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“Oh, Emily. How rare and beautiful you are!”
As she leaned into his warm embrace, she felt the sting of tears at her eyes, and her vision grew blurry.
There would never be another time like this when she could bare her soul and her body to him. He had made his decision to not be with her, and in doing so, he had left her at the mercy of a man who would not be as kind or as gentle as he was with her.
“So…is this the proper way to kiss goodbye?”
She felt him stiffen, and she pulled away from him, clasping her gaping night rail and robe closed to her chest. A stony look had descended over his handsome features, and she could vaguely make out the tick in his tightened jaw.
“I…I think it is best that I be on my way,” she said, amazed that her voice didn’t falter as much as she did inside. “You have already made your decision aboutus. I must make a decision for myself and my family as well.”
“Pray tell, what is this decision of yours?” he asked her in clipped tones.
She stood up and gazed down at him, her eyes tormented in anguish. “Since you cannot marry me, then you leave me no choice but to marry the Viscount of Caney.”
He looked at her as if she had taken leave of her senses, and Emily felt she truly had after that maddening taste of pleasure he had just given her.
“How is that a good decision?”
“Do I have any other option?” she flung back at him. She raised her chin defiantly. “He threatens me and my family with ruination if I do not acquiesce to his demands. There isnoother way.”
Except for you to marry me—but you won’t.
Silence descended between them where, only a few moments before, her gasps and moans of pleasure filled the gazebo. They stared at each other—her, trying her best not to break down, and him, as hard and bleak as the ragged cliffs themselves.
In the end, they were simply fated to meet and fall in love, but never destined to be together. Emily was not so sure whether she would rather have never known such love or pleasure at his hands.
She pressed her lips into a thin line and tried her hardest not to cry as she eked out the last few words she would utter before leaving him forever.
“Farewell, Your Grace. I hope that you live well, and that all good things come your way. I wish nothing but the absolute best for you.”
Then, before he could see her heart shattering at his feet, she turned around and fled back into the townhouse, her legs still shaking with the vestiges of pleasure he wrought on her untutored body even as her heart shattered in her chest over and over again.
I might have been a wallflower in the past, she thought resolutely,but I shall never allow anyone the pleasure of seeing my dignity crumble again.
CHAPTER19
Emily paused just outside the familiar hardwood door to her father’s study, her hand poised to knock. She blinked back the tears that had gathered at the corner of her eyes and shook her head resolutely.
No, I have already thought about this. This is the only way. I cannot let the entire family go down because of my mistakes.
With much more confidence than she truly had in her heart, she knocked softly on the door.
“Come in, Emily.”
The Marquess’s voice sounded tired, strained. Emily smiled softly as she pushed the door open.
“How did you know it was me?” she asked him.
He smiled at her, and his eyes crinkled in that familiar way she knew all too well. “Silly child,” he replied gently, “I have always known your knock apart from everyone else’s, no matter how infrequently you come here.”
Maybe because it sounds so painfully timid,Emily thought to herself a little sadly.
“Well, I suppose you did not come here for just any reason,” her father gently prompted her. “Come, sit here.”
Emily glanced at the upholstered chair her father had beckoned her to. Instead of sitting there, she chose to stand by the window and looked out into the street below.
It is a marvel how the world continues to turn around me when my life is crumbling to pieces, she mused.
