Page 65 of This Time Around

“Something like that would not have stayed quiet, and once the media got wind of it—and the media always does—there would have been no stopping it.”

Shaking her head, silent tears streamed down her cheeks. “Dad would never have gone through with it. He was bluffing.”

“I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Alec was too angry to see sense. As far as he was concerned, I’d hurt you and he was going to make me pay. And yeah, eventually he would’ve figured out he’d made a mistake, but by then the damage would’ve been done. Even if I’d gone to court and proven my innocence, you would have forever been the girl who was raped by the son of the Archibald Prize-winning artist Ulysses Bennett. Do you really think I would’ve let that happen to you? You meanteverythingto me. I had to protect you from that. In this day and age, when every little thing we do is recorded and filed and shared….”

He scrubbed his hands over his head. “It would have followed you for years, everywhere you went, every school application, every job interview. No, I couldn’t let that happen. Not to you.”

Rafe left the chair to sit beside Jane. Cupping her cheeks in his big hands, he rested his forehead against hers. “You were my everything.” He sucked in a lungful of air, breathed in her sweet scent and let his love for her wash over him. “Youaremy everything. So when Uly offered an alternative solution, I grabbed it with both hands.”

“The scholarships to study overseas,” she said, realisation dawning in her lovely eyes. “That’s why you took them? That’s why you left me?”

“I had to protect you. Even if it meant losing you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Alec made me promise I wouldn’t. Still, I wrote you letters while I was away, but when I returned home it was obvious you’d never received them. I think he wanted you to hate me. Doubt me, at the very least.”

She let out a shuddering breath then sniffed back her tears. “I think it worked,” she whispered. She shook her head. “This is all my fault.”

“What are you talking about?” Rafe said, smoothing Jane’s hair away from her face. “How is any of this your fault?”

“I knew what I was doing when I snuck into your room that night,” she said, her face stricken. “I knew the law, I knew I was underage, and I still went through with it. I threw myself at you! It’s my fault you had to leave.”

“Janie.” Rafe pulled her into his embrace and wrapped her in his arms. She tried to free herself, but he held on tighter. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Neither of us did. You were as much a virgin when you left my room as you were when you snuck in there in the first place.

“And even after all this time and everything that’s happened between us, I wouldn’t change a damn thing about that night. Because you told me you loved me, and that was the best present anyone has ever given me. Except maybe this one,” he added, sliding his hand over her stomach. “I love you, Jane.” A short burst of laughter escaped him as he smiled down at her and shook his head. “And you win.”

“Win what?” she said, dashing the tears from her cheeks.

“Charlie’s stupid bet. I’ll stop asking you to marry me,” he said, “if you’ll just fucking kiss me.”

A frown pulled at her brow as Jane stared at Rafe, unsure she’d heard him correctly. “What?”

“You heard me, beautiful. I surrender. You win. Kiss me.”

Her hand shook as she reached up to touch her fingertips to his cheek. Why? Why was she shaking? Was she nervous… afraid…? But as soon as her skin glanced over his, as soon as that ever present zing lit along her veins, it fired every single one of her neurons, called them to action until they marched to the sound of only one drum.

Her heart.

It pounded in her chest, smashing out a tattoo of need and want and desire. Rafe had told her to fight for what she wanted, so she would.

Sliding both hands over his shoulders, she pushed with all her strength, shoved him down on the bed and straddled his hips. “You do realise that if I kiss you, that’s it? We’re fucking.”

Rafe threw one of those grins at her and tucked his hands behind his head.Smug bastard. “I’m counting on it.”

With her eyes puffy and rimmed in red, a snuffly nose and tears drying on her cheeks, Jane felt about as un-sexy as she could get. But the way Rafe looked at her, the way his deep blue eyes darkened and his eyelids shuttered, the way his grin softened at the edges until all the cockiness was gone and only adoration remained, blew away her self-conscious fears. Quieted her doubts.

Loosened her tongue and let her truth spill free.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I know.”

Shaking with laughter, Jane let her happiness guide her. She leaned down and kissed Rafe’s throat, then nibbled and sucked and licked a slow, torturous path to his mouth.

When she finally pressed her lips to his, a low moan escaped them both. But instead of deepening the kiss, she pulled away. Rafe chased her, nipping her chin when he missed her mouth and making her laugh again.

In a lightning fast move, he wrapped one arm around her back then used his weight to reverse their positions. “Come here, woman,” he said, looming over her, and took her mouth.

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