Page 46 of His Beauty
His smile still seemed sad. “Ye asked me if I hide myself, and the answer is aye.Obviously. Unequivocally. I hide because I am the Beast of the Oliphants, and I deserve the moniker.”
He didn’t deserve any of this.
Suddenly angry—not at him, butforhim—Bonnie surged to her feet, pulling her hand from his and planting her palms against the coffee-stained cloth. “And you asked if I hid myself,” she reminded him fiercely.
He lifted a brow in question.
“I have been hiding a very important piece, Lyon. From my sisters, from you, and perhaps even from myself.”
Hurt crept into his eyes, but he blinked, and it was gone. “Ye’ve been hiding part of yerself from me?” he asked mildly, as if it didn’t matter.
But itdidmatter. She could see it. She could hear it.
And she could feel it.
“Yes, I have been, but no longer. I love you, Lyon Oliphant, and I will not hide that part of my heart any longer.”
CHAPTER 10
Lyon never touched the pastry, but that was likely a good thing, because his stomach was a roiling mess that morning anyhow. After he’d swallowed down his pride and calmly—as calmly as possible at least—explained why he couldn’t offer Bonnie a future, she had to go and steal his very thoughts.
She told him she loved him.
She…loved him.
He couldn’t do anything more than stare at her, and eventually, she’d huffed in irritation—at least, he assumed it was irritation—turned away from him, then began to struggle into her winter coat.
Numbly, Lyon fumbled with his wallet, producing more than enough to take care of their bill, and jumped to help her. Neither spoke as they, properly girded against the winter, stepped out of the café.
She slid her arm through his once more and turned them both to the right. He had to guess she was still leading him toward her publishing house, but he was incapable of any further rational thought at that moment.
Bonnie Oliphant loved him.
And in the moment she’d confessed it to him, heshould’vefelt dread, irritation, anger that she didn’t understand.
Instead, it felt as if his heart had flown.
Beside him, she cleared her throat.
“You know, when one confesses one’s love for another, they generally expect some acknowledgement in return.”
“Does one?” He was an idiot, wasn’t he?
“Yes, one does.” She pulled him toward a building’s overhang so they were out of the main flow of foot traffic and tugged him to face her. “Thisone.” She placed one palm flat against her chest, then placed her other against his chest. “And that one.” Then she used the second hand to gesture between them, and Lyon missed the warmth which had blossomed between them.
“Two?” he asked weakly, trying for a joke. “One and one?”
“Yes, two.Wetwo. Lyon and Bonnie, Bonnie and Lyon.”
“A beauty and a beast.”
She jabbed him with a long finger. “Do not call yourself a beast again, Lyon Oliphant.”
He exhaled. “Bonnie, ye dinnae understand what manner of man I?—”
Again, she jabbed him, cutting him off. “Idounderstand you. Do not try to talk me out of loving you, Lyon!”
Her eyes sparked with fierceness as she tilted her head back to glare at him, her shoulders heaving with the force of her breaths. “You are an intelligent man, so do please cease imagining what happened in the past excludes you from loving, or being loved, again.”
