. You’re alive.”
She blinked in surprise. Had he really thought she was dead?
“Of course I’m alive.”
But Malcolm was already moving toward her. “I didn’t know what he’d done, Lillian. I swear it.”
She met the tall man’s even gaze. Cold as ever, but she’d seen enough when he’d first arrived to know he meant it. She nodded, her voice tight. “I believe you.”
“Where have you been?” Dane demanded. “Where were you when she needed your protection?”
Malcolm flinched, but his expression hardened as he turned his gaze to Dane. “Where have I been? What about you? You think you can run away and then come back as if you’d never left?” His gaze moved from Dane to Lillian and back. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“She’s mine,” he said simply.
Malcolm’s cheeks flushed and his gray eyes flashed with temper.
For a moment Lillian saw the similarities between them. Malcolm wasn’t so broad in the shoulders, but he was tall and the angles of his face were just as sharp. They could be just as cold and cruel as his father’s when he was displeased.
“Over my dead body,” Malcolm bit out.
“I’m not here to kill you,” Dane said evenly. “I’m here for your father.”
Malcolm’s eyes flashed. “You’re too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come,” her father interjected, reaching for Lillian and tugging her toward him.
Dane growled but her father held his hands up in surrender. “I deserve a moment to speak to my daughter in peace before I lose her forever, do I not?”
Dane looked to her.
He looked toher.
That made her heart soar despite the fact that her former fiancé was glaring at them both as though he might murder Dane where he stood and her father was demanding a moment alone with her. No doubt he wished to change her mind.
She gazed up at the man she’d chosen. And the man who’d chosen her.
Her father could try, but he’d never succeed. She gave Dane a small smile, hoping to convey as much to him. And then she turned to her father. “Very well. Let us give Dane and his brother a moment alone, shall we?”
Her father grumbled something about not needing her permission, but she ignored him. Her time here under his thumb was almost done, and then she would be Dane’s wife. She’d made that decision on her own, and she’d never been more sure of anything in her life.
She led the way out into the hallway, and followed obediently as her father turned toward his study in the back of the house.
When he kept going past his study, she frowned and opened her mouth to question him.
She should have done it sooner.
She should never have followed him with such blind obedience.
This all became very clear when a pair of hands gripped her arms and hauled her toward a servants’ entrance that led to the alley.
“Little whore,” a familiar voice hissed in her ear. “Do you really think you can run off with my child in your womb?”
Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to shriek for help but a hand clamped roughly over her lips. “Hush, girl. You’ve already caused enough trouble. But luckily for you, I’m in need of another heir.”
