Page 88 of What a Scot Wants
“It’s the only way.” He cleared his throat and stepped out of her reach, her hands falling away and his heart pounding a ferocious tempo in his chest. “There’s one more thing. To stave off the rumors, I forfeit on the agreement, but ye will be the one to call off the engagement in public. If I do it, people will believe it’s because of recent events, and I dunnae want ye affected further.”
Imogen blinked, her eyes going wide with shock. “You don’t want to marry me?”
Quite the opposite.
“This is for the best,” he said. “It’s what ye want, so I’ve called off the betrothal. My solicitor has already been informed, and everything as agreed will be transferred.”
The silence stretched between them, interminable and heavy.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered.
“Ye ken why, Imogen. I want ye to be happy. I want ye to have everything ye ever wanted.”
His eyes stung, the unfamiliar feeling stunning him into silence for a moment. Or maybe it was because of the intimate words pushing to his lips with a life of their own, words he’d never spoken to a woman. He didn’t care. They had to be said.
“And because I love ye.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The room around Imogen turned hazy, and all she could see was Ronan’s fervent, anguished eyes. They cut through her, tore through all her walls, flaying her heart wide.
“You…” Her tongue had ceased to work.
“Love ye. Aye. I do, Imogen. And that’s why I’ll no’ marry ye. All of this”—he waved an arm—“marriage…a husband…what ye want to do with yer life should be yer choice. No’ some agreement between our parents. Ye speak about what I deserve, but it’s about what ye deserve, too. I promised that I’d never let another man hurt ye, and that includes me.”
She shook her head, on the verge of tears. Though she didn’t know if they were forming because of the shocking offering Ronan had just made to be the one to call off the betrothal, because he was going to risk his life defending her honor in a duel, or because he no longer wished to marry her. She supposed the tears could be a response to all three.
“But the Maclaren distillery. Your source of income, and your clan’s sustenance. You can’t give them up. Your clan needs them, don’t they?” He’d been fighting for them this whole time. They were his life, just as Haven had been hers.Had been?She frowned. Since when was Haven not her whole life? As she stared at the lionhearted man before her, Imogen knew her answer: since Ronan. Not in the beginning, no. But now, after all they’d been through together, she realized he’d made a place for himself in her life. In her heart.
“I will no’ leave ye without yer inheritance. Without protection. Without the life ye’ve made for yerself. Things will turn out just fine for me. Ye dunnae need to be concerned with that.”
“Will they?” she asked, disbelieving. “No. Ronan, I’m the one who is calling off the wedding, not you.”
He bobbed his head in a nod. “Aye, that’s how I intend for it to appear.”
“No, not justappear,” she said, her voice rising. “On paper. Officially.Icried off first, remember?”
The man’s jaw dropped, and he actually laughed at her, a huge smile breaking across his face as he clutched at his stomach, making her catch her breath at the sheer handsomeness of him. God, he had dimples. Right there, peeking through the dark scruff over his cheeks. How had she never noticed? Probably because he never smiled. Not like this. Laughing ather.
“Pray tell, what’s so funny?” she snapped.
“Ye turn everything into a competition, dunnae ye?” he mumbled, mirth in his eyes. “Even this.”
“I don’t want you to lose everything, you dolt.”
“I stand to lose nothing, Imogen,” he said, sobering. “Nothing that cannae be rebuilt. Ye’ve lost enough. Let me do this for ye.”
Her hands shook at the sincerity in his voice. He meant it, every word. He’d give it all up so she wouldn’t have to. The sacrifice was too big. Imogen couldn’t accept it. Especially sinceshewas the one who couldn’t marry. This was because of her and her ghosts and all the wounds that couldn’t ever heal over.
She opened her mouth, and Ronan stepped toward her but then seemed to rethink the closeness after the kiss that had happened before and held back. “Dunnae argue, it’s already done. I needed to ken yer future was secure.”
Because he loves me.
Imogen stalked toward the hearth, turning her back to him. The bullheaded man! Why did he have to be so honorable? Why did he have toloveher? A jagged pain seared her, flecked with the smallest traces of wonderment. This man loved her. Even with all her broken pieces. And yet she could not have him. She could notletherself have him.
“I’ve asked Niall to be my second tomorrow,” Ronan said after a minute of silence. It reminded her of the more immediate crisis—the duel.
“I don’t want you to do this.”
