"Will you tell me what it is?"
"Not tonight," he said, his tone gentle but firm. "Not until I'm certain of all the facts. Not until I know how it affects you, affects us."
"That's not your decision to make," I argued, echoing my words from earlier. "I have a right to know anything that concerns me directly."
"You do," he agreed, surprising me. "And you will know. When I'm ready to tell you. When I'm certain of what I know."
It wasn't the answer I wanted, but it was probably the best I was going to get tonight. Rafe had already shared more than I'd expected—about his past, about the current situation, about his feelings for me. Pushing for more might close the door he'd opened rather than widening it further.
"Soon," I said, not quite a question, not quite a demand.
"Soon," he promised, reaching across the table to take my hand again. "Trust me, Grace. Just a little longer."
Trust. Such a complicated request from a man who had taken me against my will, who still kept secrets despite promises of honesty, who discussed potential warfare with my family over dinner. And yet, despite everything, I found that I did trust him—not completely, not blindly, but in ways that would have seemed impossible months ago.
"Alright," I conceded. "Soon."
Relief flickered across his features, quickly masked. "Thank you."
We left the dining room hand in hand, the tension of earlier replaced by a different kind of energy—a quieter, deeper connection born of shared vulnerabilities, of truths revealed if not complete honesty.
When we reached his bedroom—for it was his room we went to now, more often than not—he kissed me with a gentleness that belied the strength I knew he possessed. His hands cradled my face as if I were something precious, something that might break if handled too roughly.
"I want you to know," he murmured against my lips, "that whatever happens, whatever you learn, my feelings for you won'tchange. Can't change. You're the one fixed point in my life, Grace. The one certainty in a world of shifting allegiances and calculated risks."
The words should have comforted me. Instead, they sent a chill down my spine—a premonition, perhaps, that whatever he wasn't telling me was significant enough to make him fear my reaction, my potential rejection.
But I pushed the thought away, losing myself in the way his hands roamed my body—familiar and greedy, reverent and rough. Like he was relearning territory he’d claimed long ago but still couldn't believe he owned.
He undressed me slowly, not like he was unwrapping something delicate, but like he was unmaking something sacred. Every clasp undone felt like a vow. Every kiss to bare skin, a brand. There was no rush. No game. Just intent. Worship twisted in restraint.
I took my time with him, too. Ran my fingers down the scars etched into him, reminders of who he’d been before me. Beforethis. Every mark was a history I hadn’t lived—but somehow, still felt like mine to memorize.
When he finally sank into me, it wasn’t rough. It wasn’t fast. It was something else entirely. Like he was carving a place for himself inside me and didn’t want to be gentle about it.
Then—quiet. Close to my ear. Almost like he didn’t mean to say it out loud:
“I love you.”
No question. No plea. Just the confession of a man who'd resisted it until it ripped out of him anyway.
“God help me, I love you.”
I didn’t say it back. Couldn’t. Not yet.
But I wrapped my legs tighter around him, pulled him deeper, held him like I could fuse us together and make the achestop. I moved with him like it meant something more—because it did.
And if I couldn't give him the words, I could give him this.
23
GRACE
"We're going to the main estate today."
I looked up from my book, surprised by Rafe's announcement. He stood in the doorway of the library, dressed more formally than usual in a tailored suit, his expression carefully neutral.
"The main estate?" I repeated, setting my book aside. In the two months I'd been with the Contis, I'd never left this property—a sprawling mansion in its own right, but apparently just one of several Conti holdings in the area.
