Page 56 of Stranded with His Runaway Bride

‘I won’t accept that we can’t follow our hearts on this.’ Her own was beating hard. She had to make him see. She couldn’t lose him.

‘Followyourheart, you mean. I don’t agree with your assessment of our situation.’

‘Situation?’ She stopped dead in front of him. ‘It’s love, Leo. Love! And I think you feel the same.’

He stood, wiped his hands on the napkin and dropped it beside his empty plate. ‘If that’s what you believe, Grand Duchessa, then you’re doomed to be disappointed.’

So cynical, and she knew to the bottom of her soul he was wrong. Yes, his heart had been twisted and broken by what his parents had visited on him, but he wasn’t as stone-hearted as he pretended. How could she prove that to him?

‘What will it take to get past the barriers you’ve put up in here?’ She pounded a fist on his chest.

‘There’s nothing in there to find.’ He gazed down his nose at her. Unmoved.

‘I know that’s not true. I know there’s a beating heart in there. I’ve heard it.’ She pressed her body up against him. ‘I’ve made it beat faster.’

‘That’s just sex,’ he said. But she felt the ripple of energy go through him. He wasn’t as calm as he pretended.

‘Is that why you knocked on my door tonight? Just for sex.’

‘Yes.’

The pause had been infinitesimal, but she’d heard it all the same.

‘You’re lying. Not just to me but to yourself. You feel something for me. Admit it. Let the man be free for once and not the prince.’

‘Violetta,’ he growled in warning. ‘After all I’ve seen today, trust me, you don’t want to unleash the man.’

‘That’s exactly what I want. Can’t you get it into your thick skull? I never wanted the prince. But now I know the man, he’s what I want.’

‘He’s not available. You could have had the prince, but you made your decision about that when you ran away from our wedding.’

‘So that’s it? Youarerejecting me.’

‘I’m making the wiser decision for both of us.’ He threw a glance to the bed, then back to her, his dark gaze all heat and need. ‘But we still have what’s left of tonight. Let’s not waste it.’

‘That’s all you’ll give me?’ She sounded desperate but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t hide how she felt. Let him hear what he was doing to her. Let him know how this love stripped her soul bare and laid it at his feet. Let him see the precious gift he didn’t believe in. But could actually have—if he would only reach out for it.

‘That’s allyoucan giveme. By morning you’ll belong to the grand duchy. Tonight is we all have. Take it or leave it.’

It wasn’t working. Her heart lurched. Cracked. ‘Leo, surely—’

‘It’s all that’s on offer, Violetta. Take it or I walk through that door right now.’

She stared at him, confounded by what to do next. Nothing she’d said was getting through to him. His heart was seared and scored by too many wounds. How was she to reach him if not with her love? If that wasn’t enough what else did she have to give?

Time.

She had that. She could be patient. If that was what it took for him to heal and be able to take the next step, she would wait. Somehow, she’d bear it. She’d dig deep and find the strength to cherish and nurture this love for the two of them.

But first she’d show him what they could have together. She’d take this night and make it unforgettable. She’d pour passion over him like a balm and make it as difficult as she could for him to just walk away.

She was staring at him. She looked shell-shocked.

Good, he needed her to understand that he couldn’t do this. That loving her was not an option for him.

She’d declared her love for him but he knew he was right that her duchy would come first. Hell, the duchy had meant more to his own father than Leo, his only son, ever had. It had that pull on people. Hadn’t she run away from him in the first place so she could claim it herself?

Still she said nothing.

---