A Scandalous Destiny by Ava Stone

Author:Ava Stone
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: 0
Published: 2017-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

Sophie squared her shoulders. She had come all this way, and she wouldn’t be a coward now, even if she was freezing and even if Gabe was glaring at her as though she was the biggest fool alive. “You asked Papa for my hand.”

He blanched slightly, so slightly in fact that a second later there was no indication she’d said anything even remotely surprising. “Years ago, and hardly worth you risking your neck over it now.”

The truth was worth it to Sophie. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“After my suit was rejected, there was nothing to tell you.”

A lump formed in her throat. “You thought it better for me to think that you didn’t care about me at all? You thought it better that I should cry myself to sleep over you every night after you left? You thought—”

“I said goodbye to you.” He swallowed and his brow creased in concern. “I wasn’t even supposed to do that.” He shook his head. “I thought if I said anything else it would make things worse for you and that was the last thing in the world I ever wanted, Sophie.”

That last goodbye. Sophie could still remember the feel of his lips against hers. She could still taste the salt from her tears as he strode away and had not looked back. “I wanted you, Gabriel. Nothing else in the world mattered.” And looking at him now, that hadn’t changed. There was still nothing else in the world that she wanted more than him. The truth of that nearly made her knees buckle beneath her.

“And I wanted you.” His warm eyes nearly seared her with his gaze. “Every night I was in Spain, I wanted you with me. Every night in Portugal, in France, even Canada for God’s sake. But it doesn’t matter, Sophie. It doesn’t change anything.”

It changed everything. Especially if he still wanted her. “You asked me last night if I still cared for you. Do you still care for me?”

Gabe raked a hand through his sandy-colored hair, and looked at her as though he was in the worst sort of pain. “You’ll never understand, Sophie.”

She waited for him to say more than that. To explain what in the world he was talking about, but Gabe said nothing else. “I’ll never understand anything if you don’t explain—”

“We’ve got the bath you ordered, sir,” a man called from the corridor as he pounded on the door.

Gabe turned on his heel, opened the door and admitted a fellow carrying a tub in his arms. “Right there, please,” he said, motioning to a vacant spot on the floor.”

“Millie will be up with the water soon,” the man said after he deposited the tub.

Gabe flicked his gaze toward Sophie and said, “I’ll be back after your bath.”

And Sophie’s heart twisted in her chest. He hadn’t answered her. He hadn’t said whether he still cared about her, and now he was gone. Again.

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