Selena shook her head, her gaze dropping to her hands. “Anyone can lose a scrap of paper.” Look at her. Hadn’t she lost one, too? The very same one that led him to the warehouse.
Oh, lord.
She couldn’t breathe.
If she had the world at her fingertips, why did it feel as though her world was slipping through them?
I can’t do this right now.
She used one of her fingers to part the curtain covering the window. They’d already entered Mayfair.
“Please stop the carriage,” Selena blurted.
“What? Why?”
She could hear the frown in his voice. The confusion. A tight vise gripped her throat. What was happening to her? She couldn’t breathe.
“Please,” Selena exclaimed. “Stop the carriage! I need it to stop.”Need to get out.
He rapped on ceiling, signaling for the driver to draw the carriage to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” She heard a rustle. “You look pale.”
“I need to leave.” The moment the carriage stopped she pushed open the door and leaped out, inhaling a deep breath of air.
“Where are you going?” Warrick demanded, climbing out after her. “We haven’t arrived at your home yet. It’s dark, Selena. Dangerous. Get back in.”
“I’ll be fine. Don’t follow me.” The coolness of the air relieved some of her anxiety. “You wish to get rid of your curse? Just get rid of me. There. Done. Curseless.”
“What are you talking about? My curse is a family curse about marriage.”
“Is that why you are here?”Stop, Selena. Don’t say anymore.But the words still pushed past her lips. The fear. “You are looking for me to break the curse? Not Selena the curse, but Selena the curse breaker.”
“What’s wrong? Obviously, something happened that you’re not telling me. I’ve never seen you as a curse breaker or whatever. I’ve only ever seen you as Selena.”
Whatwaswrong? Selena herself couldn’t say. No, she could, she just didn’t want to say it. So, she found something else to latch onto. Her only goal, her only aim at present, was to get to her bed.
“This is what you believe?” he continued. “You think I’m using you to break the curse?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “If we wed, your curse is broken.”
“That’s hogwash and you know it. Did you not enter my chamber on you own?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Or it did. She couldn’t find the right words. Her temples started to throb.
A loud curse. “It doesn’t matter? What do I mean to you? Am I merely a pillow on your bed? Was I a method to a madness I do not grasp? I don’t understand what is happening right now. I might even be the mad one.”
No, he wasn’t. This was her. “Let’s stop here, Phineas.”
“What do you mean?”
She still couldn’t look at him. If she did, she might falter. Just two days... “Let’s take some time to think about what who we are to each other.”
“I already know who you are to me,” he said softly. “I don’t need time.”
Oh, God. She could feel herself wavering. “Let’s just take some time,” she repeated, unable to find more words.
“I love you, Selena.”
