Claiming His Defiant Miss by Bronwyn Scott

Author:Bronwyn Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Swept away didn’t even begin to cover it. His mind and body were full of contradictions. He was exhausted and exhilarated, careless and careful. He should have known. Loving May had always been like this. He wanted to protect her and yet he wanted to take great risks, many of them at her expense. He understood now as he hadn’t fully understood before: she had more to lose than he.

Come away with me, let us go somewhere new and make a new beginning, let’s remake ourselves, be whoever we want.

Those words had been his doom once before. He should know better than to repeat that mistake, but holding her in the dark, feeling the slow rise and fall of her body breathing against his, those were the very thoughts running through his mind. Only now, they were accompanied by another dangerous thread of argument: This time it would be different. They were older and wiser. He had something to offer May: a government job, savings, enough to get them a decent home.

This time would be different and in many ways it might even be worse. There was his position to consider now. Like anyone who was successful in their job, he had acquired enemies. Like anyone who had dedicated himself, immersed himself fully in his career, he carried the burden of that on his soul. He knew he was not unmarked. Constant vigilance on behalf of others had left him more cynical than he was already. The elimination of men who wished to harm the Crown had left him hardened, finishing the process the doctor had started so many years ago in his youth.

Perhaps all things happened for a reason. Even his abhorrent childhood. Without the harshness of his youth he might not have had the fortitude for his current position. As it was, he clung doggedly to the philosophies of Kant, that the ends justified the means. There was a tattered copy of the Critique of Judgment in his travelling bag to prove just how doggedly he held to those ideas, how hard he fought to justify his existence. May would have to share that existence. His enemies would become her enemies. Cabot Roan was just a taste of what that would be like. Could he wish that on her? In the case of May, would Kant’s means justify the glorious end of loving her, having her? Would she agree?

May stirred beside him, looking up into his face with a sleepy gaze. ‘You’re awake and you’re thinking,’ she murmured. ‘Should I ask?’

‘Not thinking, I’m dreaming.’ And, no, she shouldn’t ask because he just might tell her and wreck everything. Maybe he didn’t want to hear her answer. The old fear started to tug at its chains—that she’d merely used those arguments years ago to avoid telling him the truth; that he’d never be good enough for her in the long term. It was a fear he didn’t visit too often and yet that fear had driven

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