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13
Lillian’s heart gave a violent jerk as she spotted Dane. Or rather—Dane’s back as he walked away.
She started to follow. Malcolm’s voice stopped her. “Lillian?”
She turned to face him. “I have to—”I have to go.She stopped herself and took a deep breath.
The man had just killed his father to save her. She couldn’t very well go running off after he’d killed his father. She might not be a proper lady any longer, but it still didn’t seem right.
Malcolm looked from her to where she’d been looking...where Dane was walking away. Giving them space to talk, she presumed, but she didn’t want space.
She only wanted Dane.
“Malcolm,” she said with as much calm as she could muster. “I appreciate what you’ve done—” She stopped again. Still, not at all sufficient for what he’d done.
He arched his brows in response.
“And I appreciate your offer more than I can say.” She reached for his hand and Dane chose that moment to glance back.
The dark look on his visage would have made a grown male quiver. But Lillian knew better. The man might be a brute, and perhaps he could even be a beast when it was necessary.
But he would never hurt her.
He would never do anything to harm her, her baby, or her future.
And she knew without a doubt that this was why he was walking away.
Malcolm followed her gaze. “I think I understand.”
She gave him a small smile. “I’m afraid not even the offer of a title can tempt a woman in love.”
His answering smile was small, and a little confused as if she were suddenly speaking Greek.
She’d surprised herself, but the words were right. She could feel it in her heart and in her soul. She squeezed Malcolm’s hand. “But I do thank you. For everything.”
He tipped his chin before giving her a small enigmatic smile that softened the coldness in his eyes. “You’d better tell your husband to be, I’d imagine.” A devilish glint filled his eyes. “For both our sakes.”
She nodded, already hitching up her skirts so she might chase after him. “Be well, Malcolm. Be the kind of man your father never could have been.”
He nodded slowly but she saw the doubt cloud his eyes before he turned away.
She couldn’t worry about Malcolm though. Not today, at least. Not when he had a brother who’d been just as scarred by the old cur.
Not when he might be harboring any doubts about her or the life she planned to spend with him.
She burst into a run, the air filling her lungs and her legs pumping with a strength she hadn’t needed to call upon since she was a child. She might have need of Dane’s strength and the protection he could give, but since their time together this morning she’d realized something powerful and equally true.
He needed her too.
He needed her just as much as she needed him. And she did need the man, though at the moment she found herself cursing his name. “How dare you leave me?” Her voice was breathless as she reached his side and he turned to her with a frown.
“What are you doing?”
Her breathing began to even as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I asked you first.”
His brows knitted together in confusion and...something she didn’t like. Resignation, perhaps. Maybe even fear. “Lillian, he can give you what I cannot.”
He. Malcolm. Her heart ached but she tilted her chin up further. “What if I do not want it?”
