Page 32 of Master of Games
“Other men are fools.”
She relaxed again and he felt her smile against the top of his head. “I have a hard time believing that.”
“Wild and wanton. Beautiful and untamed. I don’t have much to recommend me personally, but I have always been able to recognize a woman of value and you, my sweet Tabetha, are more rare and more wonderful than any woman I’ve ever met. Just because other foolish men cannot see past your scars, does not make you less miraculous. It only makes them stupid. Furthermore, I don’t give a pig’s shit what anyone else thinks, and I don’t care to educate them. Instead, I have every intention of hoarding your virtues all to myself. I’ve always been terribly selfish that way…”
“Ironheart, stop.” Tabbie’s throat closed, causing her voice to crack.
He’d been kind and gentle. But it occurred to him that what Tabbie might need was his strength. “I won’t. Now strip off your clothes and let me see the rest of these scars you’re so afraid I’ll reject you over. I plan to kiss every inch of them.”
“Please stop,” she begged, her voice cracking. “You know I can’t resist you. And if you reject me, unlike the rest of them, I think it will break me.”
“Tabbie,” he choked out her name. “Sweetheart. I am not going to reject you. Please…let me spend my life proving you’re worthy of love. I’m not good at much. You’ll have to make up for so many of my failings. But I can do that. I can show you how you look through my eyes.”
She pulled back then, looking down at him with so much uncertainty, he ached for her.
But he knew very well that no amount of scarring would frighten him away and it was time she learned this fact too.
And so, gently, slowly, he reached for the row of buttons at the back of her dress…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
She shook with nerves as Ironheart gently removed the top of her dress and then began unlacing her corset.
“Please stop,” she begged. Caden could hear the fear that matched her trembling.
“The choice is yours,” he replied, his hands slowing. “But I promise you, I will do nothing but prove that you are beautiful to me.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
He stopped then, reaching for her face to hold it in his hand. “I’m struggling to believe that you find me a man of worth.”
“You are.”
“Then trust me to prove it to you now.”
She stopped shaking as she stared down at him, surprise making her features slack. And then her jaw hardened. “Damn you, Ironheart.”
He smiled despite himself. “I was rather hoping for a different reaction.”
“You used logic to trap me, and I think I might hate you for it.” But a small smile tugged at her lips.
“I don’t hate you. In fact…” He drew in a breath, hoping the words didn’t ruin the progress he made. “I love you.”
She thumped his shoulders. “You don’t mean…”
“Do you want to know why I rode around for two days with a bleeding arm?”
“Why?”
“Because I would have died before I led those villains to your door.” He held her hips, giving them a squeeze as he looked up at her.
Her hands slid up his neck, her fingers tangling into his hairline, her thumbs sliding along his jaw. “You were protecting me.”
“Of course I was protecting you.”
“You didn’t just happen to be in Dover. You came for me.”
“I did. And I have your father’s permission to be here.”
