One Rogue Too Many by Samantha Grace

Author:Samantha Grace
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2013-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Gabby stared dumbly at Anthony down on one knee among pieces of a broken vase strewn on the Turkish carpet. It was as if she were viewing the scene through cloudy spectacles. Nothing seemed real.

“We need to talk,” he repeated. He was supposed to be in the drawing room receiving news of her betrothal from Drew, not in the corridor outside of her chambers. She had felt cowardly slinking above stairs to avoid him, but she had wanted time to absorb what had happened today. She wasn’t getting it.

Uncertain she could speak, she nodded. She led Anthony to the larger drawing room rather than receive him in the same room where she had betrayed him. Drew trailed at a distance, then stopped outside the doors.

“I’ll be here if you need me.”

Suppressing a sigh of resignation, she closed the doors and turned to face Anthony.

“Why?” His pained voice cut through her calm facade. Violent shaking overtook her. She groped for a chair and dropped into it before her knees buckled.

Why? She still didn’t completely know how this had come about herself.

The reason didn’t matter, because she was as good as leg-shackled to Lord Thorne. She would never allow her brothers to risk their lives.

Anthony came to stand before her. Her gaze slowly traveled up his lean body to meet his troubled blue eyes. “Gabby, tell me it isn’t true. You can’t be planning to marry him.”

She swallowed hard. How had the tables turned? It seemed like only yesterday she had been begging him not to marry someone else, to choose her. Their past should make her want to see him hurting as she had, but she only felt the pain more deeply now. She loved Anthony. She would always love him, but she couldn’t put her happiness above her brothers’ lives.

Luke was newly wed to Vivian and destined to bring an heir into the world. Richard was deeply in love with his wife, Phoebe, and he had two sons who looked up to him. Then there was Drew and Lana. Her dearest brother had found his other half in his wife, and he was a better man for it.

Still, giving up Anthony was killing her inside. Every instinct told her to fight for her survival. But she wouldn’t. She had put herself first two years ago and lost her father because of it.

Her throat was scratchy and her tongue felt coated with sand. She couldn’t bear losing Anthony completely. “Y-you told me the day of your wedding that we would always be friends.”

He knelt at her feet and clutched her hands. His forehead was scrunched in concentration. “Is this what this is about? Are you punishing me for doing the right thing? You were young and the world was yours for the taking. It would have been selfish to take you as my wife.”

She shook her head sadly. “I’m not punishing you.” She was punishing herself. That he was injured in the process made everything a thousand times worse, but she too was doing the right thing.

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