“Why not?” My pride is too wounded for me to care if I sound like a petulant child. I will never be able to look him in the eye ever again. Might as well know what makes me so repulsive that he doesn’t even want to touch me.
His tanned throat bobs when he swallows. “Because I love you.”
Stars above…
Did he say helovesme?
“What are you doing? Why would you say that to me?” My words are barely a whisper because there is no longer air in my lungs. Clearly, I am more than willing to sleep with him without some false profession of love.
Senan’s brow furrows. “Because if I tell you afterward, you’ll think it’s only because we slept together.”
So we are going to sleep together? Didn’t he just refuse me? “You don’t love me.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?” I mean, I’ve loved him since the day he flew to my tower after his father passed. Senan Vale is impossible not to love. I dare any woman to spend any amount of time in his presence andnotfall in love with him. But for him to love me, and to profess it so simply, as if we were discussing the color of the sky.
I am barely a lord’s daughter, and certainly nothing special. Why would he love me?
His hands slide down his toned thighs. “Because…”
I wait and wait, but that is where the explanation dies. “Because?” That’s the best he can come up with? One bloody word?
“There is a beguiling woman standing naked in front of me. Give me a moment to collect my thoughts.”
For the first time since I dropped my robe, a smile tugs at my lips. No one has ever called me beguiling before. Beautiful, sure. Pretty, of course. But beguiling?
I suppose I can wait for his explanation.
I sink onto the edge of the bed and fold my arms over my bare chest, feeling a little silly being the only one without my clothes on. How long is this going to take? If my nakedness is what is delaying him, perhaps I should put my clothes back on.
When I reach for my robe, Senan steps on the material, dragging it out of reach. “Did I say you could put that back on?”
The command in his tone sets me on fire, and I have to press my thighs together to stem the ache building in my core.
He squats down to collect the garment, rubbing the silk between his fingers. “For most of my life, I have been told how to behave, how to act, where to go, what to wear. I have fought against every edict, every rule, and yet they always manage to find some way to force me back into their cage.”
He drapes the robe on the back of the chair at my dressing table.
“The people in the castle play incessant games, always thinking three steps ahead, every move calculated, a pretty performance for their own personal gain. But you…” He erases the distance in three long strides, dropping to one knee in front of me. “You do not measure your tongue. You tell me exactly what you think without trying to spare my feelings. You do not go along with what I say simply because I am the one who says it.” His hands slide up my legs to my knees, but his eyes never leave mine. “You challenge me. You consume me. I dreamof you far more often than I probably should considering the dumbfounded look you’re giving me right now. Dream of the life we could have if we were different people. If I weren’t a prince.”
This thing between us was never meant to be serious. My heart was never meant to be involved.
But a foolish heart wants what it cannot have.
And mine is the most foolish of them all.
I place my hands atop his where they rest on my knees and give Senan a confession of my own. “I love you too.”
Twenty-Seven
SENAN
Whoever inventedpicnics must’ve been some kind of sadist. Why would anyone rather sit on the hard ground with flies buzzing around his head and the sun beating down on his brow instead of inside on a chair with a nice, steady breeze blowing through the windows?
Leeri strokes my forearm with her free hand, seeming unbothered by the flies and bees. “You seem distracted today, my love.”
Every time she calls me that, I want to scream. “I just have a lot on my mind.” Like trying to survive this raging hangover thumping in my skull. What I wouldn’t give to be back in bed. Although, after spending what remained of the night being terrorized by nightmares of fire stealing my world, robbing the woman I loved of her final breaths, I’m not certain bed is the best place for me either.