'You don't really want me,' she shouted. 'You want the vulnerable, weak woman I pretended to be, Caine. You don't know the real me. No, you don't,' she continued when he shook his head at her. 'I'm really very strong, determined, too. I just pretended to need you, you daft man, so that you would feel honor bound to stay by my side. I used all the ploys a weak woman would use, too. Yes, I did! I complained at every opportunity, and I wept whenever I needed to get my way.'
He grabbed hold of her and jerked her up against him. 'I'm leaving,' she cried out. 'Can't you get that through your thick…'
'You're staying.'
'I hate you,' she whispered before she burst into tears.
He rested his chin on the top of her head. 'No, you don't hate me,' he whispered.
'I hate everything about you,' she wailed between racking sobs. 'But most of all I hate the way you contradict me.'
'Jade?'
'What?'
'Are your tears a pretense now?'
She couldn't quit crying long enough to give him a clear answer. 'They most certainly are,' she stammered out. 'I never, ever cry,' she added a moment later. 'Only weak women cry.'
'But you're not weak, are you, love?' he asked. His smile was gentle, his voice as well, but his grip continued to be as strong as iron, even after she quit her struggle to get away from him.
He wanted to hold her in his arms for the rest of his days. 'Jade?'
'What now?'
'I love you.'
She didn't respond to his vow, but started trembling. He knew he was terrifying her. 'You're the most confusing woman,' he whispered on a sigh. 'God help me, I do love you, though.'
'I won't love you,' she stammered out. 'I don't even like you. I won't trust you either.' She ended her
list of what she wouldn't do with a loud hiccup.
Caine wasn't the least upset by her denials. 'I love you,' he said again. 'Now and forever.'
He was content to hold her while she wept. Lord, she did have a store of tears locked inside her.
They must have stood there a full ten minutes before she was able to regain her composure.
She wiped her cheeks on the lapels of his jacket, then pulled away from him. 'You'd better go back downstairs,' she whispered.
'Not without you,' he countered.
'No,' she replied. 'Nathan and Harry would know I'd been crying. I'm staying here.'
'Jade, you can't put off…' He stopped in midsentence, then asked, 'Why does it matter if they know you've been crying or not?'
'I wouldn't be what they expect me to be if I cried,' she answered.
'Try to explain what you meant by that remark?' he asked gently.
She gave him a disgruntled look. 'Appearances have to be kept up, Caine.'
She walked over to the bed and sat down. 'I don't want to talk about this.' She let out a sigh, then
added, 'Oh, very well. I'll meet you downstairs…'
He was shaking his head at her. 'I'll wait for you.'
'You don't trust me?'
'No.'
He waited for her temper to explode. She surprised him, however, when she merely shrugged. 'Good,' she said. 'Don't trust me, Caine. I'm going to leave at the first opportunity. I won't stay here and wait
for you to leave me. I'm not a fool.'
He finally understood. She couldn't hide her fear or her vulnerability from him now. 'And you're absolutely certain I would leave you, aren't you, Jade?'
'Of course.'
She replied with such candor that he wasn't certain how to proceed. 'Even though I've just told you that
I love you, you still…'
'Nathan and Harry love me, too,' she interjected.
Caine gave up trying to reason with her now, guessing it would do his cause little good. He decided he'd have to wait and find another way around her shields.
Caine suddenly wanted to go downstairs and kill both Nathan and Harry. He sighed instead. He couldn't undo the past for her. No, he could only give her a secure, safe future.
'I would never abandon…' he stopped himself, then said, 'Very well, Jade. You may leave me whenever you want.'
Her eyes widened over that announcement. She looked like she was going to start weeping again, too. Caine felt like an ogre. 'Any time you want to leave, do so.'
