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Heather smiled tightly. “It’s fine, Allison. Really. You’ve done more than enough.”
Allison bit her lip and perched on the arm of the chair. With a shuddering sigh, she wrapped her arm around Heather and pulled her close. “Oh, Heather. I almost lost you today.” She pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “We only now just truly found each other. You’re going to be my child’s aunt. I could just kill Drake Blackstone.”
For a moment, Heather allowed herself to enjoy her sister’s embrace, beyond grateful to finally have someone on her side, to have a family who cared about her. Everything that had happened in the last few days would have been unbearable if not for Allison.
“It’s not Drake’s fault,” she said at last. The moment he’d burst out of the house, she’d known everything was going to be all right. She’d known he’d never let his brother have her. And afterward, when he’d come to check on her before leaving with Danbury, Sebastian, and the orderlies from Broadmoor, he’d obviously been concerned about her.
She was a fool to read too much into it, but he’d said he’d come back after he’d interred Danbury safely behind the walls of the insane asylum, and there was no way she was taking the sleeping tonic until he did.
“Of course, it’s Drake’s fault,” Allison said with a huff, pulling back to look into Heather’s eyes. “Ever since he came into your life, you’ve been in one dangerous situation after another. I know you care about him, but I’m afraid that he’s never going to cause you anything but pain and heartache.”
“Don’t hold back, Allison,” Drake said from the hallway outside the room. “Please, tell her what you really think about me.”
Allison flushed but stood and squared her shoulders. “I won’t take it back. She almost died tonight because of you.” Her voice rose. “She was almost murdered by The Viper, you bastard! How dare you let that monster get within a mile of my sister?”
He winced and took a few steps into the room. “You’re right. But if it makes you feel any better, I’m far angrier at myself than you could ever be.”
Allison shook her head with a choked little laugh. “Well, I don’t know about that. But I suppose it’s not up to me to decide whether to forgive you.” She turned to Heather. “Are you certain you want to talk to him?”
Heather met his troubled dark gaze and the whole world fell away. Of course, she wanted to talk to him. She couldn’t imagine a day when she wouldn’t want that. She loved him.
“I want to talk to him,” she finally said. “Can you shut the door behind you, Allison?”
Allison frowned but then nodded shortly and left the room, pulling the door shut behind her.
“Thank God you’re all right,” Drake whispered, pushing off the wall and crossing to her side, dropping to his knees in front of her and taking her poor scraped hands in his. “When I heard that shot... then ran outside to find him with a knife to your throat... I nearly lost my mind.”
“You said I’d be safe,” she said, dropping her gaze and pulling her hands back, all the pain and terror of the day rising up within her. “The way he talked to me... He thought I was your mistress... yourwhore.” Her voice broke. “I don’t know why you’re here, Drake. You made it far too clear that you no longer want me in your life.”
“I was angry when I said those things to you.” He sat back on his heels and raked one hand through his hair, looking winded and lost.
She lifted her gaze to his, tears burning her eyes. “I was so frightened. All I could think about was what he did to Evelyn. But when he treated me as though I was nothing, just a thing that he wanted a piece of... I knew I could never be with you, even if you still wanted me. I don’t belong in your world.”
He pressed his lips to her palm. “I know that I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, not after the things I said, but I’d really like to talk, to work this out. I’m convinced that we can create a future together, especially now that we won’t have to worry about Lindon or my brother.”
She pulled her hands away once again. As much as she wanted to just collapse into his arms and let him hold her for days, she couldn’t leave all these things left unsaid. They’d hurt each other badly, and she still didn’t believe they could undo the damage they’d caused. “Did you tell him that I was your mistress? That I was a good...fuck?”
“No!” He pushed to his feet, pacing the room in agitation, but his inability to look at her didn’t bode well. “I needed to give him a reason why I wasn’t going to live at the townhouse with him anymore. So I told him I’d taken a mistress. But I never mentioned your name. I wasn’t talking about you. It was just a lie to keep him from wondering what I was up to.”
A hollow laugh escaped her. “Well, your plan backfired. All you did was make him curious.”
He paused at the window, his back to her, his broad shoulders riddled with tension. “You’re right, and I’m so sorry. You trusted me to keep you safe, and that meant the world to me. I wanted to be your hero, the one person in the world you could count on, but I failed you in every way.”
Some of the protective shell she’d managed to place around her crumbled, and a shudder went through her at the pain in his voice. “Don’t make me believe in you again, Drake. You’ve already proven that you’re not capable of staying when things get rough.”
“When you told me that you’d had a part in my kidnapping, I thought you didn’t care about me, that everything between us had been a lie” he admitted, finally turning to look at her. “I was hurt, and I lashed out.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked rapidly, trying to keep them from falling. She’d cried so much for this man already. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I wanted to, but I was so afraid you’d react exactly the way that you did. I just wanted to hold on to the magic a little bit longer. No one had ever made me feel so cherished. As though I actually mattered.”
“Darling,” he whispered, returning to her side and once again dropping to his knees in front of her. “I know that we haven’t known each other long, that we met under the most trying circumstances. But I’ve never felt this way about anyone but you. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to work this out, how we can fit the pieces of our lives together, but I want to try. The one thing that I do know is that I love you.”
She gasped, the tears spilling over despite her efforts to contain them. “You do?” she asked tentatively, finally reaching out to him, taking his face in her shaking hands.
“I do,” he whispered, tugging at her hands until she got off the chair and knelt in front of him, their bodies only inches apart. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against him. “I love you, Heather. I love you so much.”
That was what she’d needed, what she’d been waiting for, but she’d never thought she’d actually hear him say it.
She clung to him, sobs ripping through her, her entire body shaking. “Do you mean it?” she finally gasped. “I can’t believe that you could ever forgive me for what I’ve done.”
