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His eyes shadowed, but he nodded. ‘I’ll take you. You can talk on the way.’
She slid into the plush interior and retreated to the far side. He regained his seat and slammed the door, sealing them in semi-dark silence.
They travelled a mile with Rebel trying to find her nerve. ‘You missed my victory dance on the podium.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
Her breath caught. ‘You were there.’
‘I couldn’t leave.’
‘Too many potential clients to schmooze?’
‘The farthest thing from my mind.’
She bit her lip and looked out of the window. When she saw how close they were to Draco’s chalet, she cleared her throat. ‘Everything you heard me say to my father I’d planned to tell you. Yes, I should’ve told you when you asked me about my scar, or afterwards. But I’m not perfect. I made a mistake.’
He exhaled. ‘Arabella—’
‘No, I’m not quite finished. What I did in my past doesn’t give you the right to act like an ass. I made a horrible mistake when I was only seventeen that tortured me and which I was still paying for when I met you. But you know what? I’ve learned to forgive myself, ironically, thanks to you.’ She pointed a finger at him. ‘But you decided to heap on me anyway—why, because you think I haven’t suffered enough?’
A wave of regret washed over his face. ‘No. You’ve suffered more than enough.’
She sagged back in her seat, bewilderment and pain eating at her. ‘Then why?’
‘I knew what you were keeping from me was big. I just didn’t realise how I would feel to know you had a secret like that you couldn’t trust me with. I despise secrets and knowing something this monumental had happened in your life and you were hiding it from me... I lashed out without thinking.’ He turned suddenly and lunged for her hand. ‘Everything I said in that room was inexcusable. I’d braced myself for something else—’
‘What?’
‘You, breaking up with me. And not the fake engagement either. You said we needed to talk—’
‘And you immediately slid into complete-bastard mode?’
‘I’d had too much time to dwell on a few worst-case scenarios.’
She didn’t want to get her hopes up, not when his words still stung so deeply. ‘And the worst was me breaking up with you?’
He slashed a hand through his hair, his breathing ragged. ‘I’m in love with you, Arabella. Deeply. Completely. The past few weeks have been hell when each time I wanted to say it, I knew you were keeping something from me. Something that might mean the end of us. Going along with the charade just to keep you close felt like the safest option, but I hated it, and so I overreacted when I finally heard the truth.’
With supreme effort, Rebel regained her power of speech. ‘You’re...in love with me.’ Parts of her were coming alive that she wanted to send back to sleep. Until she was completely certain she wasn’t dreaming this.
‘You forgot the deeply, completely part.’
She shook her head. ‘I still don’t understand why you were so mean to me. As for my father...what he did was inexcusable, I know, but he intends to make amends. He did what he did because he loves me. He lost his way for a while, but I think he deserves a chance to make reparations.’
Draco nodded. ‘He does, and I intend to give him one. We’ve already agreed a payment plan for the money he took.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What? When?’
‘I went back to the VIP room to beg you to let me take back my words. He was still there. We talked. Then we watched you win together.’
Her hand flew to her mouth as she choked back a sob. ‘That does not touch me in any way.’
A hint of an arrogant smile curved his mouth. Then his face turned solemn again. ‘I will do better, if you give me a chance. Please, Arabella.’
‘You really love me?’ The words shook out of her.
He cupped her face, his gaze contrite and direct, and filled with an emotion that caught at her hard. ‘Deeply. Completely. You challenge me, you make me feel alive. I give you hell and you laugh in my face. I want that every day for the rest of my life.’
Rebel leaned into him, unable to be this close and not want more of the man she loved more than life itself.
‘I hope you realise I’m going to live off this grovelling for the next sixty years?’
He tensed but replied, ‘And I will fall at your feet every time and beg forgiveness.’
‘Wow. Okay, that sounds like a plan.’
‘Does that mean what I think it means?’
‘You’re in love with me. I’m in love with every infuriating inch of you. I hate you for breaking my heart and making me sad on the day I won my major trophy, but I love you for agreeing to be mine for the rest of our lives.’
