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“Grace.” He said my name so softly, almost like I’d imagined it.
“You nearly kissed me last night,” was what came out of my mouth. “Why?”
William’s eyebrows raised. “Why?”
“Yes, why?” I asked, straightening my spine a little. “We’re adults. We’re in this situation because of a series of miscommunications and I don’t want any more to happen. So why?”
“Why do you think?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Jesus Christ, Grace. Because I wanted to. Iwantto. Why fucking else?” he asked, his voice taking on a slight edge of frustration. “Do you feel better now you’ve made me admit that?”
I swallowed. “No.”
“What do you want me to do? Because I’m trying. I’m trying so hard to respect your boundaries. You’ve said from the start you never intended for us to speak to each other again after this wedding. You avoid the aristocracy, so what’s the point? I could kiss you, but for what? To piss myself off knowing there’s no chance you’d want us to be more than friends?”
“That’s what you want?”
“I don’t know, but I know what youdon’twant, and I’m respecting that. Hell, if we leave here and you want to stay in contact as friends, I’d be happy. This whole situation is weird, and I get that, but it’s hard enough to pretend like I’m not insanely attracted to you and that lying next to you in bed all night isn’t a fucking nightmare without you asking me stupid questions like why I didn’t push your damn boundary.”
My stomach twisted. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“No.” He blew out a breath and rubbed his gloved hand down his face. “I’m sorry. I snapped at you, and I shouldn’t have. You asked a perfectly reasonable question. It’s hardly the first time I’ve stopped myself kissing you, so it’s fair.”
I glanced down. “William—”
“We should get back. We’ve been gone a while, and there’s no phone signal out here. We probably can’t avoid wedding prep any longer. Well, I can’t,” he said, not looking at me. “You can say you’re studying, but there’ll be some ribbons they want me to mess up somewhere.”
“Will you—”
“What?” he turned around and met my gaze. “What, Grace? What more could I possibly say to you right now?”
“Why didn’t you kiss me?”
“What?”
“Every single time you’ve almost kissed me, you’ve stopped. Everything you just said is crap. Whydidn’tyou just do it?”
His jaw clenched for a second, and he said, “Because if I kiss you, I won’t be able to pretend like I don’t want to anymore.”
“Well, quite frankly, I’d rather you just got it over and done with.”
“Got what over and done with?”
“Kissing me. Because you’re a terrible actor and I’d have cut you from my movie by now.” I tilted my chin up. “Just do it and get it out of your system.”
His eyebrows quirked. “For someone who said they didn’t want any miscommunication, this seems like a very convoluted way to ask me to kiss you.”
“Fine. I’m very annoyed you keep going to kiss me and then changing your mind, so I’d like you to please just do it.”
“Still an extremely long-winded way of asking. I’m not quite clear what you want.”
I glared at him.
He took a step closer to me. “Try again.”
“I swear to God—”
