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“But you will afterward,” he warned “There will be no going back Are you ready for that, Rose? Are you ready for another situation beyond your control because I will accept nothing less than your complete compliance in what has to come after?”
“What’s that?” she whispered For the first tiht after all
“You will have to marry me, whether you like it or not As far as this hotel is concerned, we are registered here as Mr and Mrs Allen They won’t think twice about us sharing a bed together However, the ues have certain expectations ofof me to seduce someone I am supposed to protect It is a, well, a kind of code of ours A code of conduct”
“But that is your work This is between us,” she protested
“I ao any further with this right now, the decision of whether your future lies with er be yours There will be an expectation for you to ive up my work I will not surrender myself to matrimony The Star Elite is a part of me If we marry you will have to accept that one for long periods of time You will often not even knohere I am or when I will be back and I can offer you no proerous, as you know There is always the possibility that I can’t coement then ill take this further If not, you need to tell o back to the way things were if we take this final step”
Rose stared at hi as she could ree proposal she had expected In fact, it was the least romantic proposal she had ever heard The harshness in his voice when he had spoken aboutthan an affirether She shivered as she studied the watchfulness in his eyes It felt as though he had just poured a bucket of cold water over her While she was attracted to hinore who she was for a chance to be with him
Barnaby read the doubt on her face and kneas right to issue the warning Inwardly, he knew that no wo to accept a life with him on those terms, especially Rose It was harsh to expect it of her, but he couldn’t ignore the surge of bitterness that storh him as he pushed away from her and stood up
“Go and take a bath or the water will go cold I need to meet with the others There is work to do” He didn’t wait for her to reply and slammed out of the room without a backward look
Rose stared at the closed door and felt a hot tear slide slowly down her chilled cheek Bereft, she slowly pushed herself upright What had felt warm and wonderful just a few moments earlier now felt wr
ong So very terribly wrong that she wasn’t sure what to do about it As delightful as Barnaby’s love-ain She couldn’t accept e to him on the tere to her a burden – so that took him away from the beloved work he did She couldn’t bear to spend her life being any ation, especially Barnaby’s
“You don’t need anythan that He isn’t the man for you,” she whispered aloud
Quickly hurrying into the bedroom, she closed the shutters and curtains and divested herself of her clothing Seconds later, she slid into the hot, stea to tie her hair out of her face she draped it over the edge of the bath and sank low in the water It was subli water and allow it to ease her aches and pains It was a pity it could do nothing about the ache around her heart
“Your life needs to be rebuilt somewhere else,” she whispered to herself “Soht saddened her So an to fall in earnest, and this time she made no attempt to stop them
Half an hour later, she was so lost in her one cold It was only when she oose bumps ripple across her skin that she stood up
“There is no towel” She hadn’t stopped to think about things like towels before she had subed herself in the blissful water Now, she was cold, wet, and had no way of drying herself “Fool,” she muttered as she stepped out of the bath