Page 55 of Back to Claim His Crown
Ineveryelement of his life. Shecouldbe a convenient wife to him. Useful. Suitable. And perhaps she could support him in the limited ways he could accept. And the thing was, she would have accepted his proposal only weeks ago. It was the kind of marriage she’d thought she would get with Anders. But not now. She wanted more. She wanted unconditional, absolute love. And she wanted it from him.Onlyhim.
Buthedidn’t want that. Not with her or anyone.
‘There’s another problem that you haven’t factored in,’ she said.
‘Oh?’ He waited.
She was shaking inside. ‘You won’t like it.’
He waited but she felt horribly tight in the throat.
‘I don’t usually have to prise information from you, Zara.’ He regarded her steadily with those pale blue eyes. ‘You can tell me anything.’
‘I’ve fallen in love with you,’ she whispered. ‘I have. Fallen in love. I realise this wasn’t supposed to happen.’ Her heart skipped as she watched him. ‘And I know it’s not what you want in this proposal of yours.’
There was no reaction. None. He was still as stone.
‘So I hope you’ll understand that it’s best that I say no. It’s also best that I leave now,’ she muttered, quickly standing up.
‘Are you going to throw that pertinent fact out and then run away?’
‘Don’t.’ She paused, two steps from the table. ‘I’ll get angry.’
‘Go on then.’ He stood too. ‘Get angry.’
Fury flared. ‘I just told you I’m in love with you and you say nothing, other than to demandmorefrom me? When you give menothingat all in response.’
‘Because there’s nothing I can say to that.’
‘Not even a thank you? Not even that you appreciate my honesty?’ She was suddenly incandescent. ‘Because you obviously can’t reciprocate.’
‘We’re...’ He dragged in a breath. ‘We’refriends.’
For a man determined to remain so distant, the acknowledgement of any kind of emotion should be a win, she supposed painfully. But it wasn’t.
‘Are we? Wow. I thought we were only lovers. Even then barely. I’m merely an uninvited guest who you sometimes have sex with.’
He stared at her rigidly.
‘But that you care a little is more than I ever should have expected.’
‘From me?’
‘Forme.’ She shook her head.
He blanched and took a step towards her. ‘Why can’t this be enough for you? Why risk...?’ He breathed out. ‘This is good. Thisis.’
A man who could hardly stand her to stay the whole night with him?
Lucian was everything, except for that block of ice in his heart. That part of him she could never touch. That part he didn’t ever want to give her. That part he’d locked away for good.
‘You disappeared for the best part of a decade,’ she said. ‘I’m going to do the same. I’m going to Piri-nu.’
For a full minute he was silent. ‘Disappearing isn’t all it’s made out to be, Zara,’ he gritted. ‘It’s not for you.’
‘You don’t think I can handle it?’
‘Your skin will burn.’
