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“Do you love me?” she cut him off.

Duncan balked. “Wh -- what?”

Isabella walked to the steps and took the first one. “Do you love me?”

“Isabella...” He grimaced. “That is not... regardless of how I feel, what happened was my fault. Lady St. Vincent was there because of me. She was there because I --”

“Do you love me?” she said again, trepidation in her voice. “Answer the question, because it is the only one that I careabout.” Another step taken. “I must know. I do not care how guilty you feel. I do not care if you think this is your fault. All I care about…” Another step, halfway up the staircase now. “Is if you love me or not.”

Duncan began to sweat. Isabella was halfway toward him, and he was caught between going to her and turning to flee. Not because he was scared of her, but because he was scared of what might happen when he told her the truth. If he confessed and she laughed in his face...

“And if I do?” he said carefully.

“Do you?” She took another step, and then another.

“What... what would you think if I did?”

“That depends on whether you do or not.” Another step, and then two more.

“I am dangerous, Isabella. That is all which matters.”

“Not as dangerous as I am.”

He shook his head. “No, I am the one who –”

“Saved my sister.”

“Put her in danger.”

“Because of me. She was only there because of a fight that she and I had. To prove me wrong, even if there was nothing to prove. Now…” She took the final step, onto the landing, less than five feet from where Duncan was standing. “Tell me the truth, do you love me?” She raised both eyebrows and stared at him, unblinking, commanding, filled with a determined force that only someone like Isabella could ever truly hold.

Again, Duncan almost laughed.

This right here was so them. Even in confessions of love, they still could not help but argue. Two heads butting and he wondered what might happen if he was to refuse her answer further. How far he could push it.

His heart began to race, and his excitement began to build because he could see in her eyes the answer which she wanted. One which, he was beginning to see, was returned fully.

“And what if I did?” he shot back with a smile and a raised eyebrow of his own.

“Then I would have a right to know.”

“As I would have a right to know if you felt the same?”

She hesitated and he saw the smile flash behind her eyes; enough that it gave him hope because now he understood the true reason that she was here.

“Maybe,” she said, smirking slightly. “But that all depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not you love me.” She raised both eyebrows again, a smile crept up her face, and her body shook. Caught between looking like she wanted to slap him or kiss him, Duncan could not guess which it might be. “Now, stop being so annoying and just tell me!”

Again, he wanted to bait her.

Again, he wanted to tease her.

Again, he wanted to fall back into their old games.

But all that did was confirm how silly this all was. They both knew the answer. They both accepted what it meant. But neither was willing to say it first; the two most stubborn people in the whole world and they had reached an impasse because of it.