Page 18 of Rejected

Did he

Why did he

How on earth

I can’t

All this time?

seven

“Why didn’t you say something?” Jo whispered, numb.

“I couldn’t be more obvious if I tried, Jo! Your brother and his rakish London friends have been teasing me mercilessly for years. Your sisters, they… Well, they feel sorry for me now. But they’ve known for years. I thought you knew too.”

“I did not,” she said.

I did not.

But she had. Deep down, she had suspected it. Feared it.

And now, here they were. Her, on the verge of frustrated tears, melting, trying to deny what she already knew. Him, on his feet, tall, trembling, hers.

Just standing there, ruining her.

He devoured her without even touching her.

“Won’t you marry me, Jo?” Laurie asked, his eyes glittering, watching her. He wasn’t even breathing.

“No,” she replied for what felt like the thousandth time. Why was her voice trembling?

“Why not?” he asked.

She couldn’t answer him.

“Does it repulse you that I am madly in love with you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied immediately, and he smiled.

But this smile was different. It was one she had never seen on his lips. Wolfish. Dangerous. Male. It did things to the bottom of her stomach.

“Splendid,” he said. “I was afraid it would leave you completely indifferent.”

“It does,” she protested immediately. “Except for the fact that it is ruining our friendship. I can’t… I can’t lose you, Teddy.”

“I am literally professing my love for you. That is the opposite of losing me.”

“You ruined everything, you know, by becoming so…”

“So?” he prompted.

“Well, so absurdly handsome, to begin with.”

He lifted an eyebrow. As if he didn’t already know how many hearts he had broken already. But no, this was not an arrogant eyebrow. It was anexcitedone. The idiot was getting his hopes up, wasn’t he?

“I am…”

“My life,” he stopped her. “You are my entire life. If I don’t have you, I don’t have anything. You know that, Jo, don’t you?”