Page 84 of In Love with a Ruthless Man

Ah.

The prince brought her hands to his lips. “I’m sorry,” he said harshly. And he was. He was sorry because unlike her—-

He knew.

He knew exactly why he could hurt her, knew exactly why she could hurt him the same way.

He knew, but it didn’t matter.

It couldn’t.

She looked down at the prince’s bent head, and she couldn’t keep herself from crying, couldn’t stop herself from remembering.

She remembered the first day they met—-

“Please tell us a bit about yourself, Ms. Cornwall.”

She remembered how she used to think he was so dangerous, remembered the way she had forced herself to smile at him, and he had said—-

“You look like a clown.”

And most of all, she remembered the way he had looked at her when she had seen Grant having sex with another girl—-

“What do you want me to do?”

He had asked it quietly, simply, like there was no limit to what he could and would dofor her.

How could that man, who would go to such lengths to protect her, be the same man who could abandon her with such cruel ease?

How?

She felt the prince’s fingers release its hold, and she swallowed back a sob as his hands moved up to cup her face.

He made her look at him, and she did.

“Can we start again?”

Ah.

The tears were endless, and she could only look at him.

How?

“Let me just protect you, the way I promised.”

A smile wobbled on her lips even as her heart crumbled. “F-for how long?”

“For as long as you need me to.” The prince wiped a tear away, and her heart crumbled even more.

Ah.

The prince might call her an idiot, and maybe she was, but she could read between the lines, too.

And there was her answer, she thought numbly.

He would be with her for as long as she needed him.

Such pretty words, when she knew what it really meant was that he would only want her for as long as belonged to someone else.

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