“How do you know he’s a stuck-up bore?” she returned.
He tugged her closer and she didn’t resist. His heart was pounding, his blood roaring in his ears. “You didn’t deny it.”
“Because it doesn’t matter if he’s a bore or not.” Her words were even but her breathlessness gave her away. She wasn’t as unmoved by his proximity as her words made it seem. “He is the man I am to wed.”
“Is that what you wish?” He found himself holding his breath.
“It is what I’ve been meant for my whole life.”
“And I’m meant to be a marquess,” he said. “But I do not wish it. So I’m asking you again, do you wish to marry that man who you’ve only just met?”
She blinked, her brows drawing together as if the question confused her. “I have no other options. If I do not marry him…” She didn’t finish. Jerking her hand away, her eyes flashed, her chin set. Her shoulders straightened with resolve.
He saw the moment she convinced herself that she had no other option and so she would embrace this one.
“Pru, you are the one who told me that I could make of my life what I wished. Why should it not be the same for you?”
She arched her brows. “Do you honestly believe that? With my parentage and the scandal and—”
“I come from a scandal too, you might recall.”
Her eyes flashed again, and this time it was with bitter anger. “You think that the fortunes and fate of an heir presumptive to a marquess is the same as that of a scandalous daughter with very few connections and a modest dowry?” She took a step back, irritation clear in her gaze. “Do you honestly think we are the same? That our options are similar?”
He hated the resignation in her eyes. He hated it even more that she was pulling away from him, crushing the intimacy of this moment. “Pru…” He drew her name out as he moved toward her, unwilling to let her walk away. And once again he knew not what he wished to say. All he knew was that he couldn’t let this moment end without telling her how he felt.
And how is that?
He swallowed a thickness in his throat. A painful ache in his chest. He wasn’t sure what this was, but he didn’t want it to end.
And he certainly couldn’t stand by and watch her marry someone so clearly beneath her in personality and charm and grace and—
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
He stopped. He hadn’t realized he’d been following her, stalking her like prey as she backpedaled away from him.
While he felt like he was drowning in the fierce intensity of these new feelings, she looked like she might scatter into the wind if he touched her wrong. Her whole body seemed to vibrate with tension and for a moment he feared she might shatter. Her eyes were darting this way and that, her feet shuffling backwards.
He had a horrible feeling she was getting ready to bolt.
“What if there were other options, what if—”
Her wide-eyed look temporarily stopped him. Her shock looked horrifyingly similar to...horror.
Nerves had his mouth going dry. Was he really doing this? Was he honestly suggesting she turn her nose on the life she’d planned? And for what? For him? For a man with a bad reputation, whose prospects for the future were a gamble, at best?
Was that what he was asking?
Yes. He reached for her hands and held them tight. Yes, he was.
“What if there was someone else,” he started, his voice gruffer than he’d ever heard it as the enormity of his emotions overtook him like a tidal wave. His head was reeling. When had this happened? At what point had Prudence gone from being the bane of his existence to the center of it? When had her happiness begun to mean more to him than his own?
When exactly had he lost all reason and fallen head over heels in love with Pru?
As his thoughts threatened to run away from him, Pru actually did.
She tugged her hands out of his grip and stumbled back a few steps. He was shocked to see tears welling in her eyes. The sight of them clawed at his heart.
“Pru, what I’m trying to say is, there is someone else.”
She shook her head before he could continue. “This is what my aunt wants—”
“But what about what you want?” Frustration made his tone harsh and for once he was the one glowering as they faced off. “What about what I want?”
She shook her head again, quicker this time, her brows drawn together in consternation. “I don’t know...I can’t believe that…” She took a deep breath and seemed to pull herself together through sheer strength. Her chin tilted up in stubborn defiance.
He’d grown to love that look but right now it made him cold. He knew what she would say before she even said it.
“It does not matter what I want,” she said. Her back was straight, her lips pinched.
He took a step toward her but she moved back quickly before turning to rush off toward her home and her aunt and the future that she did not want but would not defy.
Of course she wouldn’t. This was Pru. Loyal and obedient to a fault.
Except when she was with him.
A sharp pain in his chest had him bending over at the waist, resting his hands on his knees. He’d known she wouldn’t let something so silly as emotions cloud her judgement. When it came to making decisions, his Pru would always choose honor and loyalty and duty over her own wants and desires.
He closed his eyes and let out a huff of air, a humorless laugh. He’d known how this would end even as he’d started to
