Page 33 of Her Magnificent Mistake
Fook. Blowing out a breath, he moved around the desk to fall into one of the chairs near the window. “Aye, I’m sorry. Yer brother is a good man, I ken. Both of them are.”
Outside the glass, birds swooped, diving down to snatch at the insects in the gardens. Hawk wished he was out there with them, breathing in the warm summer air.
The silence behind him was broken by the sound of her skirts swishing. “Rupert will not dishonor her,” she murmured, walking toward him. “Not…”
His eyes closed on a silent curse he would not utter. “No’ like I did ye,” he finished in a whisper.
Her hand closed around his shoulder, and he wasn’t certain if the touch was intended to be a comfort or a censure. “I was not going to say that,” she murmured.
“Ye should say it. That kiss, Marcia…” He shook his head, too cowardly to open his eyes. “What we shared. We shouldnae…”
Her fingers squeezed slightly. “It might have been a mistake, but I have not regretted what we shared, Hawk.”
Christ.
Christ Almighty.
She never regretted what they’d shared? Well, he’d spent every day of the last ten years regretting his cowardice, his cruelty, the way he hadn’t been brave enough to approach Bull and explain…
He’d never had the bollocks to tell his best friend he was fooking his sister.
It had beenwrong. Their entire relationship had been too wrong to be public, and the longer they kept it hidden, the more devious it had felt.
And then he’d learned the truth of how fickle Marcia’s feelings for him had been. Hawk had had to choose between finally coming clean to Bull…or ending it altogether.
He’d taken the easier route, and it had haunted him for a decade. Curse his cowardice!
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. It was all he could offer her.
Another woman might have accepted that apology, might have pretended all was well. But not his Marcia. She held his gaze, lifted a brow, and demanded, “For what?”
A challenge.
“For…” He took a deep breath. “For the mistakes of my past.”
Except…
Loving Marcia hadn’t been a mistake. Or rather, ithad, because she was his best friend’s little sister and Bull didn’t deserve that kind of betrayal. But while thatmistakehad brought him pain, it had brought him joy as well. So much joy.
And over the years, he’d forced himself to forget that joy, hadn’t he? Amid the guilt and the pain, he hadn’t deserved to remember the joy.
But now she was here with him, and all he could think about was the joy—thatjoy, the joy they’d shared.
And the fact that he’d never stopped loving her, curse him.
He heard her inhale, wondered what she would say…and the door clicked open.
“My lord,” intoned Artrip in that familiar dry voice. “Cook begs me to discover if you will be taking luncheon in the dining room or in a picnic basket?” The sneer in his tone made it clear he thought picnics were a waste of time.
Hawk had jumped at his entrance and Marcia’s hand fell away. Now they both turned to face the butler.
“A picnic sounds lovely, Artrip,” she said, a smile in her voice as she offered a wink. “Perhaps with some toast and ham, in honor of my host?”
“I am afraid I do not understand, my lady.”
“Toast and ham?” Marcia waggled her brows. “Tostinham?”
Artrip’s neutral expression didn’t change. “If you wish to eat your ham on toast…”
