"What now?"
"I love you."
She didn't respond to his vow, but started trembling. He knew he was terrifying her. "You're the most confusing woman," he whispered on a sigh. "God help me, I do love you, though."
"I won't love you," she stammered out. "I don't even like you. I won't trust you either." She ended her
list of what she wouldn't do with a loud hiccup.
Caine wasn't the least upset by her denials. "I love you," he said again. "Now and forever."
He was content to hold her while she wept. Lord, she did have a store of tears locked inside her.
They must have stood there a full ten minutes before she was able to regain her composure.
She wiped her cheeks on the lapels of his jacket, then pulled away from him. "You'd better go back downstairs," she whispered.
"Not without you," he countered.
"No," she replied. "Nathan and Harry would know I'd been crying. I'm staying here."
"Jade, you can't put off…" He stopped in midsentence, then asked, "Why does it matter if they know you've been crying or not?"
"I wouldn't be what they expect me to be if I cried," she answered.
"Try to explain what you meant by that remark?" he asked gently.
She gave him a disgruntled look. "Appearances have to be kept up, Caine."
She walked over to the bed and sat down. "I don't want to talk about this." She let out a sigh, then
added, "Oh, very well. I'll meet you downstairs…"
He was shaking his head at her. "I'll wait for you."
"You don't trust me?"
"No."
He waited for her temper to explode. She surprised him, however, when she merely shrugged. "Good," she said. "Don't trust me, Caine. I'm going to leave at the first opportunity. I won't stay here and wait
for you to leave me. I'm not a fool."
He finally understood. She couldn't hide her fear or her vulnerability from him now. "And you're absolutely certain I would leave you, aren't you, Jade?"
"Of course."
She replied with such candor that he wasn't certain how to proceed. "Even though I've just told you that
I love you, you still…"
"Nathan and Harry love me, too," she interjected.
Caine gave up trying to reason with her now, guessing it would do his cause little good. He decided he'd have to wait and find another way around her shields.
Caine suddenly wanted to go downstairs and kill both Nathan and Harry. He sighed instead. He couldn't undo the past for her. No, he could only give her a secure, safe future.
"I would never abandon…" he stopped himself, then said, "Very well, Jade. You may leave me whenever you want."
Her eyes widened over that announcement. She looked like she was going to start weeping again, too. Caine felt like an ogre. "Any time you want to leave, do so."
She turned her gaze to her lap. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he drawled out. He walked over to her, pulled her to her feet, then tilted her head up. "Just one other little detail," he added.
"Yes?"
"Every time you leave, I'm going to come after you. There isn't any place you can hide, Jade. I'll find you and drag you back here. This is where you belong."
She tried to push his hand away from her chin. "You'd never find me," she whispered.
He could hear the panic in her voice. Caine leaned down and kissed her. He missed her mouth completely when she jerked away from him, then captured her soft lips by cupping the sides of her face and holding her still.
His tongue took possession then. He growled low in his throat when she pinched him, then deepened the kiss. Her tongue finally rubbed against his own, her resistance spent. She wrapped her arms around his waist and melted against him.
"I love you," he told her again after he'd lifted his head away from her.
She promptly burst into tears again. "Are you going to do that every damned time I tell you I love you?" he demanded.
He was more amused than exasperated with her. She shook her head. "You don't understand yet," she whispered. "It hasn't settled in, Caine."
"What don't I understand?" he asked, his voice filled with tenderness.
"You don't understand what I am," she cried.
Caine let out another sigh. He took hold of her hand and dragged her out of the room. They were halfway down the stairs to the foyer when he finally answered her. "I understand, all right. You're mine."
"I hate your possessiveness, too," she told his back.
Caine paused at the door to the drawing room, then let go of her hand. "If you try to move away from
me while we're in there, I swear to God I'll embarrass the hell out of you. Got that?"
She nodded. When he started to open the door, he noticed the change that came over her. Gone was the vulnerable woman he'd just held in his arms. Jade looked quite serene. Caine was so astonished by the change in her, he had to shake his head.
"I'm ready now," she announced. "But if you tell Harry we slept together…"
"I won't," he interjected before she could get herself all worked up again. "Unless you leave my side, of course."
She gave him a quick glare, then forced a smile on her face and strolled into the room.
The talk stopped as soon as she and Caine entered. Jade sat on the arm of the chair adjacent to the
hearth and motioned for him to take the seat.
"Is my supper near to ready?" Harry asked her.
"In just another minute or two," Jade answered. "I insisted on the best for you, Uncle. It takes a little longer."
Harry beamed at her. "I'm the lucky one, having you to take care of me, Pagan," he crooned.
"Don't call her Pagan."
That command came out in a harsh whisper. Jade shivered over the anger in Caine's voice.
Nathan grinned while Harry squinted at Caine. "Why the hell not? That's her name," he argued.
"No, her name is Jade," Caine snapped out.
"My name is Pagan."
Her voice had turned as hard as ice. "I'm sorry you don't like it, Caine, but that's…"
She quit her explanation when he took hold of her hand and started squeezing.
"He still doesn't believe it," Harry said.
Jade didn't answer her uncle, but she secretly believed he was right. Caine certainly wouldn't be holding her hand if it had all settled in. "He believes all women are weak, Uncle," she whispered.
Harry snorted. He was about to launch into several of his favorite stories about his Pagan's special
abilities when the men he'd sent to the village returned from their errand.
The men lumbered over to Harry's side.
"Well? What have you got for me, men?"
"Eleven pair," the shorter of the two seamen announced.
While Caine watched in growing astonishment, spectacles of every size and shape were dropped into Harry's lap. The old man tried on the first pair, squinted at Caine, then took the spectacles off and