The Rogue Not Taken (Scandal & Scoundrel, #1)

by Sarah MacLean

“I had plans to leave the castle. To leave Cumbria. I never wanted anything from you but the one thing I knew you couldn’t give me.” “And yet, somehow, you managed to require it of me,” he said, the words filled with ire. “Lady Eversley,” he fairly spat, moving to the next horse, checking its harness. “Marchioness. Future duchess. Well played.” “Not the title, King. Not the marriage.” She paused. “I didn’t wish to marry you. I only wished to love you.” He looked back at the harness, securing it carefully before coming around the horses to face her. “Never say those words to me again. I’m tired of hearing them. I’m tired of believing them. Love is nothing but the worst kind of lie.” “Not from me,” she said. “Never from me.” “Your lie was the worst of them all,” he said, and she heard the pain in the words. “Even as I struggled with the truth of the past—with the knowledge that Lorna betrayed me, with the knowledge that she’d never cared for more than my title—you gave me a new truth. You tempted me with a future.”