Lover Be Mine A Legendary Lovers Novel - By Nicole Jordan Page 0,69
quiet as trying to save him from hunger. I was always terrified Gautier would hear the noise and crush Pip with his boots. Those boots were something to be dreaded.”
Sophie’s expression clouded with compassion, but he sensed her carefully striving for neutrality in her tone. “You were always hungry yourself, but you shared your food anyway?”
He shrugged. “Pip only needed crumbs to stay alive. And as you said, he helped me survive the loneliness.”
Jack fell silent as he reflected on his past. He’d found great consolation in his friendship with the tiny mouse and was grateful when his uncle let him keep Pip and take him home to England. He hadn’t even needed to ask, which was fortunate since he couldn’t speak at the time. For some reason all his words stuck in his throat. Thankfully, that had changed when Skye was born. He’d ceased being the frightened, withdrawn child his uncles had found cowering in a tavern attic.
“I still don’t like being alone,” Jack confessed absently.
“I can certainly understand why,” Sophie said in another show of sympathy. “And I now comprehend why you are so determined to rescue unwed mothers. Not only because you couldn’t save your own mother, but because you know what it is like to be helpless and alone.”
Her ardent tone snapped him out of his reverie. Sophie had correctly guessed his motives, but he disliked admitting them. He also regretted divulging his chief weakness: being afraid of solitary confinement.
Sophie seemed not to notice his discontent, though, as she continued her observations. “I think it says a great deal about your character, Jack. Even at a young age you were bent on protecting others.”
“There is no need to try to turn me into a hero,” he drawled with an edge of mocking humor.
“You are already a hero in my eyes.”
“Yesterday I was a villain in your eyes.”
She gave a soft laugh. “True. You are definitely both.”
“And you are insufferably nosy.”
“Only because I know it helps to talk about one’s feelings.”
“Well, I have done enough talking for one day.”
She flashed him a smile. “For this morning, yes, but I assure you, you are not done yet. If I have to endure a three-day journey with you, I intend to exact compensation for my inconvenience.”
Jack couldn’t help but smile inwardly as Sophie opened the book of sonnets and began to read. He’d surprised himself, baring his soul to her again when even the slightest recollection of those dark days still made his stomach tighten into knots. Although she’d demanded greater discourse as her price for accompanying him, he could have evaded her queries or even prevaricated. He’d never revealed so much about his time in captivity to anyone else. For all his closeness to his family, he was very private and he faced his demons privately.
Thus, Sophie’s relentless exploration of his “feelings” was highly annoying, in addition to being extremely painful. He’d cut off his emotions from the time he was a child, locking up the torment inside him. And as an adult, he didn’t trust outsiders easily. Yet there was something about Sophie that slipped under his guard and annihilated all his defenses.
Doubtless it was her warmth and kindness that had made him open up to her. She was a persistent questioner and attentive listener, and she seemed not only to care about him, but to understand him even better than Skye did.
He felt oddly comfortable with Sophie, as if he’d known her for years. As if they were friends as well as lovers. As if their intimacy somehow went beyond the flesh. He felt comforted also—
At that wayward thought, Jack scoffed silently at himself. Only a man-milliner admitted to needing comfort. For the past two decades he’d fought zealously against needing comfort from anyone, endeavoring to conquer that paralyzing, despairing helplessness that still sometimes haunted his dreams. Even so, he couldn’t deny wanting Sophie by his side when he confronted his father.
He should be more cautious, Jack knew, but he was finding it harder to fear growing too attached to her. In a remarkable about-face, he now wanted to be able to fall in love with Sophie, since love was a determining factor in her decision to reject him as her husband. If she believed he could love her, she might very well forsake her parents’ dreams for her.
And if he couldn’t love her?
The thought of hurting Sophie in any manner caused a painful twinge to his heart.